30 Seconds to Mars frontrunner and movie star Jared Leto has officially become the first person to legally scale the Empire State Building, one of the most historical skyscrapers in New York City.
New York’s historical building has a whopping 102 floors, and the singer and actor went to the 86th floor to complete his dream of ascending the tower.
The 86th floor is also known as the ‘observation deck’ or ’86th Floor Observatory’, an open-air observation deck wrapped around the building which provides a 360-degree view of New York, Brooklyn, Queens, and even glimpses of places beyond.
Jared Leto Climbs Empire State
You can watch video footage of Leto climbing the historical building thanks to the official TODAY YouTube channel.
In TODAY’s exclusive interview with Leto post-climb, the singer and actor jokes by saying that he “can get back to work [acting]“ now that the SAG-AFTRA actors’ strike has ended – after he’s told he doesn’t “have to climb buildings anymore”.
Leto jokingly reassures that he “made it” to the top of the tower and is still “alive”, he goes on to share that he saw his mother in “the window of the 80th floor, and that was a nice surprise.”
He goes on to talk about how it was viewing the city from the top of the Empire State Building, telling TODAY that “it’s incredible, to watch the sunrise overlooking the city, it’s meant so much to me ever since I was a kid”.
He added, “New York stood for the place that you went to make your dreams come true, and as a young kid I wanted to be an artist and New York was the place that you came to be an artist”.
Leto says he climbed the building because of how symbolic the Empire State is to him, telling TODAY that “the Empire State Building is always” a symbol of how New York is a place for artists to thrive.
In the same interview as above, Leto revealed how challenging it was physically to scale the building mostly by hand, showing his cut-up hands and fingers that you can see below.
“I’ve always had a fascination with the Empire State Building, and I love to climb”.
Leto’s climb “topped out at 1,200 feet”.
30 Seconds To Mars Tour
Another reason why Leto has decided to scale the building now is in celebration of his band going “back on the road” for another tour, the famous group 30 Seconds To Mars.
“We’re launching a world tour, 30 Seconds To Mars is back on the road, that’s my band.”
He adds, “We just put an album out, called “It’s The End Of The World”, but it’s a beautiful day, so it was in celebration of the tour and doing those things that you aspire to do.”
Leto also revealed that his band’s upcoming world tour will be called “Seasons” and will begin in March of 2024.
