SELLER: Jared Leto
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,999,000
SIZE: 4,021 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms
YOUR MAMA’S NOTES: Having upgraded and up-sized to a vast, historic and wildly idiosyncratic compound in the Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles — more on that in a minute — Oscar winning method actor and indie-rock musician Jared Leto (“Dallas Buyer Club”) has hoisted his former home in the Cahuenga Pass area of the Hollywood Hills up for sale at $1.999 million. Mister Leto, who portrayed The Joker in this year’s blockbuster superhero extravaganza “Suicide Squad” and will soon star in “Blade Runner 2049,” the Ridley Scott produced sequel to the original and beloved dystopian sci-fi thriller “Blade Runner,” purchased the hillside home in March 2006 for $1.65 million.
Listing details somewhat generously describe the .29-acre property as a “mini-estate” and indicate the walled, gated and relatively unassuming, vine-encrusted two-story residence measures in at 4,021-square-feet with four bedrooms and three bathrooms that include two master suites with “incredible closet space” and spacious slate-tiled bathrooms. Chocolate brown hardwoods run throughout the main entertaining spaces that include a roomy living room with minimalist fireplace, a compact formal dining room with traditional bay window and a large and well-maintained if stylistically dated kitchen — boring beige tile floors, ordinary white raised panel cabinetry, and a mix of medium grade black and stainless steel appliances — plus an over-sized family room with wet bar and adjacent recording studio. The house overlooks a tropically landscaped side yard with swimming pool, spa, built-in fire pit, built-in grilling station, and extensive concrete terracing. Below the back of house a patchy patch of lawn is bordered by an anemic row of bamboo and there’s a large of unattractive terrace atop a detached two-car garage that’s accessible from a cul-de-sac that runs up the rear of the property.
That Mister Leto would put his Hollywood Hills home up for sale isn’t such a surprise to avid celebrity real estate watchers who already know, as mentioned above, he made a surreptitious, off-market $5 million purchase in late 2014 of the so-called Lookout Mountain Laboratory, a storied warehouse-like complex in the Laurel Canyon area. The industrial compound was built in the 1940s and used until the late 1960s as a military film studio where, among other classified projects, filmmakers and photographers with top security clearance made training films and documented military research on atomic bomb tests. The 1.7-acre spread, all but hidden behind an imposing driveway gate and a dense wall of foliage, has more than 50,000-square-feet of meandering, multi-level interior space that at the time of Mister Leto’s purchase incorporated eight bedrooms, a dozen bathrooms, several kitchens, and at least half of a dozen living and entertaining spaces that ranged in size from cozy to cavernous.
Listing photos: The Agency
