Six years ago this summer, Jared Leto’s followers descended on Mars Island, a private resort off the coast of Croatia. For three days, fans—many of them young women, some of them paying more than $6,499 to be there—meditated, chanted, and lounged barefoot in caftans alongside Leto, who, in addition to starring in American Psycho, Fight Club, House of Gucci, and Blade Runner 2049, is the front man of Thirty Seconds to Mars. The band called it a “spiritual retreat.” The French magazine L’Officiel called it something else: “The Cult of Jared Leto.”
Photos from the retreat show Leto, dressed in white robes and reflective sunglasses, leading silent processions through pine forests, his signature long hair blowing in the breeze. In one image, he stands on a cliff with his arms raised, dozens of fans below him mimicking the pose. “Yes, this is a cult,” reads one of the band’s tweets. “#MarsIsland.”
