The director of the Jared Leto documentary has admitted it's a "mystery" why the actor's career seems to have so far been unaffected by the sexual misconduct allegations made against him.

Alice McShane helmed BBC documentary, Jared Leto: Hollywood's Dark Secret, in which 10 women made claims of the Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman's alleged predatory behaviour following meetings between 2002 and 2016, and also previously directed the Russell Brand: In Plain Sight.

In the Channel 4 Dispatches investigative film, allegations of rape, sexual assault, and emotional abuse were made against Brand - and he was charged with one count of rape, one count of indecent assault, one count of oral rape and two counts of sexual assault in April 2025.

Brand was also charged with another count of rape and another of sexual assault in December (25) - with director McShane able to directly connect his accountability with the allegations made in her documentary.

However, in an interview with Variety, McShane was asked why she thinks the documentary allegations against Brand had such an impact while those against Leto don't seem to have had the same effect.

To which she replied: "It's quite a mystery, isn't it? "There's something about our culture at the moment -- I think there's something that I feel might be happening 10 years on from #MeToo.

"It just feels like the outrage about stories like this has slightly cooled, and I think that also with the rise of the 'manosphere', and also people in very significant positions of power having had allegations leveled at them as well about their treatment of women, I think that in a way, these sorts of stories have been normalised in people's minds.

"And I just don't think that they get the traction perhaps that they would have done 10 years ago."

The director also said the "persona" that Leto has cultivated over the years - of "this kind of weird, enigmatic, mysterious guy" - may have "shielded him from accountability".

She added: "He's also an incredibly good-looking man, and I think that there is an element of "pretty" privilege here, and that that actually came through in a lot of the interviews with the women."

As with any similar situation, Leto was contacted through his representatives to be given the right of reply ahead of the documentary airing.

Executive producer Mike Radford sent the right of reply letter - "a very lengthy document where we lay out in detail all of the women's stories that we intend to include" - directly to Leto, and asked for confirmation of receipt.

However, it never came, and that was despite the fact Radford and McShane contacting "everybody that we knew that he was connected to" asking for a confirmation of receipt of the letter.

McShane added: "It was really radio silence across the board. It was quite strange. And then the deadline came, and still nothing. I have never experienced that before, where you just had absolutely nothing back.

"I'd find it very hard to believe that he didn't [get the letter]. We called him, we texted him."

Following the release of the documentary, Leto issued a statement in which he slammed the "categorically false" allegations.

However, McShane has still yet to hear back from the actor herself.

She said: "As yet, we still have not [directly] had a response to the allegations that we put to him. So who knows what's going to happen?

"We may get a letter. We may never get a letter. He may take us to court. He may not take us to court. But whatever eventuality that comes, we are prepared."