Jared Leto recalls discovering pandemic two weeks late: ‘It was like a zombie apocalypse’

Actor was in a phone-less ‘meditation retreat’ when the pandemic intensified last March

Jared Leto has described finding out about the pandemic when the US was already in a state of lockdown.

The Oscar-winning actor revealed last year that he had been staying in a 12-day “silent meditation” retreat when quarantine was first imposed last March. 

“The idea is that you go away, you get rid of your phone, you get rid of distractions, you get rid of everything and you just meditate,” he told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show.

“When I went away, there were about 150 cases, and just in that short amount of time, when I came out, there was a shutdown, a state of emergency, and the whole world had changed. But when we were in there, they didn’t tell us.”

During the retreat, Leto was not allowed to use his phone, watch TV or talk. The organisers also made the decision not to “disturb” the participants.

“I didn’t turn on my phone until I went back to LA,” continued the Dallas Buyers Club star. “So I drove the whole way trying to be peaceful and zen, keep the feeling going. I got back and I was shocked. I was like Rip Van Winkle.”

Fallon then remarked that the anecdote was like “a Twilight Zone episode, but in real life”.

“I had this great tool to deal with ‘stress’,” added Leto, “But I don’t think anything can quite prepare any of us to what we all went through in the beginning. It was like coming out to the zombie apocalypse.”

The Tonight Show airs weekdays in the US on NBC.