Why Did Jared Leto Climb the Empire State Building?

He probably could have just made a TikTok.

Infamous boundary-pushing musician Jared Leto decided to scale 18 floors of the Empire State Building on Thursday to announce that his band, Thirty Seconds to Mars, would return to the road after a five-year hiatus for their “Seasons” world tour.

The tour will kick off in March in South America.

According to officials for the Empire State Building, Leto is the first person to climb to the top of the building legally, though French climber Alain Robert did so in an unauthorized manner in 1994.

^{Jared Leto climbs The Empire State Building (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust)}

“The building is a testament to all the things that can be done in the world if we put our minds to it, which is largely the inspiration behind our most recent album, ‘It’s the End of the World but It’s a Beautiful Day,” Leto said per the New York Post.

The 51-year-old climbed on the east side of the building for around 20 minutes about 1,300 feet up in the air.

^{Jared Leto climbs The Empire State Building (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust)}

“Ever since I was a kid, New York stood for the place that you went to make your dreams come true,” Leto told Today. “And as a young kid, I wanted to be an artist, and New York was the place that you came to be an artist. And the Empire State Building was always that symbol for me.”

Leto first rose to fame playing Jordan Catalano on the teen drama “My So-Called Life” and has since played a number of memorable roles in films such as “Fight Club” and “Panic Room.”

The actor most recently starred as disgraced WeWork founder Adam Neumann in the Apple TV+ series “WeCrashed”, which debuted in March 2022.

30 Seconds to Mars’ upcoming tour will promote the band’s sixth studio album, released this past September.

The band has sold over 15,000,000 albums worldwide, helping bring Leto’s net worth to an estimated $90 million.

^{Jared Leto climbs The Empire State Building (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust)}