NEW YORK – American actor Jared Leto is known to go to great lengths for a film role, but he was not preparing to play King Kong when he scaled the Empire State Building last Thursday.

Leto, who is also the frontman of rock band Thirty Seconds To Mars, scaled a portion of the building facade to promote the group’s Seasons world tour that will run from March to September.

He took to Instagram on Monday to share photos of his daredevil stunt.

The Empire State Building also shared the feat on its Instagram account with the caption: “In 1933, King Kong climbed the Empire State Building. In 2023, @JaredLeto took his place.”

Leto formed Thirty Seconds To Mars in 1998 with his older brother, Shannon Leto, and the band released their sixth studio album, It’s The End Of The World But It’s A Beautiful Day, in September.

Jared Leto, 51, climbed the east side of the building from floors 86 to 104, to a point nearly 396m up in the air. The Oscar-winning actor, who is an avid mountain climber, took about 20 minutes to complete the climb.

According to the officials of the Empire State Building, Leto reached the part of the building that lights up, and climbed all three of its tiers until he completed his ascent at the ice shield, which is at the base of the building’s famous antenna.

The officials also confirmed to American broadcast station NBC’s Today Show that Leto is the first person to legally climb to the top of the Empire State Building. Daredevil Alain Robert, also known as the French Spider-Man, scaled the building in an unsanctioned climb in 1994.

Apart from promoting the band’s tour, Leto told Today that climbing the New York City skyscraper crossed off a coveted item on his bucket list.

“It’s incredible,” he said. “To watch the sunrise overlooking the city meant so much to me.”

Added the House Of Gucci (2021) actor: “Since I was a kid, New York stood for the place that you went to make your dreams come true. And as a young kid, I wanted to be an artiste and the Empire State Building was always that symbol for me.”

The climb was harder than expected, said Leto. “Just the endurance that it took, the stamina that it took, and it was very sharp.”

The Suicide Squad (2016) star also scaled a Berlin hotel wall without a harness in June, and bungee jumped onto the concert stage during a Thirty Seconds To Mars set at Chicago’s Lollapalooza festival in August.