Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Interview By: Dan Deevy
There are so few really amazing scripts out there for young Hollywood to truly sink its teeth into. At least, that's what we're always hearing from actors and directors in this business. The truth of the matter is, the material maybe scarce, but it is out there and it's being produced and staying true to its original vision. For proof, just look at the resume of former sitcom child actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
If it's edgy, smart and daring to be different, than chances are he's heard about it and has been auditioning for it. Beginning with his breakthrough role in Mysterious Skin as a young gay prostitute, Levitt has continued to prove that he means business with his acting. No fluffy romantic comedies or bull shit forgotten by tomorrow roles that anyone can pull off. He's looking for the things that challenge him to grow as an actor and as a person.
'Overall what's beautiful about being an actor is that you put yourself into the point of view of someone you wouldn't otherwise,' he begins, 'Whether that be through learning skills, or physical training or just exploring emotions that you normally wouldn't, or opinions you would normally disagree with; I think it's broadening. I think there's some of that in any form of art,' he continues, 'but acting is kind of focused on narrowing down your subjectivity into one character that's not necessarily similar to 'yourself'.'
If he's done his job right, Levitt feels changed as a person after each role he completes; which says a great deal about his commitment to the craft of acting and not just to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood that comes along with it.
Of course these rare complex parts are not just handed to him, he's had to prove himself each and every time out of the gate. 'Sure, I auditioned for them, yeah. But I've been really lucky. And it's rare to find good scripts and when occasionally I'm able to find one I try to get the part. I don't always get it, but I've been lucky to get the few that I have.'
The process of auditioning and even getting into the audition is such a ridiculously arduous task that one might assume the hardest part of a job is actually landing it. 'Getting the work is more uncomfortable than doing the work' he says, 'But it's not as 'hard' because hopefully the work is a real challenge and with auditioning there's only so much you can do.'
One of the major themes that his most recent film, The Lookout explores is the idea of forgiveness; both forgiving others and more importantly for his character, Chris Pratt, learning to forgive himself for the mistake he made that resulted in disastrous consequences. Levitt was more than able to empathize with his character on this issue.
'For me it's harder to forgive myself than other people. Some people, I suppose, have a lot of trouble forgiving other people and they'll forgive themselves all day long,' he laughs. 'Those are the sociopaths of the world; the war mongers and stuff. But for me it's much harder to forgive myself.'
Levitt truly gives a power house performance here that I'm hoping will be remembered come Oscar time next year. The weight of his role and the gravity of the situations that he faces is shockingly omnipresent throughout the film. 'That speaks to the writing,' Levitt credits, 'He [Scott Frank] wrote a consistent script with themes that underlie it that are there all the way through. I'm glad you felt it all the way through' that means I was able to create a full character out of the writing and play him in every scene. So thank you.'
This issue of people living with Traumatic Brian Injury is not one that has really been widely covered by the mass media in this country. Recently, because of the war, it has been brought to light a bit more, but it is far from being completely understood by the masses. Preparing to play someone with TBI, Levitt had to enlist the help of several people who had been through this and could educate him on the ins and outs of living with it.
Mr. Robert Almerez of the Betty Clooney Foundation in Long Beach California, which is an organization that helps people with Traumatic Brain Injury, was at first cautious about getting involved with the project but ultimately became indispensable in Joseph's journey toward understanding this character.
'He wanted to know whether this movie was going to be exploitative or whether it was gonna tell a good story. He wanted to know if there was going to be a bull shit Hollywood ending where Chris gets better at the end. Or if it was gonna be true because with Traumatic Brain Injury there is no cure. You don't get better. You heal to a certain point and then you coupe,' he explains, 'And once I told him that that's what happens in The Lookout, that Chris doesn't, ya know, get hit in the head again and all of a sudden come back to his old self, then Mr. Almerez was really helpful.'
After spending time with several people from the foundation, Levitt found himself not only with tons of information but also a new sense of purpose and obligation. 'I felt honored that they would give their time to me like that and I felt very responsible to properly portray their stories that they were giving to me.'
His commitment to the role and the project as whole more than paid off for him as his new friends began seeing the finished film and agreed that he had more than done justice to their situation.
'It was a really special moment for me,' he says, 'One guy named Ryan who I hung out with, he just saw the movie the other day and he said he liked it, he identified with it and it felt just like his own life. That mattered much more to me than when Rolling Stone said it was a Masterpiece or whatever.'
Speaking of the critics, they have had more than their fair share of wonderful things to say about our young rising star here, but does he pay attention to things like that'
'When they call it a masterpiece I definitely pay tons of attention! Like, 'ahhh someone understands!' he laughs, 'I like to pay attention to what all sorts of people say but I don't think anyone's right. That's what's beautiful about movies is that everybody has their own unique experience watching it'.
Aside from all of mental preparation and the personal research that went into Levitt's journey there was also quite a physical commitment to playing this character as well. 'I did a lot for Chris because he was a Hockey player. And it also helped me with him because everything is harder for Chris, so I'd try to not get quite enough sleep so I could come to work and make it a little bit more of a struggle. I'd just wake up and go to the gym and push it a little too hard. You're supposed to go so far and then let yourself stop. That's what's healthy. I would just take it a little farther than that.'
After seeing the small amount of actual ice time in the film one might wonder why he'd train so hard for that aspect of it. 'It became really important to me even though there's only a little bit of hockey that's actually in the movie,' he explains. 'I trained a ton because it just got me in the right frame of mind for that character of not quitting, of over coming pain and things like that. Hockey's hard and it hurts' but you just keep playing.'
And has he continued to play' 'To tell you the truth I haven't,' he admits, 'I'd like to but I've been in Texas.'
Next up for Levitt is a slap stick Romantic Comedy opposite Cameron Diaz and a CGI'd monkey' no, just kidding.
Barely taking a breather from work on The Lookout, Levitt has already finished work on another film about modern day soldiers fighting in Iraq. Once again his ability to fully research a role paid off in spades.
'[It was] very much an eye opening experience. What it really did for me was it took my point of view out of the kind of geo-political, intellectual point of view that I previously looked at the war with and made me consider what it would really be like to just personally be there,' he says, 'Because on TV all day long all you see is politicians and news casters you don't actually get the point of view of the soldiers, for some reason. Once you're actually over there things look really different. You don't have time to pay attention to, ya know, Democrats or Republicans or whatever. All you have time to pay attention to is, 'I'm gonna survive this and I'm gonna make sure my buddies survive this,' that's it. That's it and it's a really noble thing. A really brave thing to be doing what they're doing and I'd never really thought about it that way before.'
Research and working out once again his keys to success are revealed. 'I was ten pounds heavier over the summer, that's when we shot it. So yeah it was cool.'
I can't praise this guy enough. He's a true professional in every sense of the word. He's a powerful, thoughtful performer who definitely isn't hard to look at either. I'm really looking forward to our next chat about Stop Loss'.
