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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zsuxcr6xckigo0gwldp8momlh3i.jpg]]
2->''"Storytelling in general is a communal act. Throughout human history, people would gather around, whether by the fire or at a tavern, and tell stories. One person would chime in, then another, maybe someone would repeat a story they heard already but with a different spin. It's a collective process."''
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4Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt[[note]]sometimes abbreviated to JGL; he also prefers to be called Joe[[/note]] (born February 17, 1981 in Los Angeles, California) is an American actor.
5
6Gordon-Levitt started his acting career in commercials as a child, getting his big break starring in the 1994 Disney remake of ''Film/AngelsInTheOutfield'' before starring in the show ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun''. He then grew recognition for starring in a string of indie films, receiving acclaim from critics for his performances in such movies as ''Film/MysteriousSkin'' and ''{{Film/Brick}}''.
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8After such movies brought him to the attention of major Hollywood producers, he began to work his way into big-budget productions, with prominent supporting roles in ''{{Film/Inception}}'' and ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' and leading roles in ''[[Film/FiftyFifty2011 50/50]]'' and ''{{Film/Looper}}''. The increased public interest in him following these movies made him one of the biggest stars of the early-to-mid-[=2010s=]. He reduced his output in the latter half of the decade to focus on raising his young family, but came back to the limelight in 2020 with ''Film/ProjectPower'', which was the top-streamed movie on Creator/{{Netflix}} during its first weekend.
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10He also runs a website called [[http://hitRECord.org/ hitRECord.org]], where collaborators from around the world work on various projects. Once a month, Joe will select one "record" to publish and split the money between all the contributors. You can find his Website/{{Tumblr}} [[http://hitrecordjoe.tumblr.com/ here]].
11----
12!!Filmography:
13
14* ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' (1990) as Boy No. 1
15* ''Series/QuantumLeap'' (1991) as Kyle
16* ''Film/{{Beethoven}}'' (1992) as Student No. 1
17* ''Film/ARiverRunsThroughIt'' (1992) Norman (as a child)
18* ''Series/ThePowersThatBe1992'' (1992-1993) as Pierce Van Horne
19* ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' (1993-1995) as George
20* ''Film/HolyMatrimony'' (1994) as Zeke
21* ''Film/AngelsInTheOutfield'' (1994) as Roger Bomman
22* ''Film/TheJuror'' (1996) as Oliver Laird
23* ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' as Tommy Solomon (1996–2001)
24* ''Film/TenThingsIHateAboutYou'' (1999) as Cameron James
25* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' as Zach Henniger in "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S6E18SomethingAboutHarry Something About Harry]]" (2000)
26* ''Film/{{Manic}}'' (2001) as Lyle Jensen
27* ''WesternAnimation/TreasurePlanet'' (2002) as Jim Hawkins
28* ''Film/LatterDays'' (2003) as Elder Paul Ryder
29* ''Film/MysteriousSkin'' (2004) as Neil [=Mc=]Cormick
30* ''Film/{{Brick}}'' (2005) as Brendan Frye
31* ''Series/Numb3rs'' (2005) as Scott Reynolds
32* ''Film/TheLookout'' (2007) as Chris Pratt[[labelnote:*]]Not [[Creator/ChrisPratt that one]][[/labelnote]]
33* ''Film/StopLoss'' (2008) as Private Tommy Burgess
34* ''Film/{{Killshot}}'' (2008) as Richie Nix
35* ''Film/{{Uncertainty}}'' (2009) as Bobby
36* ''Film/FiveHundredDaysOfSummer'' (2009) as Tom Hansen
37* ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'' (2009) — [[TheEvilGenius The Doctor]]
38* ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' (2009, 2011) Host
39* ''Film/{{Inception}}'' (2010) — Arthur
40* ''Film/{{Hesher}}'' (2010) - Hesher
41* ''[[Film/FiftyFifty2011 50/50]]'' (2011) - Adam Lerner
42* ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' (2012) - Officer/Detective John Blake
43* ''Film/PremiumRush'' (2012) - Wilee
44* ''Film/{{Looper}}'' (2012) - Younger Joe
45* ''Film/{{Lincoln}}'' (2012)- Robert Todd Lincoln
46* ''Film/DonJon'' (2013) - Jon Martello; also writer and director
47* ''Anime/TheWindRises'' (2013) - voice of Jiro Horikoshi in English
48* ''[[Comicbook/SinCity Sin City: A Dame To Kill For]]'' (2014) - Johnny
49* ''Film/TheInterview'' (2014) as Himself
50* ''Series/TheMindyProject'' (2015) as Matt Sherman
51* ''Film/TheWalk'' (2015) - Philippe Petit
52* ''Film/{{Snowden}}'' (2016) - Edward Snowden
53* ''Series/ComradeDetective''(2017) as Iosif Baciu (English dub)
54* ''Film/KnivesOut'' (2019)- as Det. Hardrock (voice cameo)
55* ''Series/SesameStreet'' 50th Anniversary Celebration (2019) - Himself
56* ''Film/ProjectPower'' (2020) - as Officer Frank Shaver
57* ''Film/TheTrialOfTheChicago7'' (2020) - Federal Prosecutor Richard Schultz
58* ''Anime/StarWarsVisions - Tatooine Rhapsody'' - Jay
59* ''WesternAnimation/WolfboyAndTheEverythingFactory'' (2021-present) - Professor Luxcraft (voice)
60* ''Series/SuperPumped - The Battle For Uber'' (2022) - Travis Kalanick
61* ''[[Film/Pinocchio2022Disney Pinocchio]]'' (2022) - Jiminy Cricket (voice)
62* ''Film/GlassOnion'' (2022) - Hourly Dong (voice cameo)
63* ''Series/PokerFace'' (2023) - Trey Nelson
64* Untitled ''Series/FraggleRock'' movie ([[DevelopmentHell eventually]])
65
66----
67!!Tropes associated with JGL:
68
69* AbilityOverAppearance: He doesn't look at all like Creator/BruceWillis, whom he plays the younger version of in ''{{Film/Looper}}''. But he nails Bruce's mannerisms and makes it 100% believable that they could be the same person. Some facial prosthetics helped too.
70* ActingInTheDark: In ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' he didn't know [[spoiler: John Blake's real name was Robin]], as that was dubbed in post production specifically to keep it a secret.
71* ActorAllusion:
72** Jeff Daniels has played his mentor in ''The Lookout'' and ''{{Film/Looper}}''.
73** He played a Tommy in ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' and ''Film/StopLoss'', and a Tom in ''Film/FiveHundredDaysOfSummer''.
74* AntiquatedLinguistics: The entire narration of ''Morgan M. Morgansen's Date with Destiny''.
75** PurpleProse: In the same work, he narrates the waiter is a food penguin and lemons are sour yellows, for example.
76** SesquipedalianLoquaciousness
77* CareerResurrection: He took a hiatus from acting to distance himself from being a TeenIdol, and acted in mostly below-the-radar films. When ''Film/FiveHundredDaysOfSummer'' proved to be a hit, he was catapulted back to the mainstream - leading to stuff like ''{{Film/Inception}}'', ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', ''{{Film/Looper}}'' etc.
78* TheCastShowOff: In ''Film/TenThingsIHateAboutYou'' Cameron learns French in order to tutor Bianca. Joe is fluent in French.
79** On one of his ''SNL'' hosting gigs, he performed "Make 'Em Laugh" from ''Film/SinginInTheRain'', complete with jumping off the wall, ''twice''.
80* CelebrityResemblance: Disturbingly, [[Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy Robin and the Joker]] really [[https://external-preview.redd.it/DC7U-OrbvpCWiRngTYa-8xrLUnHIJSTTQCCxHUco-cg.jpg?auto=webp&s=ad410ab83b1ba15774bd04a270a5519d4e93797e look like each other]].
81* CreatorBacklash: Hated his status as a teen heartthrob, leading to him taking a hiatus from acting.
82* TheDanza: He plays Joe in ''Looper''.
83* DirectedByCastMember: He wrote, directed and co-starred in ''Don Jon''.
84* DyeingForYourArt: Shaved his head on screen for a scene in ''Film/FiftyFifty2011''.
85* EnforcedMethodActing: In order to convincingly play a brain damaged man in ''The Lookout'' he deprived himself of sleep and worked out before shooting - so he would look disoriented.
86* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Has this status among his legions of gay male fans; he is notoriously coy about his sexuality, feeling it would be "tacky" to give credence to gay rumors.
87* {{Fanservice}}: His ''Film/MagicMike'' parody during his second gig hosting ''Series/SaturdayNightLive''.
88* FormerChildStar: {{Averted|Trope}}. He's more famous now than he was as a child actor.
89** Remember him as the lead in ''Angels in the Outfield''.
90** And he was also in ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun''.
91** And before that, he was also in two episodes of ''Series/FamilyTies''.
92* IronyAsSheIsCast: As noted above, he's fluent in French. In ''{{Film/Looper}}'' his character is trying to learn French and is terrible at it.
93* OlderThanTheyLook: Can you believe he's actually in his early forties when he appears to look like someone at least ten or so years younger?!
94* PlayingAgainstType: In the late 2000s he took many roles in order to disassociate himself from his TeenIdol image.
95** ''{{Film/Brick}}'' as an antisocial loner in a FilmNoir style story.
96** ''Film/StopLoss'' as a troubled alcoholic soldier.
97** ''The Lookout'' as a brain-damaged athlete who turns to crime.
98* PrettyBoy: Has built his entire career on this trope, much to his dismay (see CreatorBacklash above).
99* ProductionPosse: He, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy and Marion Cotillard all worked with Christopher Nolan on ''{{Film/Inception}}'' and ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises''. He also shows up in many of Creator/RianJohnson's films, including ''{{Film/Brick}}'', ''{{Film/Looper}}'', ''[[Film/TheLastJedi The Last Jedi]]'', and ''[[Film/KnivesOut Knives Out]]''.
100* RealLifeWritesThePlot: He dislocated a shoulder during ''Film/StopLoss'' and filming had to be stopped for two weeks as a result.
101* ThoseTwoActors: With Lukas Haas in ''{{Film/Brick}}'', ''The Lookout'' and ''{{Film/Lincoln}}''.
102* ThrowItIn: The headshaving scene in ''Film/FiftyFifty2011'' was largely improvised between him and Seth Rogen.
103* WagTheDirector: The studio wanted to film a kiss scene in ''Film/FiftyFifty2011'' between Adam and Katherine. Joe and Anna Kendrick refused to film it, and their relationship is a MaybeEverAfter in the finished film.
104* WaistcoatOfStyle: Notable in that it got him cast in ''Film/{{Inception}}''.
105* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
106** He was approached for the roles of [[Comicbook/StarLord Peter Quill]] and [[Comicbook/AntMan Scott Lang]] in ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'' and ''Film/AntMan1'' respectively before Creator/ChrisPratt and Creator/PaulRudd were cast.
107** He had been tapped to direct and star in a movie based on Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Comicbook/TheSandman1989'', but backed out, citing Main/CreativeDifferences.
108** He was one of the many actors cast in ''Film/DjangoUnchained'' before pulling out.

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