"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."
Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levittnote (born February 17, 1981 in Los Angeles, California) is an American actor.
Gordon-Levitt started his acting career in commercials as a child, getting his big break starring in the 1994 Disney remake of Angels in the Outfield before starring in the show 3rd Rock from the Sun. He then grew recognition for starring in a string of indie films, receiving acclaim from critics for his performances in such movies as Mysterious Skin and Brick.
After 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 Inception and The Dark Knight Rises and leading roles in 50/50 and 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 Project Power, which was the top-streamed movie on Netflix during its first weekend.
He also runs a website called 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 Tumblr here.
Filmography:
- Murder, She Wrote (1990) as Boy No. 1
- Quantum Leap (1991) as Kyle
- Beethoven (1992) as Student No. 1
- A River Runs Through It (1992) Norman (as a child)
- The Powers That Be (1992) (1992-1993) as Pierce Van Horne
- Roseanne (1993-1995) as George
- Holy Matrimony (1994) as Zeke
- Angels in the Outfield (1994) as Roger Bomman
- The Juror (1996) as Oliver Laird
- 3rd Rock from the Sun as Tommy Solomon (1996–2001)
- 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) as Cameron James
- The Outer Limits (1995) as Zach Henniger in "Something About Harry" (2000)
- Manic (2001) as Lyle Jensen
- Treasure Planet (2002) as Jim Hawkins
- Latter Days (2003) as Elder Paul Ryder
- Mysterious Skin (2004) as Neil McCormick
- Brick (2005) as Brendan Frye
- NUMB3RS (2005) as Scott Reynolds
- The Lookout (2007) as Chris Pratt*
- Stop-Loss (2008) as Private Tommy Burgess
- Killshot (2008) as Richie Nix
- Uncertainty (2009) as Bobby
- (500) Days of Summer (2009) as Tom Hansen
- G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) — The Doctor
- Saturday Night Live (2009, 2011) Host
- Inception (2010) — Arthur
- Hesher (2010) - Hesher
- 50/50 (2011) - Adam Lerner
- The Dark Knight Rises (2012) - Officer/Detective John Blake
- Premium Rush (2012) - Wilee
- Looper (2012) - Younger Joe
- Lincoln (2012)- Robert Todd Lincoln
- Don Jon (2013) - Jon Martello; also writer and director
- The Wind Rises (2013) - voice of Jiro Horikoshi in English
- Sin City: A Dame To Kill For (2014) - Johnny
- The Interview (2014) as Himself
- The Mindy Project (2015) as Matt Sherman
- The Walk (2015) - Philippe Petit
- Snowden (2016) - Edward Snowden
- Comrade Detective(2017) as Iosif Baciu (English dub)
- Knives Out (2019)- as Det. Hardrock (voice cameo)
- Sesame Street 50th Anniversary Celebration (2019) - Himself
- Project Power (2020) - as Officer Frank Shaver
- The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) - Federal Prosecutor Richard Schultz
- Star Wars: Visions - Tatooine Rhapsody - Jay
- Wolfboy and the Everything Factory (2021-present) - Professor Luxcraft (voice)
- Super Pumped - The Battle For Uber (2022) - Travis Kalanick
- Pinocchio (2022) - Jiminy Cricket (voice)
- Glass Onion (2022) - Hourly Dong (voice cameo)
- Poker Face (2023) - Trey Nelson
- Untitled Fraggle Rock movie (eventually)
Tropes associated with JGL:
- Ability over Appearance: He doesn't look at all like Bruce Willis, whom he plays the younger version of in Looper. But he nails Bruce's mannerisms and makes it 100% believable that they could be the same person. Some facial prosthetics helped too.
- Acting in the Dark: In The Dark Knight Rises he didn't know John Blake's real name was Robin, as that was dubbed in post production specifically to keep it a secret.
- Actor Allusion:
- Jeff Daniels has played his mentor in The Lookout and Looper.
- He played a Tommy in 3rd Rock from the Sun and Stop-Loss, and a Tom in (500) Days of Summer.
- Antiquated Linguistics: The entire narration of Morgan M. Morgansen's Date with Destiny.
- Purple Prose: In the same work, he narrates the waiter is a food penguin and lemons are sour yellows, for example.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness
- Career Resurrection: He took a hiatus from acting to distance himself from being a Teen Idol, and acted in mostly below-the-radar films. When (500) Days of Summer proved to be a hit, he was catapulted back to the mainstream - leading to stuff like Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Looper etc.
- The Cast Show Off: In 10 Things I Hate About You Cameron learns French in order to tutor Bianca. Joe is fluent in French.
- On one of his SNL hosting gigs, he performed "Make 'Em Laugh" from Singin' in the Rain, complete with jumping off the wall, twice.
- Celebrity Resemblance: Disturbingly, Robin and the Joker really look like each other.
- Creator Backlash: Hated his status as a teen heartthrob, leading to him taking a hiatus from acting.
- The Danza: He plays Joe in Looper.
- Directed by Cast Member: He wrote, directed and co-starred in Don Jon.
- Dyeing for Your Art: Shaved his head on screen for a scene in 50/50 (2011).
- Enforced Method Acting: 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.
- Even the Guys Want Him: 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.
- Fanservice: His Magic Mike parody during his second gig hosting Saturday Night Live.
- Former Child Star: Averted. He's more famous now than he was as a child actor.
- Remember him as the lead in Angels in the Outfield.
- And he was also in 3rd Rock from the Sun.
- And before that, he was also in two episodes of Family Ties.
- Irony as She Is Cast: As noted above, he's fluent in French. In Looper his character is trying to learn French and is terrible at it.
- Older Than They Look: Can you believe he's actually in his early forties when he appears to look like someone at least ten or so years younger?!
- Playing Against Type: In the late 2000s he took many roles in order to disassociate himself from his Teen Idol image.
- Pretty Boy: Has built his entire career on this trope, much to his dismay (see Creator Backlash above).
- Production Posse: He, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy and Marion Cotillard all worked with Christopher Nolan on Inception and The Dark Knight Rises. He also shows up in many of Rian Johnson's films, including Brick, Looper, The Last Jedi, and Knives Out.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: He dislocated a shoulder during Stop-Loss and filming had to be stopped for two weeks as a result.
- Those Two Actors: With Lukas Haas in Brick, The Lookout and Lincoln.
- Throw It In: The headshaving scene in 50/50 (2011) was largely improvised between him and Seth Rogen.
- Wag the Director: The studio wanted to film a kiss scene in 50/50 (2011) between Adam and Katherine. Joe and Anna Kendrick refused to film it, and their relationship is a Maybe Ever After in the finished film.
- Waistcoat of Style: Notable in that it got him cast in Inception.
- What Could Have Been:
- He was approached for the roles of Peter Quill and Scott Lang in Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man respectively before Chris Pratt and Paul Rudd were cast.
- He had been tapped to direct and star in a movie based on Neil Gaiman's The Sandman (1989), but backed out, citing Creative Differences.
- He was one of the many actors cast in Django Unchained before pulling out.
