- I'm putting a positive spin on my career
as a whole right now, because I'm making a video
for Vanity Fair.
I could have made the opposite version of this video,
where I just [beep] on myself for all this time
that I've been sitting here talking
and meant it just as much.
[upbeat music]
Hi, I'm Joseph Gordon-Levitt,
and this is the timeline of my career.
[upbeat music]
[paper crinkles]
- Again.
- I always took acting very seriously,
maybe too seriously.
But even from a very young age,
when you might assume, oh, a 10-year-old kid
is not taking anything too seriously,
I took it very seriously.
"A River Runs Through It" was the first feature film
I was ever in.
Up until that point, I'd done some TV shows
and some commercials.
I hated doing commercials because it wasn't serious acting.
The director of "A River Runs Through It"
was Robert Redford.
He was an actor himself.
And that was the first time I'd ever been directed
by an actor.
And he did not treat me like a kid at all.
He treated me just like an actor,
which is what I was dyin' for.
It was what I always really wanted.
The story I remember most vividly
from working with Mr. Redford was this scene
where I had to walk up to my dad's desk, say some lines.
When you have to walk somewhere
and land somewhere on a movie set,
you have, they call it hitting your mark.
You have to hit your mark,
which is this little piece of tape on the ground.
And you have to hit your mark,
because they've set up the camera
and they've set up the lights all in such a way
to where you look really beautiful,
if you stand on that mark.
But if you're not standing on that mark,
then it's all wrong.
And it doesn't matter how good your acting is
you have to do it again.
I did it, the scene a couple times
and the DP, the director of photography,
asked me very nicely, if I could make sure to hit my mark.
And of course I was like, "Oh no, I've been blowing it."
Like I haven't been hitting the mark.
And we were getting ready to shoot the next take,
and I was just focused, laser focused, on that mark,
on that little piece of tape on the ground.
Bob, Robert Redford, he goes by Bob, Bob came up to me,
he said, "I never hit my marks."
And, he didn't let anybody else hear
that that's what he had said to me.
But first of all, here's the strength of having an actor
for a director.
He understood exactly what was going through my mind.
All of a sudden, all the things
that I was supposed to be focused on were out the window,
and I was just focused on hitting that mark.
Acting's always a balance between
feeling what your character needs to be feeling,
telling an authentic story, but also accomplishing
all the technical things that you need to accomplish
to make a movie work.
[audience laughs]
How about this?
If you believe in miracles, love at first sight,
and breakfast in bed, contact me for adventures in truth.
- Oh! [audience chuckles]
What a wonderful lie let's print it.
[audience laughs]
- I got the part on "Third Rock From the Sun"
the same way that I got most parts,
I just went on an audition
and then went on another one,
and then another one.
And if they like you, they bring you back.
And finally, I was in a room
with a whole bunch of executives from the network
and the production company and John Lithgow.
I remember really specifically
getting to do my audition with John.
And when you get to audition with another actor,
it's a lot more fun.
I remember the energy in that room.
There's just a lot of people and we were getting laughs
and I hadn't done that much comedy by that point.
It just felt so good, I came away from that being like,
"Well, who knows if they'll give me this part."
You just never know, but that seemed great.
That was fun.
I'm glad I got to do that.
Of course, I really, really, really wanted the part
and got lucky, it worked out that time.
Been on lots of auditions where it felt good
and didn't get the part.
That one I did.
I just loved being on set.
I loved acting and yeah, it's true I had to sign a contract
that says like for the next,
I don't remember how many years,
many years we have the right to say that this is what you do
for nine months of your year, is this show.
And I was like, great, perfect.
That's exactly what I want.
When all you wanna do is act
and then you don't have a job, it sucks, it's the worst.
For a kid my age who just loved, loved acting,
all I wanted to do was act more, act all the time,
have a steady gig.
And so the idea of signing a contract like that
sounded great to me.
When I was doing "Third Rock From the Sun,"
did I miss this and that
and the other normal high school thing?
Yes, I did, I did go to high school.
I didn't get to go to prom or whatever.
I didn't go to prom 'cause I didn't wanna go to prom.
I was that kid.
It was like [beep] prom, bunch of conformity.
[Beep] you guys!
I'm gonna listen to Operation Ivy
and give you all the middle finger.
That was me.
- Oh.
- Listen, forget her, incredibly uptight father,
and it's a widely known fact
that the Stratford sisters aren't allowed to date.
- Uh huh, yeah, whatever.
Yeah, I'll be honest, I was not sold on doing
"10 Things I Hate About You."
When I first read the script, I was like,
I don't wanna do one of these
high school, romantic comedies.
I wanna do serious movies.
That's all I wanted to do when I was that age,
'cause I was goin' to art house cinemas
and watching movies coming from Sundance
and watching "Sling Blade," and "Reservoir Dogs,"
and Soderbergh, and Tarantino, and these kinds,
that's what I wanted to do.
And "10 Things I Hate About You" came around
and I was like, "Nah, no."
And a buncha people in my life, my agent,
and other people were like, "Are you sure?
Just consider this.
This is a pretty good one of these.
And probably good things, just like try, try."
And I auditioned for two parts,
when I auditioned for "10 Things I Hate About You."
I auditioned for the part I played Cameron,
the character name.
And then I also auditioned for,
the role that I really wanted,
that I thought was actually kinda funny,
was the character's name is Michael,
that was played by David Krumholtz.
And I auditioned for both of those parts.
And the director offered me the role of Cameron.
So I was like, "Uh, uh."
And I remember having a meeting with them where I was like,
"This doesn't make sense.
That doesn't make sense.
And this feels cheesy and that feels cheesy."
And they listened, I think, to some of my ideas,
but mostly I think I was probably just wrong
and kind of being too serious about the whole thing.
Luckily I did do it.
I did the part and almost didn't, but luckily I did.
And all of us had so much fun.
I'm so glad I did that movie.
Not only because it's a movie that audiences still love,
all this, whatever it is, 20 years later.
The experience is actually what I love the most
about that whole thing.
Even if people didn't like the movie,
we had such a good time.
All of us hung out all the time.
[punch thuds]
- Throw one at me if you want hash head.
I got all five senses and I slept last night.
That puts me six up on the lot of you.
- Just easy bro.
- I always dreamed of being in Sundance movies.
And then I got to do that with "Brick".
Also with "Mysterious Skin,"
but I sort of see them as a pair,
'cause I shot both of those movies the same year, 2003.
And they both played at Sundance the same year, 2005.
They're two very different movies.
And I got to play two very different characters in them.
But that was sort of in a way for me the beginning.
But yeah, finally getting to do
what I had always wanted to do,
what I had always been drawn to do.
It was also sort of a turning point,
I guess if you're talking about career.
But just personally, it felt like,
I know this sounds weird to say,
or it sounds like I'm not grateful,
I was always a little embarrassed, I think before that.
And I didn't have good reason to be.
I should have been proud to be in "Angels in the Outfield."
I was, and I was, I was super proud
of "Third Rock From the Sun."
I was mostly embarrassed of "10 Things I Hate About You,"
to be honest, I was.
When I got to do these Sundance movies,
I felt like I was doing what I wanted to do.
It felt like a reflection of me and the art that I liked.
I don't know when I look back now,
I'm kinda equally proud of all those things,
but subjectively at that time,
it was really meaningful to me.
"Brick" is just such a unique, weird, hilarious,
impenetrable piece of writing.
I remember the first time I read it,
I didn't know what it was.
I kept thinking that a ghost was about to enter the story,
or something supernatural was gonna happen.
'Cause it was like, this is just so strange.
I always feel compelled by writing.
If the words inspire me to perform them
and say them out loud,
and Rian's dialogue is second to none.
I was instantly pacing around my apartment.
And just tryin' to say these words
and it takes a lotta practice.
Rian's writing is not always easy, it's challenging.
And I love that kind of challenge.
- So what first, tip the bulls?
- No, bulls would gum it.
They'd flash their dusty standards at the wide-eyes,
probably find some yegg to pin, probably even the right one.
But they'd trample the real tracks
and scare the real players back into their holes.
If we're doin' this I want the whole story, no cops.
So it's rare to find a screenplay of a movie
that's being made now, like a little independent movie
where the writing is, is so well-crafted
that it's gonna really challenge you.
And I remember just meeting with him
and talking with him all about his writing.
So I don't know, we talked about all this stuff
and been friends ever since.
One of my favorite people.
I love Rian.
- I think we should stop seeing each other.
- Just like like that?
- Just like that.
- Did she say why?
- I mean this thing, what are we doing?
I mean is this normal?
- No, I don't know, I don't care, I'm happy.
Aren't you happy?
- [Summer] You're happy?
- You're not?
- Well, all we do is argue.
- That is [beep].
I like romantic comedies, I always have.
I guess maybe because I had access to doing them,
I wanted to do something else.
It didn't feel like a typical romantic comedy.
It was pretty clearly something special.
And Mark Webb was pretty clearly a special filmmaker
that was gonna do something creative and unexpected with it.
I read that script and had a meeting with Mark
before Zoe was cast.
And the question was like,
could they make the movie with me?
'Cause you know, or did they need like a bigger name?
I knew Zoe already because we were in "Manic."
That's also where I met Zoe.
She and I are in that.
She's wonderful in "Manic."
And so I already knew her.
And then when she came into the conversation, I was like,
"Oh man, I would love to do it with Zoe,
She'd be perfect for this.
That would be so ideal."
Will anybody finance this movie with me and Zoe.
Gotta hand it to Fox Searchlight,
they're the studio that financed "500 Days of Summer"
and their whole bread and butter was sort of doing things
that weren't so strictly commercial.
And they did make it with me.
I remember when Mark brought up
that he was gonna cast her I was so, so excited.
We just had a blast.
That movie was so fun.
We just had fun every day.
And again, I think you can kind of see it.
That's part of when people really connect with a movie,
it's often because the actors are really feeling
what they're doing.
- I will try this.
My father accepts that I want to create for myself,
not follow in his footsteps.
- That might work.
- Might, we need to do a little better than might.
- Thank you for your contribution Arthur.
- Forgive me for wanting a little specificity, specificity.
Christopher Nolan was the Sundance director
who is making huge movies.
That's the balance that I wanted to strike as an artist
and as an audience member,
the movies that I wanted to watch.
I remember when "The Dark Knight" came out in 2008.
And of course it was steeped in tragedy
'cause of Heath.
But it was such a brilliant movie
and it was brilliant in the same way
that these movies that I grew up loving were brilliant.
The ones I was talking about, Soderbergh and Tarantino,
all these movies that were so rooted in character
and heart and soul and not in glitz and gloss.
But Nolan was managing to bring that artistry
to the grandest of, to a Batman movie,
it's the craziest magic trick that he was able to do that.
When the opportunity arose to go meet Chris,
I hadn't read the script for "Inception" at all,
because it was Chris.
I was like, "Oh, absolutely."
I don't know anything about this.
I know that Leonardo DiCaprio's in it, that's it.
I know it's Chris and Leo.
I didn't know Leo at the time,
so I wasn't allowed to call him Leo.
Now I am, now I can.
[Joseph laughs]
I wasn't auditioning, I was just going to meet him.
Usually though when I go to audition for something,
or even meet on a film, I sort of present myself
in some kind of light such that the director
could see me as that character.
If I'm gonna play a homicidal maniac from Texas,
I'll go in with some stubble and like maybe a little drunk.
I'll dress and sort of hold myself in such a way
that it makes sense that I could play that character.
This I didn't know what I was going into.
And so I just put on a suit.
I was like, "I'll just be as pro as I can be."
And in Hollywood you don't go into meetings in suits.
No one wears a suit in Hollywood,
but I wore like a full on suit, tie, nice shoes,
and went into the meeting with Chris being like,
whatever you want, anything, tell me.
We talked about movies.
Talked about Kubrick.
Talked about violence in movies.
I remember telling him about sort of just myself
and my family.
And then he offered me the movie.
I couldn't believe it.
It's sort of the big surprise of my career in a way.
I remember the first time I read the script,
I came away with a lot of questions,
but also the script for "Inception" did not allude to
how involved, in particular,
I'm in this big dream fight sequence
that sort of weaves through the whole second act
of the movie or something.
[dramatic music]
In the script, it's like one line of stage direction.
It's like, Arthur gets in a fight or something like that.
And I remember as they started to present me
with this fight sequence that I was gonna learn,
and I was introduced to these stunt coordinators
and talking about my schedule for training
and things like that.
I was like, "Hmm."
But it ended up being this fun house of like,
and the main thing I was doing with my life for months,
was working out and training, kickboxing,
and then training on wires, and balance, and all this stuff
that was so, so fun.
I had no idea, even when I read the script,
I didn't know that that's what I was in for.
- All right, first of all, everybody watches porn, okay,
all guys, any guy tells you he doesn't watch porn
is [beep] lyin' to you.
- So full of [beep].
- Second of all-
- You are full of [beep].
- Second of all, you know, damn well,
we do it all the [beep] time.
- Yeah I know we- - Whenever you want.
Ever since I was a little kid,
I'd always wanted to, sounds cliche but it's true,
I'd always wanted to direct stuff in addition to act.
And acting is so much fun
and I'm so grateful to get to do it,
but there's a difference between acting
and directing when you're making movies,
'cause the truth is that movies are the medium
of the filmmaker.
When you're making a movie as an actor,
your job really is to give the director the ingredients
that they need to then make the movie.
Incredibly grateful that I've gotten to act
for so many wonderful directors,
who are able to take the ingredients
that I delivered to them and make something so compelling.
But I also really wanted to
play with all of those other elements.
I love all of those other elements.
I love thinking about camera and editing and music
and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
I had been making little videos just for fun with
my parents' camera ever since I was a little kid.
And then when I was 21, I first taught myself to edit.
Once you could first get kind of affordable editing software
on a computer at home.
When I first got Final Cut Pro, first time I ever got a Mac.
And so I'd been making lots and lots and lots
of little things.
And again, yeah, I'd tried writing full screenplays before
and had a few but none of them quite really made sense.
And for whatever reason, I started writing this idea
sort of based on the mythical character of Don Juan,
but combining that with a modern day porn addict.
It sort of just made sense as a piece of writing
and people liked it and found it funny
and found it relevant.
And it half surprised me that that was the thing
that I was like, okay,
this is gonna be the first movie I direct, great.
I did have people ask me,
"Are you sure that this is the thing you want to be
the first thing that you direct?"
And I was like, "I don't wanna second guess.
It's hard to make one of these things work.
It's hard to finish a screenplay.
It's hard to write something that seems
to actually make sense and be cohesive and funny.
Like it happened this way, I'm not gonna second guess it.
Let's do it."
And then I showed the script to Scarlett
and it was really her vote of confidence
that turned the whole thing, real.
Hugely grateful to her for that.
And then Julianne Moore wanted to do it.
I really think that between Scarlett and Julianne,
that they're really what makes the movie good, I think.
[audience cheers]
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the very first episode
of our show "HitRECord on TV"
[audience cheers]
So the very next year after I directed "Don Jon,"
I directed a show called "HitRECord on TV."
"HitRECord" was this project that has a long evolution.
It started as a little hobby thing with my brother.
And I'm actually sitting here now at the "HitRECord" office.
It's crazy that we have an office like this.
It was such a tiny thing for so many years.
And it's this community of people online
that collaborate on all kinds of creative projects.
And you know, a lot of places online for art and creativity
are for posting something you've made on your own
and saying, "Hey world, look at my video,
or look at my song, or my piece of writing."
And on "HitRECord," it's less about here's what I've made,
and it's more about let's make something together.
It's all geared towards that kind of collaboration.
We've made all kinds of things this way.
We made books and records and we made a television show,
called "HitRECord on TV."
And it won an Emmy, an Emmy for
outstanding social interactive media experience
or something like that.
And the Emmy's over here somewhere.
I can go, should I go run and get it?
[Joseph chuckles]
There it is.
You know, there's a thing I've thought about this,
and it's funny I'm like sitting here talking in hindsight
about my career and this is a deeply indulgent exercise,
but I'm rather enjoying it.
There's a thing that happens
with a lot of I think directors,
oftentimes the second thing you do is,
I find it's not just me,
you lean way into something very personal.
And "HitRECord on TV" is very, very, very me.
And oftentimes these sophomore efforts
get called a sophomore slump,
because if you lean really hard into something
that just is your personal thing,
that might appeal less to a broad audience.
And I think "HitRECord on TV" is an example
of this exact thing.
It's extremely me.
I'm very, very proud of it.
It's also very kind of particular to what it is.
It's not kind of a normal show.
I still don't think there's really any other show
that's quite like it.
And we made it five years ago now.
I'm really proud of it.
I sometimes when I look at it, I'm like, "Oh, that, oh."
But when you're experimenting,
some things work better than other things.
I'm really happy to get to talk about "HitRECord"
in the context of this career,
'cause this career that I'm talking about, I guess mine,
'cause it's a deeply, deeply personal thing to me.
- [Frank] If there was a pill,
♪ How we got the money, I'm hummin' at the vow. ♪
- [Frank] that could give you five minutes,
♪ It's feelin' so they get it, I'm embedded with the power ♪
- [Frank] of pure power.
I took a couple years off of acting when I had kids.
And then I, I did kinda three movies
over the last three years,
but they're all coming out right now.
And the first one was called "7500",
it just came out on Amazon.
The one that's coming out, I guess, today or whatever
is called "Project Power" on Netflix.
And then "The Trial of the Chicago Seven"
is gonna come out on Netflix also.
They're three very different movies.
I feel really grateful that having taken some time off,
I got to do all three of these.
"7500" is a very challenging, harrowing,
heavy German art film.
"Project Power" is like a barrel of popcorn
with sugar and butter on it.
It's just a ton of fun with Jamie Fox and New Orleans
and this wonderful new young actress
named Dominique Fishback, who,
you heard it here, she's a star, this one, she's a star.
And then "The Trial of the Chicago Seven"
is a courtroom drama written and directed by Aaron Sorkin,
which is an incredibly relevant story about today's times
and the state of our country and the state of our government
and our justice system.
And yeah, they're three very different things.
And glad to be back.
[upbeat music]
I do think I'm in many ways, still the same self-serious,
snobby little brat that I was when I thought
that "10 Things I Hate About You" was cheesy,
or when all I wanted to do was be in Sundance movies.
And I still have that part of myself, I think.
And I think that part of me is probably important
to some degree or important to me
or important to my work or whatever.
But I'm deeply flattered that you cared
to hear me talk this much
about all the [beep] that I've done.