-My first guest is a very talented actor
and one of the founders of HITRECORD.
Season 2 of his Emmy-winning series "Create Together"
premieres on YouTube on April 22nd.
Here is Joseph Gordon-Levitt!
That's what I'm talking about. Look! Come on, now.
That's how you do it.
-What's going on, man? -I'm so happy you're back.
Thank you for coming back to the show, bud.
-Always good to be here. Thank you.
-You're coming all the way from New Zealand,
so I appreciate that.
What time is it there?
-It's the morning. I just dropped off my boy at school.
-No way.
-Tomorrow morning. I'm living in the future.
-Wow. What's it like in the future?
-Man, it's good. I got to tell you, I feel just so lucky.
I almost feel guilty talking about it sometimes,
'cause if you don't know,
New Zealand's one of like only two countries in the world
that's just contained the pandemic.
There aren't cases here.
And I came here for work, luckily.
And it's hard. You know, obviously,
so much of the world is going through such a hard time,
and people are getting sick and dying,
and here we are,
and I get to go to work every day and not wear a mask.
Like I said, I just dropped my boy off at school.
Like, I feel really lucky.
But I honestly have to hand it to the people of this country.
They have an amazing leader, Jacinda Ardern,
which, by the way, I don't think it's a coincidence
that, you know, the country led by a woman handled it.
And also -- [ Cheers and applause ]
Yeah. [ Laughs ]
-Yeah. I want to wish you a happy belated birthday.
Since I last talked you,
you turned 40. -Thanks, man.
-40's a big deal! Happy birthday!
-I know. [ Chuckles ]
-How does 40 feel to you?
-I love it, man.
I'm definitely happier in my 40s than I've ever been.
I mean, I've only been in my 40s for a few months now.
But, you know, growing up,
when I was young, I always just wanted to be older.
Like, I always felt like I looked too young or I was --
I looked like a kid, so people wouldn't take me seriously.
Actually, my wife was just talking to a friend of hers,
and her friend was like,
"Oh, I just saw Joe in this movie on TV.
It was this really cute movie."
My wife was like, "Oh, what was it?"
And she was like, "I don't know. He was young.
He was probably like, I don't know, 10 or 11
or something like that. What was it?"
And it turned out the movie was "10 Things I Hate About You."
Which, you know, I was 17 in that movie.
[ Laughter ]
And my wife's friend thought I was --
literally thought I was 10 or 11 in it.
-I do want to show baby Joseph Gordon-Levitt,
'cause you posted this.
You've been acting for over 30 years.
Here's you, one of your first gigs.
[ Audience awws ] I mean, stop it.
What a cute kid. Come on.
Here you are. You're 17 here.
And --
[ Laughter ]
But you play -- You were 7 years old,
and you played Bully #2 on "Family Ties."
That's a breakout role.
What do you remember from Bully #2?
-If you don't remember,
"Family Ties" was where Michael J. Fox really broke out,
and then he did "Back to the Future,"
and then, you know, he became Michael J. Fox.
But I remember we all just looked up to him so much,
this whole classroom full of young actors.
-Oh, yeah.
-And he could have easily not cared.
But he did. He took the time to talk to us
and encourage us and be really positive with us.
And I actually got to see him again,
you know, all these years later
and man-to-man, say, like,
"Dude, I was 7 on your set,
and you made a difference to me.
Like, you inspired me and encouraged me,
and you showed that, like, an actor on a set can --
doesn't have to be, like, a stuck-up actor
but can be a down-to-earth, positive guy with kids
who has time for everybody."
And it meant a lot, and I still remember it.
And he's just the sweetest guy, Michael J. Fox.
-Go Michael J. Fox. I love that story.
Thank you for telling that story. That's awesome.
Buddy, I love talking about HITRECORD because it's --
-You were like the first supporter of HITRECORD, man.
I've been doing this a long time,
and you were always so supportive.
I really appreciate it.
-Cut to last year, you do a limited --
You do a series called "Create Together," a YouTube series,
and it wins an Emmy.
Congratulations, dude. [ Cheers and applause ]
-Thanks, man.
-Can we explain to folks, like, how it works
or how did you come up, even, with the YouTube show?
-HITRECORD is just a place where people do exactly that.
They create things together, art of all kinds,
short films or music or writing or anything.
And, you know, so much of online art and creativity can be about,
"Hey, world, look at me. Look what I made."
And that's great.
But on HITRECORD, it's less about, "Look at me,"
and it's more about what can we do if we collaborate?
What can we make together?
And so people start projects and they join each other's projects,
and they build on each other, and they remix each other
and make all kinds of cool things together.
And that ended up being this necessity for me last year.
I was stuck inside and trying to keep my head straight,
isolating during the pandemic.
And just doing something creative
and getting to do it collaboratively
with other people all over the world
helped me feel connected with other people
in a real positive way,
helped me sometimes take my mind off
of the scary things that were happening
and just stay positive.
But now I get to come on your show
and tell people about something that I am doing.
Like, we're making this show today.
You can got to HITRECORD and get involved in projects.
We're making the show right now.
Anybody out there, if you're an artist
or even if you don't really consider yourself an artist,
there's lots of little creative prompts.
Even if you're not, like, super skilled or practiced,
you can just dip your toe and get started.
Like, that's a lot of the point of it for me.
It's not about who can be the greatest artist.
It's about let's all do this together.
-Here's a peek at Season 2 of "Create Together."
It's happening now. Take a look.
-♪ Now let me see you bless the water ♪
♪ Like the water blesses you ♪
♪♪
-I'm going to sing on the show.
I want you to come along, sing with me.
♪♪
-Go.
♪♪
[ Groundhog whistles ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Bud, that's so great.
Congrats again.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt! -Thank you, man.
Thank you, thank you.