Actual Rock God asked,
"Do you have a dog?"
This is such an AMA thing.
Hey, I'm Joe Gordon- Levitt, and this is AMA IRL.
"My all time favorite movie ever is Inception,
which you were amazing in,"
thank you, "and I've always wanted to know
just how deep do Christopher Nolan's attempts
to get realistic special effects go?
We've all seen the rotating hallway,
that was constructed in that movie,
but what are some others,
that people might not be as aware of?"
The next example, I guess that comes to my mind is...
is the Batwing,
they built a fucking whole big ass Batwing thing.
It didn't really fly,
they didn't build an actual flying aircraft,
but that was a real, real life, big ass thing.
You know who else is really good at incorporating
practical, real life, me-space reality
into their special effects and visual effects is
Henry and Rel, who were the directors of Project Power.
They're obviously very different filmmakers
from Chris Nolan, but so much of the eye candy,
the most spectacular visuals in Project Power,
they're not just CGI, like for example,
this bizarre shot where I get shot in the face.
I didn't really get shot in the face,
but my face really did move like that.
They shot my face with this powerful blast of air,
they had this air gun
and that's what made my face move like that,
'cause they wanted the impact to feel real.
If that was just tried as a CG thing,
it would not have looked nearly as impactful
and nearly as bizarre as what happened,
when they shot my face with air,
I didn't know my face could move that way.
"Were there ever serious talks
of you getting your own Robin/Nightwing movie
after The Dark Knight Rises?"
This question comes up in all the AMAs.
I really like it as an ending.
I know it's kind of normal for superhero movies
to be seen as like episodic,
episodic storytelling is wonderful.
It's just different than storytelling,
that has a beginning and an end
and I think Nolan's Batman trilogy
has a beginning and a middle and an end
and the ending that I was very,
very lucky to get to act in,
where my character, John Blake, goes into the Batcave,
it's a great ending
and if you watch all three of those movies,
it's really set up that Batman is more than a man,
Batman is a symbol and so to have a person
other than Bruce Wayne entering the Batcave
and taking up the mantle of the Batman symbol
at the very end of the trilogy is really, really, really,
I think, fitting and satisfying, a good ending.
"Hey Joseph, how has your life changed
since Danny Glover adopted you?"
They're talking about Angels in the Outfield.
Well there's this, can you see my arms?
People are always asking me to do that shit.
Okay, okay, people wanna hear
about 3rd Rock From the Sun.
"What's a memorable anecdote from the set of 3rd Rock?
Also, how wonderful is John Lithgow?"
You know, people ask me a lot, “You were a kid actor and
you're not all fucked up, why not?” Which,
first of all, it's not a very nice question to ask, for... you know.
But thank you, it's flattering that you, you know,
the askers of this question think I'm not fucked up.
I of course give most credit to my family, my parents,
my brother and some close friends, but
I also really do give a lot of credit to the people
on 3rd Rock From the Sun.
To land on John for a second.
John is as wonderful as you think he is.
I really do think that John set the tone
for what that set was, he was the leader,
he was the High Commander.
He always came to work with so much,
first and foremost, joy,
he just had a fucking blast
every day, he would laugh his ass off throughout rehearsals.
But he also is such a professional,
so positive, so giving,
those qualities are the things I always strive for on set,
I really strive to have fun.
I try to be kind and supportive
to the people I'm working with,
these are the things that John did.
I think I just got lucky really, just got super lucky
to have landed on the set of 3rd Rock From the Sun.
This seems interesting,
"Hey, a few years back,
when I was working at the Fonda Theater in Hollywood,
we hosted the season two premiere
of your Hit Record show." Yeah.
"Towards the end of the event on the rooftop,
I happened to cross paths with you
and got to shake your hand and give you a hug
and I thanked you for 50/50.
Your role in that movie helped me through a stretch of time,
when my sister was in the hospital with cancer,
she's all better now.
I was really young and it just felt safe
having something that felt like it understood how I felt.
But I just wanted to say thank you
for giving me those 10 seconds,
it has been appreciated every day."
That's really sweet.
That's kind of what it's about,
when somebody was sincerely
impacted or moved or changed or
just really connected with something that I did,
that means everything, that's the whole point,
it's half the point, half the point of art,
I think is just something for yourself.
But the whole other half is trying to do something,
that means something to someone else
and so when someone comes up to me and says,
hey, something you did really meant something to me,
that's really, really, really gratifying and I’m,
I'm really grateful, so thank you.
"What is your favorite scene from Project Power and why?"
My favorite thing overall about Project Power
is Dominique Fishback.
It is so exciting to see a brilliant new artist,
getting the recognition and the part she deserves.
It's such a great role, she kills this character.
My favorite scene,
probably when she raps in the classroom.
♪ Now what's the difference ♪
♪ between a student and a teacher ♪
♪ While one of them is growing up ♪
♪ The other's getting weaker ♪
She brought so much honesty to it.
You could have played that classroom scene rapping
and sort of been like, more of like, cool
or rockstar or whatever and it's not that,
she really makes it about the human, complicated
turmoil that her character is going through
and brings that up
in this, kind of, funny rap scene,
but it makes it so, it just feels so real.
♪ So next time you're tempted to pick on me for a laugh, ♪
♪ skip theatrics and just tell me ♪
♪ I can get up out your class, bitch. ♪
She's killer,
Dominique Fishback has a long career ahead of her.
I'm so happy to be her collaborator, be her friend.
"What was it like directing your first film?
Do you have any advice?"
Learn to edit,
editing is such an impactful part
of the whole filmmaking process,
that doesn't get talked about as much
and so much of what you'll think about,
while you're directing is how you're gonna edit.
"Hi, Joseph, if you'd take one of those pills
from Project Power,
what power would you hope to gain for five minutes?
Much love."
I've been talking about the power of empathy,
meaning like the ability to
see through someone else's eyes,
hear through someone else's ears,
touch, taste, smell, everything,
really, really be in someone else's shoes,
which is always what I'm trying to do when I'm acting,
right? I'm trying to play a character,
that's different from myself.
But I think if you took it to the level of being a superhero
and I was able to
really experience life as somebody else,
I would learn a lot
and maybe also get the power
to have other people do that.
That might help a thing or two in this world.
Okay, so that was, um... that was weird.
I've done a lot of interviews in my life
and I've actually done a lot of AMAs too
and this was the first time I tried to do both
at the same time, I hope it was tolerable.
Anyway, thank you, thank you for watching
and yeah, check out Project Power.