TRIPLE HEADER FOR GORDON-LEVITT
The ‘Batman’ star talks about his roles as writer, director and star in the upcoming film ‘Don Jon’, which follows the life of a porn-addicted New Jersey slicker By Cindy Pearlman
‘When I sat down to write this film,’’ Joseph Gordon-Levitt says, ‘‘I wanted to tell a story of how people treat each other more like things than people.
‘‘It happens to everyone,’’ the actorturned-filmmaker says, speaking by telephone from a Chicago hotel. ‘‘Let’s say you’re talking with someone new. The potential is there. Then you see it in the other person’s eyes — they’re not really listening to you. They’re putting you in a box — rich, poor, good prospect, bad one. It’s all about what box do you fit in for the other person.’’
‘‘You’re a thing,’’ he says, laughing. ‘‘Come on, these are thought-provoking topics!’’
They’re also at the core of his new film Don Jon, set to open in the US on Sept 27 and in Thailand later this year. Writer/ director/star Gordon-Levitt plays Jon, a New Jersey guy who spends most of his day looking at internet pornography. Predictably, he isn’t seeing anyone: His unrealistic, porn-fuelled expectations of women make it almost impossible for him to find fulfilment in a real relationship.
Then the seemingly perfect Barbara (Scarlett Johansson) enters his life at the same time as he begins to take a night class and finds himself drawn to an older student (Julianne Moore).
‘‘This is much more than a story about a young guy who watches too much porn,’’ Gordon-Levitt says. ‘‘To me the truth is that porn isn’t all that much different from the stuff everyone sees in the mainstream media. Women are reduced to sex objects, in porn or in [burger chain] Carl’s Jr ads during the Super Bowl. They’re really the same, and it’s messing up our idea of what is the ideal male or female.
‘‘We’re exposed to so much titillating imagery that paints such an unrealistic picture of sex and love.’’
Gordon-Levitt never has been married and doesn’t normally dispense relationship advice, but under the circumstances he’s done a fair amount of thinking about the topic lately.
‘‘The most important thing, married or single, is that you can’t compare your life to overly simplified fantasy figures on TV, in movies or in magazines,’’ he says. ‘‘Every human being is unique. Every relationship is unique. If you’re in it, it’s your job to find out what’s unique about it.
‘‘I don’t think you should be in a relationship and downgrade it because it doesn’t look the same as some Hollywood image.’’
Barbara sees Jon as a fixer-upper — she loves him, but wants to change everything about him. That posed an additional set of problems to Gordon-Levitt, who was making his debut as both screenwriter and director.
‘‘It was important to me that Scarlett doesn’t become the villain in the film,’’ he says. ‘‘It’s pretty common in comedies to reduce the female characters to either perfect angels or horrendous bitches.
‘‘No one is one thing,’’ Gordon-Levitt continues. ‘‘The Barbara character is the seemingly perfect girlfriend, but there are conditions. She will love you if you want to change for her. Is it worth it to lose yourself to be with that perfect person? Does that make her perfect or just controlling?’’
He found that Johansson saw the character in much the same way.
‘‘I always pictured her playing the part,’’ Gordon-Levitt says. ‘‘We talked a lot about how the media paints men and women, love and sex. She was keen to do this movie because Scarlett is a good example of someone who is a really smart person and a talented artist, but a lot of people just talk about her looks.’’
Moore was always his choice to play the older woman who views the reluctant Jon as a love interest.
‘‘Julianne is one of the greatest actresses around,’’ the novice director says. ‘‘I was just so honored that she would do my movie. She plays someone so different from Jon. He’s someone who can’t connect, she is someone who can’t avoid connecting. She’s that open.’’
Gordon-Levitt has several sex scenes in the movie, which he says was no problem.
‘‘I reminded myself that the thing about sexy scenes is that, when you put them all together in editing, then they look sexy,’’ he says. ‘‘When you’re shooting them, it’s like any other scene.
‘‘I don’t find screen nudity awkward,’’ the actor adds. ‘‘The important thing is that you’re telling a story. This is just a different way to see this human being that you’re creating on the big screen.’’
Having previously cut his teeth as a director of short films, Gordon-Levitt enjoyed his first feature behind the camera, and hopes for more opportunities of that kind.
‘‘I would love to direct again,’’ he says. ‘‘It’s a career goal of mine. I love that you take a project from start to finish. It really is about moulding a film, which is exciting.’’
That’s particularly so for a person who grew up loving movies. He was raised in Los Angeles, where his maternal grandfather, Michael Gordon, was a well-known director whose films included the classics
Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) and Pillow Talk (1959). Gordon-Levitt was seven years old when he made his professional debut in the television movie Stranger on My Land (1988), and already a seasoned veteran at 15 when he was cast as Tommy Solomon in 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996-2001).
‘‘I always just loved acting,’’ he says. ‘‘I don’t know if anyone can really explain why they love what they love, whether it’s a person they fall in love with or falling in love with a calling. It’s just something that happens.’’
Many child actors struggle with the transition to adult roles, but Gordon-Levitt made the shift smoothly. One of today’s most acclaimed young actors, he has recently been seen in a series of hits including 500 Days of Summer (2009), Inception (2010), Looper (2012), The Dark Knight
Rises (2012) and Lincoln (2012). ‘‘I think everyone has some talent in them and they could fall in love with some calling,’’ he says. ‘‘I was just lucky to find mine as a little kid.’’