Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Looper,Lincoln, and Mustaches

It's been quite a year for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and it's barely half over. The 31-year-old actor is riding high after the success of The Dark Knight Rises and an acclaimed, unclothed return to Saturday Night Live this past weekend, and he's now promoting Rian Johnson's Looper, a brainy sci-fi thriller where Gordon-Levitt plays a young hit man assigned to kill his future self, and since that future self comes in the form of Bruce Willis, there are plenty of prosthetics involved. After that, Gordon-Levitt will be seen playing son to Daniel Day-Lewis in Steven Spielberg's highly anticipated biopic Lincoln, and in the meantime, he's putting his finishing touches on his directorial debut, Don Jon's Addiction, where he costars with Scarlett Johansson. Suffice it to say, Gordon-Levitt's a busy man, but he still found time last week to sit down with Vulture and talk it all over.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but until this year, you had never played a real person before, right? And now, you have two films coming out — Looper, where you're channeling Bruce Willis to an extent, andLincoln, where you play Abraham Lincoln's son — where your preparation as an actor must have been distinctly different.

There's no way you would have found this, but I did do a TV movie when I was 12 years old and it was based on a real person, and you just made me think of it. It was called Gregory K, and now I think it's called Switching Parents or something. It was one of those "ripped from the headlines" TV movies. 50/50was sort of autobiographical, but it wasn't like I was trying to look like him or behave like him. So yeah, I guess since that TV movie, Robert Lincoln is the first historical character that I've played.

But in Looper, did it feel at all like you were playing Bruce Willis playing the character?

No, because Bruce Willis is an actor, and I wasn't interested in playing it like I was young Bruce Willis, the actor from Moonlighting. I was creating a character that would match to the character that Bruce was playing, so I wouldn't say it was quite like playing a real person.

How much help did he give you in matching those performances up?

Oh, tons. He was really key in me being able to pull it off. I mean, I did do some homework on my own, but one thing he did was record himself doing some of my voice-over monologues, and that was really crucial listening material. I do think that the most important part of preparing for me was just hanging out with him, spending time with him and having dinner. Whether we were just talking about the movie or having conversations about other things, just being around him and letting his nature seep in was probably the most productive part.

What did you glean from those hangouts that surprised you?

There's one thing in particular that I focused on. Because he's such a powerful presence, both on and off screen, you would assume if you didn't really look twice that he's loud. He's not. He's actually really soft-spoken. He doesn't come across as timid in the slightest, though, so there's an odd combination there of someone whose presence is really powerful and strong, and yet he speaks quietly oftentimes.

I know you studied his filmography, too, so what's your favorite underrated Bruce Willis movie?

I do like Hudson Hawk, I gotta say. I haven't seen it recently, but I remember loving it when it came out. [Laughs] Sin City was the one I probably focused on the most, but also, 12 Monkeys and Pulp Fiction … I mean, Pulp Fiction! I don't need to tell you, because you're around my age, but Pulp Fiction is The Movie.

When you have that Bruce makeup on, do you stay Bruce-like in between takes, or do you become this weird Joe/Bruce amalgam?

Probably some of both. One of my good friends visited the set and was really disturbed, didn't want to talk to me. My mom, too. She said, "When I stand next to you, you feel like my son, but when I look at you, you're this different guy." She found it a little odd.

You didn't want to maybe hit up Disneyland or do something incognito in that makeup?

Oh, that's funny! But no, you just want to get that stuff off your face as soon as you possibly can.

Do you feel totally walled in while wearing it?

You're able to forget it enough that it doesn't distract you while you're working, and it doesn't impede any facial movement, but you never forget it's there. I mean, there's glue on your lips. You don't forget that.

So you don't have those moments where you accidentally scratch your face and peel off the makeup?

Oh, you have those moments where you want to scratch your face. But you know you can't.

You're not the one tasked with donning tons of prosthetics to look like someone famous in Lincoln. But you do get to wear a pretty fly mustache.

Thank you, thank you. Yes, that's historical fact, that mustache.

Did you grow that out?

Oh, no. No no no. I don't think I could grow a mustache like that. I have really weak facial hair, plus I had just finished doing The Dark Knight Rises. If I were to grow a mustache like that, it would have taken me months, and we didn't have months. So no, that was excellent makeup.

After working with three very visual directors in a row — Rian Johnson, Chris Nolan, and Steven Spielberg — what did you learn that you could apply to your own directorial debut?

Oh, thanks for asking about that. You're absolutely right, working with Rian and Chris and then Steven really did play a big part in encouraging and emboldening me to try it. I've always kind of wanted to do it, and I finished the first draft of the script while I was in London shooting The Dark Knight Rises. I told Chris and Emma [Thomas] and Wally [Pfister] and some other people who I'm really close to and I really admire, and they were all so supportive. I do think that made a big difference, because they could have been politely disinterested. And that would have been totally understandable, even! I mean, what do they know about my ability to do that? They wouldn't know if I could or couldn't, so just the fact that they took it seriously and said, "You're gonna be good at that," it was huge for me. Chris even came to our set one day.

Was that nerve-wracking?

We had one day of shooting on the Warner Bros backlot — we spent way more of our budget than we maybe ought to have, but they gave us a deal, which was nice — and Chris was on the lot mixing sound. He came by at lunch, because I think he didn't want to be intimidating. What he wanted to do was come by and congratulate me and let me know that he supported me, and I just thought that was the sweetest thing. For him to take time out of his day and do that, it really goes to show that he cares so much about the people who work for him, and I think that's why people do such a good job for him.

JOBLO PODCAST: JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT AND JOE DANTE INTERVIEWED! REVIEWS OF LOOPER AND END OF WATCH!

http://www.joblo.com/movie-news/joblo-podcast-joseph-gordon-levitt-interviewed-joe-dante-interviewed-reviews-of-looper-end-of-watch-and-house-at-the-end-of-the-street-03

Big puff watching over little Joe in Times Square. #goodbyeNYC @LOOPERmovie

Joseph Gordon-Levitt on the October 2012 cover of Elle Men (China) magzine

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Becoming Bruce Willis and Time-Traveling to Meet His Future Self

It’s been nearly 20 years since Joseph Gordon-Levitt starred as an alien trapped in a suburban kid’s body on 3rd Rock from the Son. Since then, his acting roles have run the gamut—from indie films to blockbusters—but 2012 may well be hailed as the year he officially arrived. He’s held his own in Dark Knight Rises, helmed the action chase filmPremium Rush and did his best Magic Mike impersonation on last week’s Saturday Night Live. Daniel Day-Lewis even personally requested him to play his son in Lincoln out later this year. (“That was a real honor. He’s such a phenomenon,” Gordon-Levitt says.)

But first, Gordon-Levitt’s highly anticipated sci-fi thriller Looper hits theaters on Sept. 28. The 31-year-old actor took a few minutes out of his whirlwind schedule to sit down with TIME and talk Looper, face-changing makeup and what he wants to work on next.

TIME: You play a hit man assigned to kill your future self. What questions did you have when you read Rian Johnson’s script?

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Most people ask, ‘so did you guys spend a lot of time talking about how the time travel is going to work?’ and we didn’t because, to be honest, the time travel is really simple in Looper. Instead, we talked a lot about the character, and I think what we spent most of our time discussing how we were going to convince the audience that Bruce and I were playing the same guy 30 years apart.

You originally wanted to play both parts.

I did suggest that at one point. It sounded like an intriguing idea: ‘Hey I can do this. It’d be great. It will be all me!’ If you quote me there you have to write that I was being sarcastic.

Of course! But after Bruce Willis was cast, the special effects master worked his magic to make you appear like his younger self. Much ink has been spilled about the prosthetics you wear to accomplish this…

I wore prosthetic makeup one other time and [Looper special makeup effects artist] Kazuhiro Tsuji did that makeup too—in G.I. Joe. But then I played this crazy cartoonish villain, which is a kind of trippy because it’s not realistic at all. But this time around, to look in the mirror and see something that is quite realistic and yet just a bit different from my own face, is a really bizarre experience and inspiring as an actor. I get inspired when I put on the right shoes or the right jacket. It sounds superficial, but it’s true. You find some thing on the outside that you can hook on to with the character. And a new face is by far the most intense version of that that I’ve ever experienced.

There’s a terrific scene where you and Bruce Willis are seated face-to-face in a diner. Then you really look like a younger version of him.

We worked very hard at that. When you’re sitting across from each other everyone has to instantly believe that it’s the two versions of the same man. Bruce and I and Rian all kind of got out of town and just rehearsed for four days.

How else did you prepare to play Bruce Willis Jr.?

We would meet up and have lunch or dinner and just hang out and talk. That was probably the most productive thing was just spending time with him. I also did a bunch of other homework on my own—I watched his movies and ripped the audio off of some of them and listened to them on my iPod. Bruce recorded himself doing some of my voiceover monologues, and he sent me those so that I could hear what he sounded like.

You first worked with director Rian Johnson on 2005′s Brick. What’s the difference between working together then and now?

We’re both older and wiser. But I think the similarities are more striking than the differences. When we were making Brick we had no idea whether anybody was going to go see that movie at all. We just really thought it was cool, and so we did it. I think the same goes for Looper. Even though it’s a bigger movie and Bruce Willis is in it, and we know lots of people are going to see it, we kind of just maintained that same attitude of ‘this is just cool.’

The little boy in Looper, Rian Gagnon, is around the same age as you were when you started acting. Do you have any advice for him?

I remember when I was his age I didn’t like it when people would sort of be didactic with me. I felt like saying, ‘Hey I have to do this just as you all have to do this so treat me like the same as everybody—an actor, a professional, because I’m being professional.’ And Pierce was professional, and I would just treat him as such. Any advice I’d give I’d probably give more to his mom. She talks to him about the material as an artist, not as some mindless sapling, which is good. But I would definitely recommend school—not homeschooling.

If you were to meet up with yourself 30 years from now, what would you say to yourself?

I do think that’s one of the central ideas of the movie—what would it be like to talk to your future self or your past self. For me, the conversation would be quite one sided. I would really just want to listen. I’m really grateful for what I’m getting to do right now in that I get to work on projects that inspire me and work with people that I care about and trust, and I hope that I have continued to do that—and that I don’t have to try to kill myself.

Speaking of inspiring projects, you’re about to make your directorial debut with Don Jon’s Addiction, where you star as a porn addict alongside Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore. Have you learned anything from the directors you’ve worked with in the past few years?

Absolutely. Innumerable knowledge I think was imparted. It wasn’t so much ‘let me sit you down an teach you something,’ but just by watching Rian [Johnson] and Chris [Nolan, director of Dark Knight Rises] and Steven [spielberg, director of Lincoln] was enormously helpful. Working with those three guys in the last year was a big part of what emboldened me to give directing a try.

Anything else you’d like to try in the future?

I would love to do a musical. One day I’ll find the right one.

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I interviewed Joseph Gordon Levitt yesterday! Beautiful man, beautiful words, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/looper-joseph-gordon-levitt-374834

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Looper’ Interview with Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Easily the best science fiction movie since Inception, Looper is a highly original time travel movie about hitmen whose targets are sent to them from the future. Things become life-threatening for a hit man named Joe (played by Johnson muse Joseph Gordon-Levitt) when he fails to kill his older self from 30 years in the future (played by Bruce Willis).

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has recently had a slew of successful performances, appearing in movies like Hesher, 50/50, The Dark Knight Rises, and Premium Rush. In the fall, he will be playing Robert Todd Lincoln opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Steven Spielberg’s much anticipated Lincoln film. Gordon-Levitt is currently in post-production on his directorial debut, Don Jon’s Addiction. When not making films, he is involved with his “open-collaborative production company” hitRECord.

I sat down with Gordon-Levitt in a roundtable to discuss Looper, the friendly relationship he has with Rian Johnson, the connection he likes to have with the public despite his celebrity status, and more.

Looper opens nationwide on September 28.

You did ‘Brick’ with Rian Johnson a long time ago. Do you guys have a relationship where you communicate to each other about your choices, or interact artistically? Will he have much of an influence on your directorial debut ‘Don Jon’s Addiction,’ or at least be a spiritual influence?

Yeah. He’s really one of my closest friends, and he has been since we met making Brick. It wasn’t long after we finished shooting Brick that he told me about this time travel idea that he had. We have been in touch, and more than in touch. Occasionally we talked about what became Looper, but also making other things, little videos or songs and stuff like that. We’re neighbors, we’re real tight. As far as Don Jon’s Addiction, yeah. The very first draft that I had that I wanted to show to anyone else, he was the very first person I showed it to. He read it, and he’s absolutely a mentor in that way, and really supportive of me going for it.

You got onto the film ’50/50′ pretty soon before it started shooting. What kind of differences are there between that film’s set and that of ‘Looper’?

I think it was six days. But that actually kind of helped, because it’s a movie you don’t want to over-think. The whole Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg style is very real, very improvisatory, and just diving right into it. A Rian Johnson movie is different – it is all highly composed, there’s no improvising or anything like that. Which isn’t to say that he isn’t open to collaboration, but it’s just an obvious very different tone. They’re different approaches. Both movies that I did for Rian require a lot of work in preparation.

You make these big movies, like ‘The Dark Knight Rises,’ or ‘Inception,’ but at the same time these films have an intimate quality. ‘Looper’ is no different.

That’s what I want out of a movie. I don’t want to just look at a movie and feel like I’m being marketed to, or feel like I’m watching a campaign or gimmick. I want to connect to the artists involved, and feel like they have something to say that they’re offering from their heart. Rian does that. So does Chris Nolan, even though he’s making the biggest movies that there are. He manages to still make it personal, and I think that it’s less about the size. You can do it on the scale that Chris Nolan does it, or the scale that we do it on hitRECord. The question is, are you sincerely offering yourself to your audience?

What’s your favorite genre to work in? What appeals to you when you read scripts?

I think they all have their virtues, I think it’s just a matter of what you do with the genre. Like, all of Kubrick’s films are one genre or the other. What I do is pretty simple. I just look at the filmmaker, and want to have some connection with that person, feel a real collaborative spirit with them. And then if the material is inspiring, I feel some thing where I want to be that character. That’s it. It doesn’t happen all that often that things line up and get me excited.

Your character in ‘Looper’ is flawed, but similar to other characters you have played in the past in which they have both good and bad traits. Do you always look for that twist inside the person? Does it make it more emotionally raw to connect to that character?

Usually, yeah. You gotta have some type of combo of dark and light to make it feel like a human being. But I also do like playing archetypes; that can be pretty fun. Premium Rush is pretty straightforward action movie. It’s really fun to do, and it inspired me to ride a bike that summer and have fun.

You’ve said that when you were building this performance, you didn’t want to do an imitation of Bruce Willis. How did you get to that form of Bruce, and what movies of his did you study?

I didn’t think an impersonation or an imitation would really serve the story. I’m not really good at impersonations anyways. I wanted to just make a character that felt like him. So, I watched mostly recent movies, because I was less concerned with making a young Bruce Willis, and making more concerned with making a character that would match to his character in this story. I watched Sin City, because I like that movie a lot, and it has a noir-ish thing to it, and a lot of voice-over. I would rip the audio from some of his movies and put them on the iPod so I did listen to them on repeat. He did record himself doing some of my voice-over monologues, and sent me the recordings so I could hear what they would sound like. The most important thing I think was spending time with him, having dinner, and letting it seep in.

There is a certain selfishness to both Young Joe and Old Joe in this movie. Did you work towards that trait with this character?

Everyone thinks they are doing the right thing. That’s what I love about Looper. When people fight, no one thinks that they’re being the bad guy. Everyone thinks that their fight is for the good cause.

With your hitRECord project and various other outreaches, you seem to have a desire to maintain the public’s connection with the celebrity. Do you see yourself working toward that end?

That’s exactly it, that’s the point of all of this. I think we are all connected. There’s a lot of forces that isolate us in our culture, and we’re taught t be dog-eat-dog, and competitive, fight for status. That’s not what it’s about, that’s not going to make anybody happy. I know people who are at the top of that heap, and aren’t happy.