Joseph Gordon-Levitt

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Rain Johnson and JGL interview:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/14/joseph-gordon-levitt-looper-bruce-willis_n_1673233.html

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Comic-Con 2012: Looper footage impresses the crowds

Director Rian Johnson and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt were the talk of Hall H today as they debuted a five-minute sizzle reel from their upcoming sci-fi actioner, Looper.

The footage set up the film’s plot, in which JGL stars as a ‘Looper’ – a hitman charged with offing targets sent back from a future in which murder is nigh on impossible to commit without getting caught.

But he’s put in a pickle when his future self – played by Bruce Willis – is sent back and manages to escape the young Looper’s clutches. Cue a tense, action-packed game of cat-and-mouse, as Gordon-Levitt tries to hunt down Willis and finish the job, before he’s taken out in his prime by his own organisation.

“The thing I focussed on was the voice,” Gordon-Levitt told Total Film of the challenge of playing a young Bruce Willis. “Bruce recorded himself reading some of my voiceover lines and sent them to me.”

The star, reteaming with his friend and Brick director Johnson, was also happy that his appearance – augmented with some nifty prosthetics – managed to impress the action legend himself… “He’s an understated man,” said Levitt, “so to get a reaction out of him was amazing!”

The footage also gave us a glimpse at Blunt’s character, who looks like she’s pretty nifty with a firearm too. “She’s a really tough cookie, a tough nut to crack,” said the actress, who reckoned it’s the best work she’s done so far. “The film is rich in complexity and not derived from anything else you’ve ever seen…”

Looper hits cinemas on 28 September.

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Rian Johnson & Joseph Gordon-Levitt on ‘Looper’ Science: Would You Kill Hitler?

Looper, from Writer-director Rian Johnson (Brick and The Brothers Bloom) is easily one of the most-anticipated science fiction efforts of 2012 – as many moviegoers are expecting a slick film that offers both style and substance. The concept alone is certainly interesting – a young assassin executes mob hits after they are sent from the future to his time – until he discovers that his latest target is actually an older version of himself. Plus, anyone who has been following the Looper trailers will likely agree that watching Joseph Gordon-Levitt attempt to tackle Bruce Willis mannerisms is not only intriguing – it’s also pretty entertaining.

However, Rian Johnson didn’t just wrap a full film around a solid premise – the director also attempts to tackle some of science fiction’s biggest questions, including the time travel genre’s most notorious head scratcher: “If you could, would you go back in time and kill Hitler?”

Speaking before Sony’s Comic-Con 2012 panel, Johnson addressed his approach to some of Looper‘s larger themes and moral questions:

That’s part of the pleasure of science fiction in general and time travel movies specifically. They always seem to come back to these big moral questions. The ‘would you kill Hitler’ questions. And they are just very good at making you confront questions like that. My answer to that would be the movie itself, I can’t articulate my answer better. I can’t articulate it better than I did in the movie.

Similarly, Joseph Gordon-Levitt wasn’t ready to condone the actions of most onscreen heroes – asserting that, in many cases, there’s a more meaningful way of tackling conflict than simply killing:

I think violence begets violence and I don’t think a way to solve any sort of conflict is with violence. Because nothing ever ends up solved that way.

While Johnson might have, at first, struggled to articulate how the film addresses some of these larger ideas, Gordon-Levitt’s comment apparently helped give the director some traction. Building off the actor’s answer, Johnson said:

That’s a big part of the movie, in many ways the movie is about this thing you see in action movies but unfortunately also in real life, this notion that can you solve a problem by finding the right person and killing them. That’s very available to the movie, Looper, the notion that that kind of thinking creates a sort of self-perpetuation loop and what can we do as human beings to break that sounds very highfalutin and yet these are some of the things that we hopefully wrestle with in the movie.

Considering Looper is an entirely original IP, not another installment in the seemingly never-ending parade of Hollywood reboots and sequels, it’s easy to be excited for what the writer/director has in store – especially considering that Johnson isn’t just pumping out another sci-fi action story. Plenty of movies and TV shows have tackled time travel in interesting and compelling ways but few have been able to hit some of these larger philosophical (not to mention character) implications head-on – while also providing plenty of gripping onscreen action.

Of course, a solid headlining pair in Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, plus Emily Blunt, certainly doesn’t hurt the film’s chances at the box office.

Audiences won’t have to wait too long to get a more concrete answer to these questions when Looper releases September 28th 2012.

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Comic-Con 2012: ‘Looper’ Star Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Playing Bruce Willis’ Younger Self: ‘I Didn’t Work Out at All’

Joseph Gordon-Levitt admits he barely did anything physically to get into the role of Bruce Willis‘ younger self in his new sci-fi flick, Looper.

In the film, Gordon-Levitt, 31, plays an assassin who’s hired out to kill victims sent through a time machine, only to find that he’s latest target is actually his future self (played by 57-year-old Willis).

Celebuzz caught up with the actor — and his costar Emily Blunt — at San Diego’s Comic-Con where the star spilled on how he prepared for the part.

“I didn’t work out at all,” he told Celebuzz. “But I did just do a part where I worked out.”

How does Gordon-Levitt — who’s starred in action-thrillers like Inception and The Dark Knight Rises — bulk up for a role?

“Just classic meathead behavior: going to the gym everyday and eating a lot of chicken,” he said.

Curiously, his costar Blunt, 29, asked, “Do you do the eggs like Rocky?”

“Not raw,” Gordon-Levitt replied, smirking. “I did eat a lot of eggs but they were scrambled.”

The two stars were at Comic-Con — famous for embracing the comic book culture — to promote Looper, though they spilled that they’re really geeks of something else.

“I really geek out over music,” Blunt told us.

So has her husband — The Office‘s John Krasinski — taken her to any concerts yet?

“He has and it’s been a mess,” she said. “He does not do that anymore.”

As for Gordon-Levitt’s geeky obsession? Watch our interview with the star — above — to find out.

Looper hits theaters Sept. 28.

Video:

http://www.celebuzz.com/2012-07-14/comic-con-2012-looper-star-joseph-gordon-levitt-on-playing-bruce-willis-younger-self-i-didnt-work-out-at-all-video/

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The evolution of Joseph Gordon-Levitt

http://www.celebuzz.com/photos/the-evolution-of-joseph-gordon-levitt/

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Comic-Con: Joseph Gordon-Levitt Channels Bruce Willis in "Looper"

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a young Bruce Willis in "Looper," a time-bending thriller presented at Comic-Con on Friday in which the actors play past and future Joe, an assassin sent back in time to kill his older self.

While the character is named "Joe," Gordon-Levitt actually is playing tough-guy Willis, facing himself down in clipped, understated dialogue and with a surprising resemblence to the older actor.

It was not easy, the actor explained. He spent three hours a day in make-up having prosthetics applied that would suggest Willis, and he spent hours listening to Willis' dialogue in old films.

"I'm not a good mimic, I don't do good impressions," said Gordon-Levitt at the panel presentation in Hall H on Friday. "I didn't think an impersonation would be distracting, but I tried to internalize him and do something that made sense."

He put Willis movies on his iPod, but "the most I learned was by hanging out with him," said Gordon-Levitt. "He's a super cool guy. He loved this job. He was clearly there to play."

Willis didn't make it to Comic-Con this year, but the director Rian Johnson was there along with Emily Blunt.

Johnson wrote the part for Gordon-Levitt, who is a long-time friend.

But, he said, "after we cast Bruce we realized, 'uh-oh, they don't look anything alike.'"

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Comic-Con: 'Looper's' Joseph-Gordon Levitt talks about trippy hitman flick

SAN DIEGO -- The big time-travel paradox of the sci-fi thriller "Looper" is whether Joseph Gordon-Levitt is playing a young Bruce Willis or whether Bruce Willis is playing an old Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Gordon-Levitt, co-star Emily Blunt and writer-director Rian Johnson gave the Comic-Con fan convention Friday a sneak peek at footage from "Looper," which centers on a hit man who's supposed to kill his future self.

To play the young assassin, Gordon-Levitt, 31, spent three hours in makeup every day to have a prosthetic nose and other cosmetic tweaks applied to make him look more like the 57-year-old Willis.

But much of the transformation comes from Gordon-Levitt's mimicking skills. He says he watched Willis' movies over

and over and listened to the actor's dialogue again and again on an iPod.

Much of what he aimed for, however, was capturing the cool essence of Willis, Gordon-Levitt said.

"I'm not a good mimic, to be honest. I don't do good impressions," said Gordon-Levitt, who also co-stars in next week's Batman finale "The Dark Knight Rises." "I didn't think an impersonation would be appropriate, anyway. It would just be distracting. So I just tried to internalize and do something that made sense to me. ...

"The most I learned from him is just hanging out with him," Gordon-Levitt said. "He's a sweetheart and he loved this job. He was clearly there to play."

The movie opens Sept. 28.

"Looper" is set late in the 21st century, when murder has become difficult to carry out. Time travel allows the mob to get rid of people by sending them into the past, where a hit man awaits and victims can be disposed of with no questions asked.

Johnson had previously directed Gordon-Levitt in the 2005 low-budget drama "Brick," when the filmmaker first raised the idea of the time-travel story. He wound up writing the script specifically with Gordon-Levitt in mind, even naming the character Joe.

"We've just been dying to work with each other again," Johnson said. "It's always best to make movies with your friends."

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt: 'Pretty girls aren't funny'

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has allegedly angered some fans after a recent comment at this year's Comic-Con.

The 50/50 actor participated in a panel at the convention for his upcoming science fiction thriller Looper, also starring Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt.

Josh Dickey of Variety tweeted from the event, where Gordon-Levitt attempted to compliment Blunt by saying: "Pretty girls aren't usually funny."

According to Dickey, Blunt, who plays Gordon-Levitt's love interest in the film, visibly "bristled" at the comment.

Along with Looper, the 31-year-old actor will also star in The Dark Knight Rises later this summer.

A third film, Premium Rush, is due for release on August 24 in the US and September 14 in the UK.

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt becomes Bruce Willis in sci-fi 'Looper'

The Looper movie panel at Comic-Con Friday centered around one concept: making Joseph Gordon-Levitt look like Bruce Willis.

Writer-director Rian Johnson crafts a sci-fi world with "loopers," a special kind of assassin who use time travel to get rid of those who their underworld bosses want exterminated in the present by murdering them in their past.

The drama of Looper (in theaters in September), though, starts when a looper named Joe (Gordon-Levitt) one day is assigned to kill his future self (Willis).

Much like The Terminator, Johnson said, "time travel sets up this situation with the characters and then gets out of the way. It's the situation with the characters that drives the rest of the movie."

But once he cast Willis, "I was like, uh oh, they look nothing alike."

So Gordon-Levitt had a prosthetic attached to his face every morning during filming to resemble Willis.

His turn is what ends up really selling Looper, said Johnson, who first worked with Gordon-Levitt on the 2005 independent movie Brick. "He's doing young Bruce and it's not imitation. He seems like a character that could be a young Bruce Willis. His performance is this incredible hat trick to watch."

Gordon-Levitt admitted that he's not a good mimic, and didn't think an impersonation was a good move either.

"I tried to internalize him, I guess," he said of Willis. The younger action watched his movie, and also took audio from them and listened on his iPod.

"I learned most from just hanging out with him. He's a sweetheart and he loved this job. This is one of the coolest things he's done in a long time."

What's most striking about Willis is that he's a soft-spoken man, Gordon-Levitt said.

"A lot of big macho guys who like to have a big presence in the room, they're scared that they don't have a big presence in the room. He doesn't have to make sure people know he's there

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Entertainment Weekly:

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Jimmy Fallon:

Part one: http://www.popscreen.com/v/6xhcC/Late-Night-with-Jimmy-Fallon-_-Joseph-GordonLevitt-Part-1

Part two: http://www.popscreen.com/v/6xhc9/Late-Night-with-Jimmy-Fallon-_-Joseph-GordonLevitt-Part-2

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Exclusive Joblo interview:

http://www.joblo.com/video/player.php?video=cc_looper_interviews

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Dailymotion interview

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xs6sbt_joseph-gordon-levitt-uses-some-language-at-comic-con_people

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Previous Dark Knight Rises

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Thank you for interviews