Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Past, Present and Future
According to his IMDb timeline, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been acting since the age of seven and acting consistently, scrolling through the list of his films it seems that the only year where he wasn’t on a screen from 1988-2013 was 2006. JGL has done TV, indie films, huge blockbusters and he is now beginning to embark on his first venture into getting behind the camera for Don Jon. It seems as though this is a good time to reflect on the actor’s career and speculate about his future.
Most people’s first introduction to JGL would be his performance in 3rd Rock from the Sun when he had long hair and looked more like a 12 year old girl than a 16 year old boy. My personal first introduction to him was through 10 Things I Hate About You and his voice acting in Treasure Planet. Unfortunately 10 Things also has Heath Ledger and Julia Styles so despite JGL having one of the lead roles he is often a little forgotten compared to his co-actors. However in 3rd Rock from the Sun he is a very memorable character, although I doubt anyone watching it then pegged him as being one of the next big stars.
The early 2000s were his indie days, doing quite gritty films like Mysterious Skin, which is just disturbing, and The Lookout. During this time JGL experimented with his acting and what he was willing and capable of doing, proving himself as a very good actor. However the films did not have a wide audience and JGL appears to have broader ambitions than just acting so he needed a career shift to boost his image and therefore his potential for creative control.
What I would consider his ‘big break’ to be would be (500) Days of Summer, the rom-com to end all rom-coms because it is a brilliant example of one while also being defiant of the genre. This film was JGL’s announcement to the public and Hollywood professionals: “Look at me I don’t have long hair anymore and I’ve matured from my earlier days!” He certainly got a lot of attention from it because of the strength of the film and his performance, and a lot of girls falling in love with his character.
Sadly JGL let the attention go to his head and he chose to take on a role which should never have been invented, let alone given to such a good actor. He played a baddy in G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra. Need I say more? We’ll brush over this momentary lapse in common sense that JGL normally has and move swiftly on to his biggest film (and my personal favourite that he’s done) Inception.
No one can deny that JGL’s friendship with Christopher Nolan has opened so many doors for the guy because he has been in two of the most prolific and highest grossing films ever thanks to that man. This starts with Inception which has a stellar cast and it is a testament to JGL that he was included amongst them. He doesn’t have a leading role but Nolan compensates for this by granting him another role in The Dark Knight Rises as Blake/Robin. Both films are really amazing but JGL doesn’t do a lot of acting in them and he basically plays the same character, but they’re very good for getting his face and name more known.
From 2010 it seems that JGL has done one blockbuster followed by one indie. After Inception he did 50/50 which, despite the pretty famous castings and being a really good film, wasn’t hugely successful. Then the Batman film was followed by Premium Rush which gave him a chance to be a leading man while he was still riding off of the successes of his Nolan films, but Premium Rush itself wasn’t particularly interesting.
2012 was a big year because The Dark Knight Rises, Premium Rush, Looper and Lincoln all came out that year. Looper and The Dark Knight Rises were big action films and JGL played fairly central characters in both, despite being oddly morphed with Bruce Willis in one. Lincoln and Premium Rush, on the other hand, either saw JGL in a great film but with little screen time, or an average film with a bigger part.
Now in 2013 he is embarking on his first film which he is directing, writing and staring in, Don Jon, where he plays a porn addict who begins dating a woman, played by Scarlett Johansson, who is affected by all the rom-coms she watches. Not having been released in the UK yet, I cannot say if it is good but the current online reviews are generally positive. It is a good start to any directing/writing career move and JGL has so much experience in different genres and styles of films that it would be difficult for him to go too far wrong (I hope).
JGL’s move into directing and writing is probably his attempt to get the roles he wants. Not looking like a typical leading man he is often pushed to the side for other actors and then simply becomes a supporting cast member. It’s great to see a brilliant actor standing on his own and showing he has talent beyond acting but it would be nice if he could have spread the load a little. Acting, writing and directing is great but if he continues doing all three himself it will possibly become stale and egotistical.
Aside from his filmic career his online community of HitRecord have recently released their first project to be aired on TV and not just be circulated online. The community work on collaboration, which is ironic as JGL’s Don Jon seems to be completely JGL’s creation, but HitRecord produces pictures, stories, books, TV, music, pretty much everything and everyone is allowed to join and contribute. If in the future JGL can do more things for the every-person to be involved in that would be really interesting and could possibly start a new phase in filmmaking. If JGL embarks on more filmmaking hopefully he will make them more collaborative, but I think for the immediate future he will do a few more acting gigs before jumping straight into creating another film.
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