Joseph Gordon-Levitt Talks ‘The Walk,’ Learning to Wire Walk, ‘Snowden’ and More

Joseph Gordon-Levitt had his work cut out for him while working on Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk. 

Not only did he have to nail a french accent and portray a real person with a big personality, but he also had to learn how to wire walk as well. Gordon-Levitt leads the film as Philippe Petit, the high-wire artist who placed his wire in between the towers of the World Trade Center and then walked from one to the other and back again. The Walk chronicles everything from when Petit first fell for the art of wire walking to his discovery of the Twin Towers, all the way up to the day when he’d attempt this “coup.” It’s an incredible story in and of itself, but Zemeckis takes it to another level by turning it into an especially immersive cinematic experience. You can check out my full review of the film right here.

With The Walk currently in select theaters and due for a wide expansion on October 9th, I got the opportunity to talk to Gordon-Levitt about what makes Zemeckis a standout director, what it was like training with Philippe Petit himself and the status of Oliver Stone’s Snowden. You can catch it all in the video interview below.

---

-

Joseph Gordon-Levitt:

• On working with Robert Zemeckis; his humility.
• Learning to wire walk with the real Philippe Petit.
• An update on Oliver Stone’s Snowden.

Here’s the official synopsis of The Walk:

Twelve people have walked on the moon, but only one man has ever, or will ever, walk in the immense void between the World Trade Center towers.  Guided by his real-life mentor, Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley), and aided by an unlikely band of international recruits, Petit and his gang overcome long odds, betrayals, dissension and countless close calls to conceive and execute their mad plan.  Robert Zemeckis, the director of such marvels as Forrest Gump, Cast Away, Back to the Future, Polar Express and Flight, again uses cutting edge technology in the service of an emotional, character-driven story.  With innovative photorealistic techniques and IMAX 3D wizardry, The Walk is true big-screen cinema, a chance for moviegoers to viscerally experience the feeling of reaching the clouds. The film is a love letter to Paris and New York City in the 1970s, but most of all, to the Towers of the World Trade Center.

Read More

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Welcomes Baby Boy With Wife Tasha McCauley

Five hundred days of diapers! Joseph Gordon-Levitt and wife Tasha McCauley welcomed their first baby, a son, the weekend of Aug. 15, a rep confirms exclusively in the new issue of Us Weekly.

"Everyone’s happy and healthy," says an insider.
The Snowden actor, 34, and the technology entrepreneur, also 34, chose to keep the pregnancy quiet. The ultra-private pair, who started dating in 2013 after meeting through mutual friends, wed quietly at their home on Dec. 20, 2014.

"She's very intellectual and a creator, which he finds very attractive,” a source explained to Us in 2014 of the actor and his wife. "It's a really healthy and normal relationship."
"You can tell he adores her," the source adds of the actor’s feelings for McCauley, who speaks three languages and co-founded the tech firm Fellow Robots. "She's beautiful and smart. Really one of those full package girls."

Can't get enough of Us? Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter packed with the latest celeb news, hot pics, and more!

Read More

Joseph Gordon-Levitt-Aquarius

It seems like everywhere you look these days there’s a picture of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The actor, who started performing when he was six and hasn’t let up since, is currently starring in Don Jon, a movie he also wrote and directed.

We don’t have a time birth for Gordon-Levitt but a horoscope charted for noon (click here to see the chart) shows that he has the Sun on the last degree of Aquarius. The Sun will remain on that degree no matter how late in the day he was actually born. There is a theory that a body on the last degree of a sign displays the attributes of that sign with particular emphasis.

Gordon-Levitt has certainly shown some Aquarius independence during the course of his career. His most recognizable early role was as an alien in the body of an American teenager (being an Aquarian no doubt helped here) in the television comedy, 3rd Rock from the Sun. Even though the series was immensely popular, Gordon-Levitt disliked being a teen celebrity and quit after four years.

In his latest effort, Gordon-Levitt plays a man whose addiction to pornography keeps him from connecting with a real person. There is an Aquarian theme here has well. Aquarius people tend to be more comfortable with abstractions than realities, particular emotional realities, and can have trouble connecting with people as individuals.

It isn’t just the placement of Sun than gives Gordon-Levitt an Aquarian quality. His Mercury and Venus are also in Aquarius and his Sun is in a square to Uranus, the modern ruler of Aquarius. The aspect to Uranus increases his penchant for going his own way and resisting outside control. Gordon-Levitt is very much the rebel, and we can expect to see much more of this part of his nature as his clout in Hollywood increases.

Gordon-Levitt’s placement of Venus in Aquarius has shown itself is an interesting way. Rumors have cropped up that the young actor is gay. Gordon-Levitt response to those rumors has generally been to ignore them, though he did admit to one interviewer to having a girlfriend. That girlfriend is apparently someone outside the entertainment industry and he prefers to keep the relationship private.

People with Venus in Aquarius are prone to unusual romantic connections and are often drawn to relationships that seem unlikely with people from very different backgrounds than their own. But most of all, Venus in Aquarius folks hate having their sexuality categorized. They hated behaving in a way that other people expect and will often do all they can to be contrary in these matters.

One last thing we can say about Gordon-Levitt solar chart is that he has the Moon in Leo. Though its exact position can’t be known without a time of birth (it could be anywhere between 9 and 24 degrees of Leo), it still an excellent sign placement for a performer. This tells us that Gordon-Levitt is a creative person and cannot feel totally at ease unless he is involved in some sort of creative process. Acting is not just a job or him, it is an emotional need.

So, what’s your opinion of Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Do you see his Aquarian qualities? Do you think he would be better off following his Aquarian nature and playing characters or going with his Leo Moon and playing leading men?

Read More

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Has The Greatest Comeback Story Ever, So Move Over Matthew Mcconaughey

Think hard. When was the last time you weren’t having a conversation about Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Summer of 2008, maybe? The moon-faced actor has stuck rigidly to the public consciousness ever since his starring turn in (500) Days of Summer, an insuperably Sundancey career revival that would beget a slow climb through the independent and blockbuster realms to the megastar stature he enjoys today. Of course, before his onscreen romance with Zoe Deschanel, Gordon-Levitt was little more than a memory of late ’90s teen pop.

He was known for supplying the secondary love story in 10 Things I Hate About You, and for playing fake human John Lithgow’s fake human offspring on Third Rock from the Sun. For the decade to follow projects like these, Gordon-Levitt would remain that impishly cute, squinty-eyed kid from the Shakespeare movie and the alien show — a “Whatever happened to him?” sort whose whereabouts could only be pinpointed by those in the know of a then-blossoming Rian Johnson.

But after (500) Days, Gordon-Levitt was everywhere. Over the next few years, he played backup roles in major event films like G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, Inception, and The Dark Knight Rises. He headlined smaller character pictures like Hesher, 50/50, and Premium Rush. Somewhere in between was Looper, which all at once proved central star JGL capable of handling action-adventure fare and innovative material alike. From there, Gordon-Levitt only set his sights higher: A supporting part in Lincoln. His own directorial effort Don Jon. And now, the big guns.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in The Walk, which claims everything an ambitious actor might need to align his name with the Hollywood stardom. The picture sends Gordon-Levitt off on the journey of Philippe Petit, who braved a notorious 1974 high-wire walk between New York City’s Twin Towers (famously chronicled in the 2001 documentary Man on Wire).

Gordon-Levitt’s death-defying venture releases in IMAX alongside general theaters, riding high on thrill ride aesthetic alongside its inborn patriotism and New York pride, not to mention the flairs of the uniquely audience- and Academy-friendly Robert Zemeckis behind the camera. It’s real showbiz stuff — the kind an unknown, has-been, or reinvented child actor might only ever dream about.

Gordon-Levitt has come light years from post-Third Rock obscurity, today enjoying such luxuries as a regular seat in the Seth Rogen/Evan Goldberg camp (they’ll be starring together in the Christmas comedy The Night Before) and employ as proverbial muse of filmmaker Rian Johnson, whose next endeavor will be Star Wars VIII — allow that connection to provoke wishful thinking.

Next, Gordon-Levitt will play the eponymous role in Oliver Stone’s biopic Snowden; in other words, just about the most buzzworthy character in contemporary international culture. And the role is going to he who we not too long ago would refer to as "the longhaired kid from Newman’s other sitcom."
There are few stars doing work quite as "big" as Gordon-Levitt today. Of those who are comparable, almost none can claim a six-year gap smack dab in the middle of their careers. Could Gordon-Levitt have made it to superstardom without this time off? Without his initial glimmers of notability? Without lending his voice to the Disney film Treasure Planet? All this ultimately led Gordon-Levitt to his current status: One equally in reach of Academy-friendly roles, mainstream comic mayhem, and interesting genre projects. In other words, he's one of the few figures in Hollywood who can do just about whatever he wants. Not bad as far as comeback stories go.

Read More

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Biography

Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt starred in the TV comedy 3rd Rock From the Sun, and several acclaimed films, including (500) Days of Summer, Inception and The Dark Knight Rises.

Synopsis

Born on February 17, 1981, Joseph Gordon-Levitt started acting at an early age. He co-starred with John Lithgow and Jane Curtin in 3rd Rock From the Sun for six seasons, beginning in 1996. Gordon-Levitt went to Columbia University for a time before returning to acting. He starred in several independent films, including the 2008 hit (500) Days of Summer and Christopher Nolan's 2011 film Inception. In 2012, Gordon-Levitt teamed up with Christopher Nolan again, performing in the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises.

HOLLYWOOD, CA - JULY 07: Joseph Gordon-Levitt at Christopher Nolan Hands and Footprints Ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on July 7, 2012 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau/WireImage)

Child Actor

In many ways, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the exception to the Hollywood rule—having successfully transitioned from a child star to a well-regarded grown-up talent. He started out in local children's theater, appearing in his first play at the age of four. "I was never pressured into acting," he later to the New Jersey Star-Ledger. "I just genuinely liked it, like I liked gymnastics and football and Little League." Gordon-Levitt soon moved on to commercials and television shows, appearing in a peanut-butter ad when he was 6 years old.

Gordon-Levitt moved on to roles in such series as the 1991 reboot of the classic gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, and the early '90s sitcom The Powers That Be with John Forsythe and David Hyde Pierce. But his career really took off with the alien comedy 3rd Rock From the Sun, which premiered in the fall of 1996. The series followed a group of aliens, who come to Earth and pretend to be a human family. Gordon-Levitt played an alien who appears to be a teenage boy. John Lithgow played the commander of this alien mission, who pretends to be a college professor. The show was tremendously popular, running for six seasons.

In the sixth season, Gordon-Levitt reduced his role in the show to stay on as a guest star. Around the same time, he moved to New York City, where he enrolled at Columbia University. For three years, Gordon-Levitt took classes at the prestigious school, studying French literature among other subjects.

Advertisement — Continue reading below

Rising Film Star

After his sabbatical from Hollywood, Gordon-Levitt seemed determined to dispel any preconceived notions of him as an actor. He took on an array of challenging roles in independent films, from a street hustler in Mysterious Skin (2004) to a teenage detective in Brick (2005), to a brain-injured criminal in The Lookout (2007).

In 2009, Gordon-Levitt proved himself to have what it takes to be a leading man, with the hit independent romantic comedy (500) Days of Summer, starring opposite Zooey Deschanel. He earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for his performance in the film. That same year, he appeared in the summer action film G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra as a villain.

In 2010, Gordon-Levitt worked with Christopher Nolan on his innovative science-fiction film Inception, co-starring with Leonardo DiCaprio. He received some of his strongest reviews, however, for a much more realistic tale: In 50/50, Gordon-Levitt plays Adam, a young man who learns that he has cancer. The film, which co-stars Seth Rogen, explores both the challenges and the humorous possibilities of Tom's situation.

A fan of Batman since childhood, Gordon-Levitt fulfilled a personal dream by getting to work with the caped crusader in 2012's The Dark Knight Rises. He plays a Gotham City police officer in this installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman saga. Christian Bale plays the famed crime fighter in the film. Gordon-Levitt also worked with director Steven Spielberg on the 2012 biopic Abraham Lincoln, which stars Daniel Day-Lewis as the historic president. Gordon-Levitt plays Lincoln's son, Robert, in the film.

In 2013, Gordon-Levitt took on another interesting role. He starred opposite Scarlett Johansson in the offbeat romantic comedy Don Jon as a man whose love life is affected by his interest in porn.
Gordon-Levitt also appears in Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez's Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). In 2015, he starred as famed tight-rope walker Philippe Petit in The Walk, directed by Robert Zemeckis.
While Gordon-Levitt's work ranges from indie pictures to major studio releases, he is guided by a basic principle when choosing his roles: "I'm attracted to characters who feel like real human beings, not stereotypes, or plot points," he told the New Jersey Star-Ledger in an interview.

Personal Life

In addition to acting, Gordon-Levitt is a creative visionary. He developed hitRECord, a collaborative production company, which brings together artists, musicians, filmmakers and others. Together, they produce different types of media, including short films, albums and books. Gordon-Levitt's enterprise released RECollection, Volume I in 2011, which featured songs, videos, stories and images made by the collective. The collective also debuted its own TV show in 2014.

Gordon-Levitt lost his older brother, Dan, in October 2010. His brother was a performance artist and a fire spinner, who often went by the name "Burning Dan." In 2012, Gordon-Levitt was angered by an article in GQ, which claimed that Dan had died of a drug overdose. The official cause of Dan's death was not released, and Gordon-Levitt wrote in his tumblr account that the article was "factually incorrect according to the coroner's office and the police department." He went on to say that his brother "was a brightly positive, genuinely caring, and brilliantly inspiring person."

Gordon-Levitt married Tasha McCauley on December 20, 2014. The couple announced the birth of their son in August 2015.

Read More