Despite his young age, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has already distinguished himself as an actor with a wide range of performances in both television and film. He starred on the hit television series
"3rd Rock from the Sun" (1996), for which he earned two Hollywood Reporter Young Star
Awards and the show earned three SAG
Award nominations for "Outstanding Peformance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series". Prior to his success on television, he was already working steadily in feature films,
debuting in the
Robert Redford film
A River Runs Through It (1992), for which he received the Young Artist
Award for "Best Actor Under Ten". Other film credits include
Angels in the Outfield (1994),
The Juror (1996),
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998),
10 Things I Hate About You (1999) and one of the lead voices in the animated film,
Treasure Planet (2002).
Gordon-Levitt recently took time off from acting to attend Columbia University. His most recent film credits include the 2001 Sundance film
Manic (2001), where he plays an angry young man sent to a juvenile mental institute. He returned to Sundance this year with two diametrically opposed lead roles in
Rian Johnson's
Brick (2005) and
Gregg Araki's
Mysterious Skin (2004).
Brick (2005), earned a Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision. Having screened at the Venice, Toronto and London Film Festivals,
Mysterious Skin (2004) has already earned him accolades for his portrayal of a gay hustler haunted by his sexually abused past.
Mini Biography
Joseph Gordon-Levitt's remarkable transition from child to adult actor deserves kudos, and then deserves to be let go. (Yes, he was participating in a children's musical group at age 6, when another child's manager suggested he should try doing it professionally). After several years of smaller television roles, he did his first feature at age 10 (
A River Runs Through It (1992)). TV series-regular roles (
"Dark Shadows" (1991),
"The Powers That Be" (1992),
"3rd Rock from the Sun" (1996)) limited his availability for film during teen years, and college followed at the end of "3rd Rock".
Following (and a little bit during) that academic hiatus, he has successfully shaken off the child-actor image by moving on to intense script and role choices that have been both eclectic and provocative. His path has been guided much more by the quality of the material and the integrity of the creative people involved, rather than pursuit of fame or fortune.
Personal Quotes
"The whole concept of celebrity pisses me off. While I'm not a celebrity, it's such a weird concept that society has cooked up for us. Astronauts and teachers are much more amazing than actors."
"To me, a sex scene in a movie generally means a gratuitous scene that doesn't serve the story but gives a kind of excuse; we've got these two actors, we want to see them naked, so let's bring in the music and the soft light."
"I've had a select set of really beautiful, powerful, psychedelic experiences on certain
drugs but I never got into just doing it at a party: 'Oh let's get f-ed up and drop acid'. That's so retarded and disrespectful to your body and the drug itself. Mushrooms, acid and ecstasy can offer you a new perspective. They can also offer you nothing."
"My favorite kinds of actors are the chameleons, like
Daniel Day-Lewis or
Peter Sellers, people like that. To me, the highest compliment you can pay to an actor is, "Man, I didn't recognize you". So yeah, "Hesher" is really different from "Tom" in
(500) Days of Summer (2009)" and you know, that's what keeps it spicy for me."
"I just love to act. It's my favorite thing to do in the world, and what keeps it interesting to me is the creative challenge. So different kinds of characters, that's what I just love to do."
"Acting's really difficult to talk about. If you could talk about it so easily then you wouldn't have to act."
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