"Life's not simple"

In this interview and podcast, Joseph Gordon-Levitt talks about his new film "The Lookout" -- and why movies should be as complex as people are.

By Andrew O'Hehir

Read more: Andrew O'Hehir, Thriller, Movies, Arts & Entertainment, Independent Film, South by Southwest, Salon Conversations

March 28, 2007 |

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been acting professionally for 18 of the last 20 years, which would be a remarkable statistic for someone twice his age. But he's 26, and has made the highly unusual transition from adorable child star to complicated and even dark adult actor.

Essentially, Gordon-Levitt has had two different and almost diametrically opposed acting careers. He began appearing in films when he was just 7 years old, but attracted wide notice for his role in Robert Redford's "A River Runs Through It," released in 1992 when he was 11. Then came an extensive cute-kid television career, on "China Beach," "L.A. Law," "Quantum Leap," "Roseanne" and 66 episodes of "3rd Rock From the Sun," in which he played Tommy Solomon.

His second career began in earnest in 2001 with the little-seen indie film "Manic," in which Gordon-Levitt played a violent, institutionalized teenager. Although the cute kid had grown up into a strikingly handsome young man, he didn't seem innocent or wet behind the ears anymore. Abruptly Gordon-Levitt emerged as one of the most interesting leading men in independent film, a thoughtful performer, simultaneously outspoken and introverted, who specializes in playing troubled characters at war with themselves and the world. (He also has his own Web site, which he describes as his "alternative outlet of where I get to be a little less professional and just freak out a little bit." Click here to watch one of his shorts.)

Filmgoers first noticed the new Gordon-Levitt for his highly charged role as a haunted and morally ambiguous gay hustler in Gregg Araki's cult hit "Mysterious Skin," and then he stole the show as the hard-boiled high-school detective hero of "Brick." I met him in a hotel suite in Austin, Texas, where his new film "The Lookout" was premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival.

A stark, shifty thriller written and directed by Scott Frank (screenwriter of "Out of Sight" and "Little Man Tate," among other films), "The Lookout" is the closest thing to a Hollywood film Gordon-Levitt has made in his second career. Still, it fits the pattern: He plays Chris Pratt, a one-time high-school stud athlete who's trying to recover from the physical, psychological and emotional effects of a disabling brain injury (one caused by a hideous car crash that was his fault). Chris becomes the focus of a group of predatory gangsters, hoping to use his disability and vulnerability to help them rob the bank where he works as a janitor.

Gordon-Levitt greeted me in his hotel room with excessive politeness, clad in a prep-school-neat shirt and tie that made him look like a new wave guitarist, circa 1982. He was friendly and seemed eager to have a real conversation, but has already learned the guardedness that comes with being a celebrity. It applies even to the minor-key celebrities, the self-debunking and self-deflating ones, the ones who have walked away from one kind of stardom in search of a more grown-up one.

You played the damaged, charismatic strange guy in "Mysterious Skin," and then the hard-boiled teenage detective in "Brick," and now you're playing a guy who's recovering from a serious brain injury. It's like everything has to have enormous challenges.

Well, life is challenging. I think movies without a little darkness are boring, because the world ain't like that.

But I suppose you're going to tell me that, despite all these characters, you're a completely normal, likable guy.

Oh, far from it. No one likes me. Will you be my friend? [Laughs]

I don't know. You seem like a dangerous character.

Be careful.

So what was it that drew you to this role? I know this project has been kicking around. Leonardo DiCaprio was going to be in it. David Fincher was going to direct it. What drew you to it?

Simply a good script. At first, this is what draws me to any movie. It sounds obvious but it's unfortunately very rare to find a script that's got some really good writing to it. I think our movies in general are being controlled by people who think that special effects and gimmicks are going to sell more tickets than a good story. I think they're wrong. Scott Frank, who wrote and directed "The Lookout," knows how to tell a story, and it was immediately apparent when reading the script. And he's an inspirational guy. He's really passionate about what he does; that's what I'm always attracted to -- passion and love. I was lucky to get to work with him.

I remember Rian Johnson talking about you preparing for his movie "Brick" and how you would try to do all this work to figure out the difficult dialogue in it. What were the challenges as far as getting ready to play this guy?

Preparing for "The Lookout" was obviously focused a lot around what would it be like to have a traumatic brain injury. But as I did my preparation and research, and hung out with people who had been through accidents and situations similar to Chris Pratt and suffered injuries similar to the one portrayed in the movie, I found that not only is everybody an individual but the boundaries that we draw between the "us" and the "them" are actually really faint. It grew apparent to me that I wanted to make Chris certainly have his new life and condition be present at all times, but actually I wanted to point out the similarities between him and someone without a traumatic brain injury more than I wanted to point out the differences.

Next page: "Fears and insecurities, those are the real demons"