Joseph Gordon-Levitt — Actor, Filmmaker, and Entrepreneur (#312)

“Art and fame are sort of odd bedfellows.” – Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (@hitRECordJoe) is an actor whose career spans three decades, and ranges from television (3rd Rock from the Sun) to arthouse (Mysterious Skin, Brick) to multiplex (Inception, 500 Days of Summer, Looper, Snowden). He made his feature screenwriting and directorial debut with Don Jon (Independent Spirit Award nomination, Best First Screenplay). He also founded and directs HITRECORD, an online community of artists emphasizing collaboration over self-promotion. HITRECORD has evolved into a “community-sourced” production company that publishes books, puts out records, produces videos for brands from LG to the ACLU, and has won an Emmy for its variety show HitRecord on TV.

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Want to hear another podcast with a filmmaker? — Listen to my conversation with Darren Aronofsky. In this episode, we discuss his creative process and “nomadic writing,” how to navigate tough conversations over creativity and control, and much more! Stream below or right-click here to download.

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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

• Connect with Joseph Gordon-Levitt:

HITRECORD | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook

• Memento
• Superbad
• 50/50
• The Night Before
• Baijiu
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt Talks Don Jon, Sexual Objectification, His Real-Life Girlfriend, and More on Interview Trail by Beth Hanna, IndieWire
• A River Runs Through It
• Lincoln
• Spielberg
• Jaws
• Final Cut Pro
• Sherman Oaks, California
• Columbia University
• Don Jon
• Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• 3rd Rock from the Sun
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt: ‘Edward Snowden Was Warm, Kind, Thoughtful by Tom Lamont, The Guardian
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
• Brick
• Looper
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi
• Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
• The Dark Knight Rises
• Premium Rush
• 500 Days of Summer
• Manic
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Boy Wonder by Amy Wallace, GQ
• The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Timothy Ferriss
• The Joe Rogan Experience
• Nerdist Podcast
• WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
• Fireside Chat with Tim Ferriss and Professor Ed Zschau, Princeton Keller Center
• Y Combinator
• Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule by Paul Graham
• RISD
• CritBuns
• Automattic

SHOW NOTES

• True or false: Joseph can breathe fire if you tickle his feet. [06:40]
• Who the hell is Evan Goldberg and how did he and Joseph first meet? [07:59]
• A word of caution for anyone who might find themselves sitting down to a meeting with Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen. [09:40]
• Weed vs. alcohol. [11:38]
• The power of an actor to say “no.” [13:27]
• “The ability to balance a thorough plan with spontaneity is right at the crux of being a good director.” [19:40]
• Working with Robert Redford when Joseph was 10 years old. [21:32]
• Pondering Steven Spielberg’s sparse use of shot lists. [25:45]
• A Jaws story about on-set spontaneity. [29:25]
• Robert Rodriguez’s take about the real job of a director. [32:05]
• How did Joseph learn to direct and edit? [34:48]
• How Final Cut Pro made Joseph drop out of college — and why he went back to school in the first place after an already lengthy career in acting. [37:19]
• Why did Joseph go back to school? [38:38]
• On moving from Sherman Oaks to Manhattan. [41:40]
• Joseph’s favorite thing to do in New York City. [42:51]
• Why Joseph took classes in French. [43:27]
• On learning additional languages. [46:42]
• Joseph talks about directing his first film, Don Jon, and what prompted him to write the story. [48:40]
• The most challenging aspects of bringing Don Jon to the screen. [52:18]
• Were there any books on screenwriting that helped Joseph during the process? [53:53]
• Advice for someone whose goal is to get famous. [57:16]
• Does Joseph experience fear of missing out when taking breaks from show business? [1:07:30]
• Coming back to show business after his first break. [1:12:39]
• What helps Joseph get through periods of rejection and self-doubt? [1:15:05]
• “It’s easy to be extrinsically motivated when the world’s giving you a bunch of thumbs-ups!” What does the other side of that look like? [1:16:50]
• Why does Joseph think Zooey Deschanel described him as “lighter, less burdened” during the second movie they did together? [1:23:46]
• What is HITRECORD, how did it come to be, and where is it headed? [1:26:00]
• The projects worth sticking with are usually the ones we start without hope of financial gain. [1:35:09]
• Joseph talks about the conversation his mother had with him going into acting at age six. [1:39:05]
• How is Joseph thinking about the next few years ahead? [1:41:01]
• What I like about HITRECORD. [1:44:26]
• A recommendation I often make to people who want to start their own company — and how it ties in to collaborating at HITRECORD. [1:45:08]
• Parting thoughts from Joseph. [1:53:55]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

• Evan Goldberg
• Seth Rogen
• Michael Cera
• Jonathan Levine
• Clint Eastwood
• Robert Rodriguez
• Robert Redford
• Philippe Rousselot
• Steven Spielberg
• Abraham Lincoln
• Tasha McCauley
• Bruce
• Tony Robbins
• Jane Gordon
• Blake Snyder
• Scarlett Johansson
• Julianne Moore
• Warren Zavala
• Quentin Tarantino
• Rian Johnson
• Rainer Maria Rilke
• Zooey Deschanel
• Dan Gordon-Levitt
• Joe Rogan
• Marc Maron
• Garrett Camp
• Ed Zschau
• Paul Graham
• Joe Gebbia
• Matt Mullenweg

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