Joseph Gordon-Levitt!! Film Foundations Actor: An Intro to 50-50, 500 Days of Summer, and so much more!

On this week's episode of Film Foundations, Chris and Ryan discuss an actor that is near and dear to these millenial hearts: Angel in the Outfield's own Joseph Gordon-Levitt! How do you feel about his films? Is 500 Days of Summer to blame for the outburst of manic pixie dreamgirls of the 2000s? Do you agree with our picks? Disagree? Tell us in the comments!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Film Foundations, the collaborative
show between weirding Way Media and Someone's Favorite Productions. I'm
your co host, Ryan Verrell from Someone's Favorite Productions.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
And i am Christashi from weirding Way Media, but more pacifically,
the culture.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Cast you so many comments just from the.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
House, So please tell me all about why I'm a drift.
Tell me why I'm a drift? Please.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
On this show, we ask an answer four questions about
a given topic surrounding either a director, franchise, micro genre,
or like today's pick an actor. Our job as usual
to entice you to broaden your horizons on film, encourage
you to travel down film tangents and side roads that
you may have never traveled down otherwise. As we are
today discussing Joseph Gordon Levitt. This is an actor that

(01:01):
has been around for quite some time. Even though he
is not really that old, he's been acting since he
was very very young. Technically he's forty three at this point.
He definitely what does that mean, tactically looks because he
looks a lot younger than he actually.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, he has like baby he has babyface syndrome, which
some of us have I have it too. When he
has facial hair, he looks his age. When he does not,
he looks indeterminate age like myself. Like, take a guess
what you think my age is?

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Could be twelve or forty one.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, Like I've had people tell me I look like
I'm in my early twenties. And Joseph Gordon Levitt without
facial hair could pass for like an early thirty year
old really, like probably even younger than that if you
see him in the right angle with the right lighting.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Well, I know that I called for this episode because
I am I wouldn't even say like a big fan
of this actor, but I am a fan of the
choices he's made and some of the interesting things that
he's done out side of acting as well. So, Chris, Uh,
how much? How much do you like Joseph Gordon Levin
anything you want to share about your feelings on him?

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Uh? You know, Joseph Gordon Levitt is one of those
actors who I do not gravitate towards. I do not
go out of my way to watch the things that
he's in. He has been in some things that I
have seen that I have liked him in, but he
is not an actor that I resonate with specifically. But again,
I mean, we've already talked about him a little bit
when we did our episode on Mannic Pixie dream Girls,

(02:28):
because he's in like one of the big ones, if
not probably the biggest one for some people. And then
he's been in some other stuff. He's been in like
what you kind of alluded to with would jgl We'll
be calling him from here on out probably is. He
is kind of everywhere in terms of like the kinds
of things he works on. He doesn't just stay in

(02:51):
one lane. You know. He's one of the few actors
working in Hollywood who is rather high profile that has
not been in an MCU movie, has not verged into
that direction of the world, which helps elevate your visibility.
He's been in other comic book stuff obviously, and.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Will not Batman movie that's a big deal.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah, sure, but he's been in a Batman movie that
there is no further anything to be done with, is
my point. And frankly, oh, you brought it up, so
I'm gonna mention it now. That reveal at the end
of Dark Knight Rises is really fucking ham fisted and
so cheesy Robim. It's like, oh, okay, who cares though,

(03:35):
because this is all over. But all of that to say,
JGL and I not somebody I go out of my
way to watch, not somebody I'm waiting for the next
thing that they're in. But I also don't stray away.
I don't go and look for other things as opposed
to their movies. There are some actors that I do
not resonate with at all, that I might not watch

(03:57):
their movie if they're in it. JGL is not one
of them. He has been in some things that I like,
including a movie that I spent the last like, well,
let's see fifteen years kind of you know, we're almost
twenty years now, championing to the point where the person
who directed that movie I thought would do a good
job with what they were asked to do with something

(04:18):
else much more high profile, and they may not have
so JGL, like you said, he has a long, long,
long filmography. I have seen some of the weirder things
that he's in that we will bring up kind of offhand.
But again, not someone that I'm going out of my
way to see, not someone whose movies resonate with me specifically.

(04:38):
So that's where I'm at with JGL what about You.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
I came to jg L very early. He was that
Disney kid and Angels in the Outfield definitely one that
I saw when I was younger because I loved Back
to the Future and Christopher Lloyd. Around that time, Christopher Lloyd,
I was looking for every single film that he had
been in that was kid friendly, since when that came out,

(05:03):
I was still very much under ten years old, and
so I think that was the very first time I
ever saw him. And then, funny enough, I know that
a couple of years later he had a small part
in a Halloween h two O, which would be one
that I had seen many times now, but I don't
think I saw that until I was probably I don't know,
mid teens ish, so probably like three or four years

(05:27):
after it came out. My big thing. When I was younger,
we were a house that definitely watched a lot of
his TV stuff. Primarily he was on a few episodes
of Roseanne. That was a big show in our house,
and then he was amazing on Third Rock from the Sun.
He was a main character in the main family and
he is amazing in that show. That show is weird

(05:50):
and it's got jgl and John Lithgow, like two of
genuinely the best actors of the last thirty years in
Just the Weird. This premise for a show that went
on for like one hundred and twenty something episodes. It's crazy.
But after that he just kind of kept popping up
in things that I liked, and so I noticed after

(06:12):
a while. Man, he makes a lot of really great choices.
And when you look at him as somebody that's you know,
in two thousand, he wasn't even twenty yet, and he
was about to be making some of the bigger like
Indie Darling films to come out. Ever, there are films

(06:35):
that came out in like two thousand and four and
two thousand and five that people look at as beloved
favorite films of all time from him and the fact
that he was so young and able to make those choices.
He was in one of the best, like most referenced
rom coms of all time with Ten Things I Hate
About You, and he did that when he was eighteen.
It's crazy is the way that he chose roles. You

(06:58):
could tell that he he went into this with the
whole child acting stigma, and it didn't hurt him at all,
and in fact, it probably strengthened pretty much everything about him.
He has done very well since then. I do want
to say that there is a couple times where he's
had these weird like stagnation points in his career, which

(07:19):
is also an odd thing to look at because it's
his performances never really dip in quality. He just suddenly
doesn't get roles. And I don't know if it's a
depression thing. I don't know if it's a Hollywood thing.
I don't know if he you know, stands up for
people on the set and therefore people look at him
as hard to work with or something like that. But
I've never heard anything bad about the guy, and for

(07:41):
him to not get roles for a couple of years
is really odd considering how great he is at what
he's done. But yeah, other than that, I've liked most
of what he's put out.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
I think, Yeah, I mean, you like you kind of
alluded to this. This episode is one that you were
pushing for, So I'm kind of following or lead here
in terms of the things you've seen him, and I've
seen a lot less. But to your point, the things
that I've seen him in he's good, like he's good
in them. It's just you know, again, like some of

(08:12):
the things that he's in. Again, he's not an actor
I watch specifically because he's in it, and there are
people that I do, So you know, that's just kind
of where the line is for me. But like you said,
he's a great actor, no question, there not even a
that's not up for debate here, right like that, that's
not the point of what we're doing. So I'm curious

(08:33):
to see what direction you're gonna push myself and our
audience in with your answers, because mine are Again I
don't know if mine are good or bad, but I
feel like my answers might have a place on other
people's lists, yours included.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, and I'm curious to hear yours. I know that
you don't have a ton of choices for these, but
let's let's dive into some of the history real quick,
and then we'll dive into some of our first questions.
Like I said, he is born in nineteen eighty one.
He was born in la began acting as a very
young kid with a river runs through it in nineteen

(09:08):
ninety two. He has taken a break and went to
Columbia dropped out to resume acting, which is crazy. He
has started a bunch of like side projects. Some of
those I might talk about in part of my discussion later,
so I will leave some of that out. But he's directed,
he's produced. He's saying some of his side projects that

(09:31):
really aren't possible answers tonight are really interesting, So just
to shout some of those out because they're not going
to make sense later. He's a great host on SNL.
He's done that twice. I think he was a part
of the it was twenty twenty twelve or twenty thirteen
Lady Gaga and the Muppets holiday special he was a
part of, and he's sang with Lady Gaga and it

(09:53):
was great. He has done a comedy Bang Bang episode
that was really great, guested on some stuff with the Muppets.
He did an episode with Anthony Macki on lip Sync
Battle which was really great. Gosh, there's there's just so
many random things, like he had a he had a
video go viral singing with Zoey Deschanel and their voice

(10:19):
like the way that they melded their voice together was
borderline angelic, like they had been singing together for years.
It was incredible. He's an incredibly talented person. I'm just
happy to get to talk to him a little bit
or talk about him for a little bit. So, Chris,
what do you think is the foundational title for Joseph

(10:39):
Gordon Lovitt?

Speaker 2 (10:41):
So I kind of I've alluded to it a little
bit already, And he's worked with this director a fair amount,
if not, I think s probably worked with him more
than he's worked with anybody else at this point. And
some of the stuff has been cameos and some of
the stuff has been smaller parts. But for me, the
movie that I think of when I think of Joseph
Gordon Levitt, the movie that I think most people would

(11:03):
enjoy of his I think across the board. I think
it kind of challenges you as an audience, but I
think it also is an interesting take on a certain
kind of genre that doesn't necessarily have this place in
the setting that it's set in. I picked two thousand
and five's Brick, which is a neo noir film set
in a high school, and it is way better than

(11:26):
it has any right to be. Just with that premise alone,
it has a lot to do with the fact that
it's written and directed by Ryan Johnson, who I spent
a decade defending to anyone who would listen that if
he was going to make a Star Wars movie, it
would be amazing. Not that it's not amazing, but I
haven't seen it in a very long time, and I

(11:47):
don't remember enjoying it at the time. Maybe it's aged
better in light of how bad things continued to get
with Star Wars, at least in the mainline stuff. But
he's great in Brick. He kind of plays the detective character,
but it's it's not it's harder than that. Like it's

(12:08):
he's brought into everything by the connection to someone else,
his ex girlfriend, I believe, And it the titular brick
is a brick of drugs, and so that's what the
entire movie is about. It's kind of a detective story
in a high school, which sounds like it wouldn't work,

(12:28):
but it it does, so I enjoy it a fair amount.
I think it's a movie that still holds up. I
think it's still worth watching. I think it informs a
lot of the kinds of things that Ryan Johnson likes,
and a lot of the kinds of things that he
would continue to do, like Knives Out and glass Onion
are both who done It's. Brick is very much a
who did it? Who has done it? Yeah, Brick's My

(12:51):
answer is that one of your answers.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
There is a world where this was my answer for
the first one.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
Okay, cool.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
This movie is amazing, right, and so many people have
not seen it. When it came out, it wasn't Ryan
Johnson's Brick. It was just a little movie Brick.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
It was Joseph Gordon Levitt was in the movie. That
was kind of the big thing about it. Like, that's
why I saw it because I was like, oh, he's
I mean, like, like I said, I'm not not amenable
to him as an actor.

Speaker 1 (13:18):
Clearly, Yeah, he is great in this movie. The entire
movie is a sign of things, a sign of greatness
to come for Ryan Johnson. If you watch this movie closely,
he he really displays a lot of his ability and
talent very early on in this movie. Great pick. I'm
glad you like this. I'm glad this is one that

(13:38):
you've seen and that one that could get a little
bit of attention because if you've not seen Brick, this
is one that you should run out and get into
quick because this is a this is also a rewatcher
one that does very well on second viewing.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
It's it's an it is a noir movie in that
way specifically. And also I will say this because I'll
beat you to it. It was released in twenty twenty
by Keno, So if you want to go and pick
up the Blu ray, that's where you would go and
get it. It's from Keno Lorber, which has put out
plenty of things, including Colchak The Nightstalker, which I was on.

(14:13):
So I'll just, you know, just plug that because you know,
why not get to talk about myself for two seconds
and say how proud I am of being on a
Colchak release from Keno. So there you go.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
I will go even a step further and say they
are They've already announced that they're putting out Brick on
four K.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
I was wondering if you were going to follow up
this with that.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
We don't have a date yet, but it is coming
soon supposedly.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Man, that's that's got to look wild in four K.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah. Yeah, And a lot of the movies that came
out around that time were in that early switchover to
digital yep, and so they don't look great, but Brick
does not suffer from that. Brick looks very good.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
Yeah, Brick is a Yeah, Brick is a visually arresting
film and also a well thought out who done it?
So I'm glad you also like it. I feel like
it would be hard to not like this movie, but
I wouldn't have been surprised if you hadn't seen it,
just because again, sometimes things like that slip through the cracks.
So I kick it to you now, Ryan, what is

(15:14):
your answer for the first question?

Speaker 1 (15:16):
My answer for the first question is probably going to
ruffle some feathers because I feel like a lot of
people did not love this movie. But I think this
is the perfect way to see Jgl's acting chops, his
comedic stylings, his ability to make bold choices in a film,
and his ability to deliver a personal story in a

(15:38):
way that actually feels personal, which doesn't work all that
well for a lot of other actors. So I got
to talk about a movie that I saw when I
was going through a bunch of personal changes. I was
literally going through a divorce, I was not having a
super strong friend group at the time, and when this

(16:02):
movie came out, it hit hard because I felt like
I wasn't in the best state of health and making
some bad choices at the time, and so I got
to talk about twenty eleven's fifty to fifty. This movie.
This movie is written by somebody that wrote this movie

(16:24):
about himself. Basically Will Reiser or Reser I believe, is
the writer on this and it's the story of him
and Seth Rogan as Will himself was going through a
cancer diagnosis and how Seth Rogan stood by his side
and Joseph Gordon Levitt plays that part. And this movie

(16:44):
is cast really well. JG. L, Seth Rogan, and Kendrick
Angelica Houston, Bryce Dallas Howard are all in this. This
has the whole like jud Appatow feeling about it, but
it wasn't one that he was super involved in. It's
got the Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg producing team behind it,

(17:06):
so they're the ones that really went in on it.
This movie hits hard if you are somebody that's on
the younger side and have faced health problems or have
had a friend that's faced health problems. This movie's gonna
like gonna give you a gut punch, probably, and it's
got a lot of laughs in it. It's got a

(17:26):
lot of sadness. There's relationship issues in this. There are
some situations that come up that make you feel awkward
for the characters in this movie. But I to be frank,
I think this may be his best movie overall. Wow.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
Wow, I have never seen it. I remember when it
came out. I know I know what it's about. Ostensibly
I never saw it, but it has Seth Rogen in it,
which is always fun. I mean, I love Seth Rogen,
just not as Donkey Kong, but I love Seth Rogan.

Speaker 1 (18:06):
He is not stretching too far of this because he's
literally playing himself, but because of that, it is very
at home for him and you can feel that it's personal.
Highly recommend checking this one out. It is all over.
You can watch this fairly easily. It did fairly well
at the time, but it also got lost because in

(18:28):
the post super Bad world of comedy for a few years,
all of the Apatow shit just blended together, all of
the Danny McBride shit blended together, and therefore all of
the Seth Rogan combined with everybody just became one amalgam
of movie and it didn't stick out, but this one
absolutely should. It is a wonderful movie, a wonderful story

(18:53):
of grief in multiple ways, and one that I don't
want to spoil necessarily because people people need to see this.
This is a great movie.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
And that's what one of two times that Jonathan Levine
works with jgl because then they also work on the
Night Before, and then Jonathan Levine works with Seth Rogen
again on Long Shot, that movie with Charlie's Theron.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
Did they do the interview together as well? Because I
know Seth Rogen and j g l are in that one.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Jjl's like in it for like a second.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Right, but I don't remember if it's Levin.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
It's not. No, it's not. He was doing a well
would that have been snatched around that time, the Godie
hawn Amy Schumer movie. That was a thing that happened.
We all could have gone and seen it, so many
of us didn't.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
That's a weird one to bring up though too.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
I kind of low key enjoy that movie. It's just
a man watching it now, like James Franco and all
of his James Franco is kind of insufferable and maybe
is not a star. I don't. I don't know who
likes James Franco anymore. Like it's weird, right because he

(20:06):
kind of is like Pariat himself by his actions and deeds,
but like I still can't help but be charmed by
him as Tommy Wiseo and The Disaster Artist, which I think,
for me like the missed opportunity of a lifetime to
give James Franco the Academy Award for that movie, And
they only didn't because of all of the things that

(20:27):
came out about James Franco at the time. Otherwise I'm
like ninety nine percent sure they were going to give
him the Oscar for that movie. Yeah, I think James
Franco is an actor. I don't know if we'll ever
do an episode on him, but he is like further
down this path that Joseph Gordon Levitz kind of at
the front of, which is why I con vibe with

(20:48):
jgl more than I can with someone like him, because
he's just like James Franco, seems pretty full of himself.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, And I think he knows it
and I don't think he cares that any but he
else knows it. I think maybe is part of his shtick,
as it were.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
And I think I've enjoyed more of jg. L's performances.
And that's not to say that I haven't enjoyed Franco's,
because He's done probably four or five movies that I've loved.
I mean, just like we talked recently about Ryan Reynolds
carrying the movie Buried, James Franco absolutely carried one hundred
and twenty seven Hours, Like, yes, it's hard to it's

(21:27):
hard to look past that he really he is one
hundred and twenty seven hours.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
But carried the Disaster Artist too. I mean that movie
does not work without him showing up and doing the
best Tommy Wiseo anyone's ever seen other than the man himself.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
Yeah, yeah, two very different people, two very different paths.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
But both in the Night Before because James Franco shows
up as himself and the Interview, Yeah yeah, The Interview
is a weird movie. Like I honestly love The Interview
because it's a movie that like could only be made
in a certain time in place, and that time and
place is gone now because it's like we were making

(22:09):
a movie directly antagonizing North Korea. There's nobody making a
movie right now directly antagonizing Russia. But the interview is like,
what would happen if two American comedians went and killed
Kim Jong un? Like? What the fuck?

Speaker 1 (22:24):
Like what a.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
Wild time to be alive? Really that's and then Sony
getting hacked because of it, Like yeah, man, well the
interview that the path of the interview and all the
things that came out of it is so hard now
to think about because we know all about Spider Man
and Ghostbusters and all the weird shit going on behind

(22:46):
the scenes because of the interview. And yeah, that comes
back to again, James Franco and JG. Ellen just all
of these incept Rogan, all of these actors, all kind
of working together at the time and being in each
other's stuff, even if it is is just like a cameo.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
Can we say fuck James Franco because otherwise we would
have twenty three Jump Street?

Speaker 2 (23:07):
Is that true?

Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah? They were gonna have a crossover. It was fulled.

Speaker 2 (23:11):
Oh the Men in Black one right, Yeah, that would
have been weird. I mean I think they can still
do it. I actually, boy talk about ruffling feathers saw
the New Men in Black movie, wasn't terrible. Roast me,
roast me on the internet. It's better than most of
those kinds of things that come out way after the fact,

(23:31):
like you know, yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah, yeah,
the whole Yeah, James Franco in the interview, like, what
a world we lived in? Then? What a quaint what
a quaint world?

Speaker 1 (23:43):
The soniac really fucked them was a that was a
big deal.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yeah, it really was. Like I'm waiting for somebody to
do some sort of book or something about it, because
they're like the that the influence and the tail that
that has left in the world of it entertainment is
still they're still dealing with it.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
Really, Like, honestly, that's the best way to say fuck
you to North Korea right now. Make a movie about
the Sony hack and talking about all the movies that
they lost.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yeah, well that's pretty meta.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
Uh all right, let's uh, let's find out some some
ununderseen movies perhaps that you might be recommending. So what
do you think is a JGL film that's within his
ubra that might not be best as the first time
watch for somebody new to Joseph Gordon Lovitt.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
So obviously my answer is g I Joe The Rise
of Cobra, where Joseph Gordon Levitt plays Cobra Commander in
a Saran rap mask. That is the obvious answer here. No,
it is not, And I actually would probably am sitting
here with a lot of people saying Joseph Gordon Levitt
played Cobra commander. Yeah he did like straight up live

(24:52):
action too. Uh No, that is not my answer, though
that movie is better than it has any right to be.
I and I saw a movie in theaters. It's fine,
it's look. I probably have a soft spot in my
heart for Steven Summers. Okay, Steven Summers The Mummy. The
Mummy returns Van Helsing. I get it is kind of
part and parcel with that. But my actual choice that

(25:16):
I would go out on a bat for the person
who directed this movie went on to make a movie
that a lot of people really like that wouldn't shut
the fuck up about it for like a couple of years.
If they're probably they're probably still people now not shutting
the fuck up about it because it was such a
in a lot of ways, like it was such a
big thing when it came out and it is continued
to persist twenty ten's Hesher, which was directed by Spencer Susser,

(25:43):
who edited The Greatest Showman and was the second unit
director on the Greatest Showman, which is the movie that
has a very big influence that a lot of people
really like. But Hesher is the movie that he wrote
and directed, Spencer Susser, which has jg Ellen it and
he's like a metal head and he's is this your answer?

Speaker 3 (26:04):
It might have been boy something else.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
So so what's funny is we were talking before the
episode and you're like, one of my answers might be
your answer. I was not expecting it to be this,
but I guess I should have realized it might have been.
With the whole nettlehead thing of it all. Yep, it's
a great movie. You know, it's a great movie. It's
it's not necessarily an easy movie to watch because Joseph

(26:31):
Gordon Levitt's character is it's a complex character. But that's
why I enjoyed the movie. I mean, it's it's you know,
if you if you went to high school in the
nineties or two thousands, we all knew somebody like this,
and this is getting to see them continuing their life
past when you interacted with them when they went out

(26:51):
into the world, and who knows what happens to people
like that when they're given free reign to do what
they want. Yeah, I enjoy it. I'm I don't know,
as one of those movies that I just saw because
it seemed interesting, and I think when I was done
with it, I was like, huh, that was a lot
better than I had expected it to be. And it
has Natalie Portman in it, who I am a huge
fan of, and Rain Wilson, who I enjoy in everything

(27:14):
but The Office.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
He is great and six feet Under I will give
him that.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
Who Rain Wilson, Yeah, I didn't know he was in
six feet Under?

Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yeah? He I think he's in like a season and
a half and he plays a randomly creepy character that
ends up living with the main family six feet Under.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
Anyways, Rain Wilsons're right in the Rocker and Super.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
They're both amazing.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yes, the Super's great, Like, yeah, that's like the best
thing James Gun has ever done, probably as far as
I'm concerned. Oh, come on, it informs like everything he
does when he's finally given the opportunity to do it
with the real things, like.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
We already have a James gun episode skit.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
I know, I know, I know, just to the barrier
right here.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
So hesher is uh. It is a dirty, depressing, dark,
scuzzy like a sweaty movie and it works in every
single scene. Natalie Portman and Rain Wilson are playing these
incredible supporting characters. And I don't know what it is,

(28:28):
but this movie never gets brought up by anybody, but this,
like Natalie Portman is very real in this movie, and
this is this might be Rain Wilson's best performance, like
as as a real person type of situation.

Speaker 2 (28:46):
But play an elevated character from the open right right.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
The thing about this that we is just well made.
The music is top notch. Of course, when you're doing
a story like this, it has to be. But Joseph
Gordon Levitt delivers a career defining performance in this as
somebody that is going through it in every single scene,
and the way that you can tell all of the

(29:13):
emotions that he's battling on his face really shows how
much of an incredible actor he is. He gives one
hundred and ten percent that the movie's written well, it's
acted well, it's got a great ending, which doesn't happen
with a lot of movies like this, and so I
don't know, it's a gift that people haven't talked about,
and I really wish more people would watch it.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
I think it might be one of my favorite things
that Natalie Portman's in. Yeah, she's really good, Like, she's
good in it, and again, like you alluded to, it's
a serious role for Natalie Portman, and I Natalie Portman,
Natalie Portman isn't in a whole lot of funny stuff.
Like Natalie Portman is not like a funny actor. She's
like she's an actor actor. She makes interesting in Your Highness,

(29:56):
She's really good in Your Highness, but Your Highness is
like again, there's like a handful of those kinds of
movies that she's in. It's like, but I think I
think of her as a actor actor. Like when I
think of Natalie Portman, I think of her in Annihilation,
which is not my favorite thing that she's in, because like,
she's good in it, but there's so much else in

(30:17):
that movie going on that she just has to be good.
She doesn't have to be amazing. But yeah, Natalie Portman
is I'm waiting for somebody to pick her to do
that episode because it'll be interesting because, similarly to Ryan
Reynolds and jgl she makes a lot of interesting choices.
But I think she is much more an actor with
a capital A in a lot of ways, like she

(30:40):
does a lot of stuff that is very high profile.
She has won an Academy Award deservedly, so, I mean,
black Swan is a movie that I've seen. It's fine,
doesn't necessarily do much for me, but I understood why
it won an award, and I understood why she was
nominated because she's great in it. But yeah, I'm waiting

(31:02):
for somebody to pick that because that we got. There's
a lot of places we can go, but this wouldn't
show up there because it's showing up here. Hesher is
a great movie. Not enough people have seen it.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
This next one, because I'm pivoting a little bit, is
is a little mainstream, but one that I feel like
people are not talking about anymore. And I get to
go back to our friend Ryan Johnson and discuss twenty
twelve's Looper. This movie is is good. We got a
Bruce Willis vehicle here, which is one of I believe

(31:34):
one of his last, like pretty great movies that he
did he started getting sick.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
Last like one of his last movie to come out
like in theaters proper.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
Yeah, yeah, probably. I haven't looked at a list of
his stuff in quite some time, but that would not
surprise me. This movie also has Emily Blunt, Paul Dano,
Piper Perabo, Jeff Daniels. It's got some names in this
but the main thing that people remember this for is
that the term Looper is based around time and time travel,

(32:06):
and unfortunately, there's some cgi fuckory coming on that has
like taken the whole reputation of this movie, and that
has turned into the only thing that people discuss, which
I gotta admit I get. They screwed with Jgl's face
to make him look like Bruce Willis a little bit
and it's a little weird, it's a little uncanny valley,
it's a little off putting. I imagine if they did

(32:28):
it in twenty twenty four, it probably would look a
lot better because stuff has changed so much in the
last twelve years, but also maybe not because they're treating
they're treating special effects artists worse and worse by the day,
so maybe it would be even worse. But the storyline
here is really great. Like I said, it's about time
loops and contract killers that are going you know, through

(32:52):
present day, going back in time, looking through all of
these criminal syndicates, trying to find somebody that they are hired.
And based on that, there is some really interesting things
that we don't see in a lot of other films.
There's a lot of very unique storylines here, and I
think it's got a pretty interesting ending, really well filmed. Again,

(33:14):
Ryan Johnson knows how to make a great movie and
he did it here. Unfortunately, I again, I think a
couple of things hurt this reputation more than it needed to.
The movie's well made, and it's it's a good performance
by jgl and Bruce Willis.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
And can I say how glad I am because we
both have answered with Ryan johnson movies that he has
been able to escape the kind of black hole that
was that Star Wars movie and the debacle and fiasco.
They're like, look again, Ryan Johnson can do whatever he wants,
say whatever he wants to whomever he wants, literally, and

(33:52):
he did. And that's the problem kind of making it
a making it a point to piss off Star Wars
fans is a bad idea, not because they don't deserve
to be pissed off, but just why at this point,
Like what are you? What are you going to do
other than set them set your film up for failure

(34:14):
either way. And it's a shame because I understand what
Ryan Johnson was getting at, because I would feel the
same way, just like you would if someone gave me
the opportunity to make a Star Wars movie. I'm not
sure if I just want to make New Hope again
like JJ Abrams did, but Ryan Johnson said, I want
to do whatever I want to do. And you know,

(34:36):
again not saying it's a good or bad thing, but
with something like Star Wars, be careful because unlike Brick
or Knives Out, which have fan bases, they're not fan
bases with a capital F. People that have like radicalized
and weaponized themselves for their love of Star Wars to
the point where they're willing to fight with you on
the Internet and make hours long videos about the faings

(35:00):
of the Last Jedi and it's like, man, you really
hate this movie. And then that translates into the director
because he painted a target on his forehead. But in
a lot of ways, JGL and Ryan Johnson will always
be intrinsically linked because Ryan Johnson directed JGL in his
first movie, and then he would go on to direct
him in Looper. He would be in The Last Jedi

(35:20):
as a voice cameo. I think he's been.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
He's been both of The Night that movie or Knives
Out movies too.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Right, Like JGL and Ryan Johnson must like each other
because they keep working together, even if it's in a
diminished capacity. So they kind of can't talk about JGL
without talking about Ryan Johnson.

Speaker 1 (35:38):
It's a good call, good caller. Yeah, Yeah, clearly they
must be friendly. And uh, you know the fact that
they've worked together so many times, the respect clearly goes
both ways. So I'm glad they've They've had so many opportunities.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
I would like for Joseph Gordon Levitt honestly to show
up on Uh oh no, he did. Never mind. I
was about to say, like, wasn't he in poker Face,
which is the best thing that I think Ryan Johnson's
ever done? And he was in poker Face in one
of the episodes. I just forget. I forgot that he
was in I was like, isn't he in that? Yeah,
poker Face is great. That honestly, Like if we're talking,
like just again Ryan Johnson here at the moment, that's

(36:14):
probably my favorite thing that he's done, because boyd, that's
just Colombo with Natasha Leone, which I'm here for.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
I need to see boker Face, you do.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
It's really really good.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
That in Yellow Jackets is high up on my list.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
Yes, I've heard, I've heard Yellow Jackets is good, but
I have not seen it.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
All Right, my friend, Uh, if we're going to get
into our third question, are there any anything else from
JGL that you want to bring up?

Speaker 2 (36:41):
Yeah, I want to bring up one of the movies
I've covered on the Culture Cast that he was in, uh,
nineteen ninety four as Leonard Meimoy directed Holy Matrimony, where
a child Joseph Gordon Levitt, marys an on the run
adult Patricia Arquette. Because they're Quakers. What are they Quaker's
Hutterites is what it is? Directed by Leonard Nimoy. The

(37:04):
concept of the movie is completely fucking insane. Joseph Gordon
Levitt and Patricia Arqutt are woman and child married together.
You've seen the movie The Witness, it's like that, but Dumb.
I don't know, like it's it's not a great movie.
It's frankly, it's not a good movie. I'm not even
advocating anybody watch it. But it's a strange movie that

(37:26):
feels like it could only exist in the nineties. Okay,
because a child marrying an adult. The optics of that
are bad anyway you cut it. And then the fact
that the movie just kind of hangs a lantern on
it and is like, well, that's that's the whole movie.
And then he falls in love with her too. Oh no,
I'm good, Leonard Nimoy, you have directed other things. This

(37:48):
was not the best thing you directed.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
Yeah, oh boy, uh Witness, but Dumb might be the
funniest thing I've heard.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
It's what it feels like. It's just like, just man,
I just I have such a hard time with Holy Matrimony.
It's just a h.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
Search for a Spock is better? And Leonard Nymore directed that.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
Anything else? Is that the main thing that you wanted
to wax spot it Broum.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
I don't know. I mean, Jessic Gordon Love It's been
in a lot of things. He was in that bike
movie where he's like biking around New York City that
rush He's also he has done kind of the Capital
a actor thing with was he Snowdon Snowden and uh
Philippe Petite, the guy who walked the World Trade Center.

(38:44):
That was a that was that was a mechas joint
aim and aiming and angling for an oscar?

Speaker 1 (38:50):
Is that a mechus?

Speaker 2 (38:51):
Yeah? I think so it was. Yeah. Bobby z as
they call him, one of the producers on Tales from
the Crypt, huge fan of horror that Robert Zamachus, I've
been told and I actually I'm surprised neither one of
us brought it up. But a movie that again got
rave reviews when it came out. I tried watching it.

(39:12):
I just couldn't get into it. But I'm sure that
other people enjoy it. Don John, I.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
Was gonna bring it up in my transition to the
next question, Actually, Don John, is it's a movie that
was looked down on by a lot of people, primarily
because it's about Poored and the movie itself is pretty good.
I liked it quite a bit. The worst thing about it,
there's some really terrible accents in this movie, but Other

(39:39):
than that, the movie is pretty enjoyable and it's it
doesn't really look down on anything, which is really great.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
Actually it's just a modern reads telling of Don Juan,
Like that's all it is. And you know, I think,
at least for me, would be remiss to mention he
is in the worst of the three Nolan Batman movies
and the way that they integrate him as Robin is dumb.
It is I will say it here now the word
to use is dumb. It feels, it feels so ham

(40:08):
fisted and so forced. And again it goes nowhere like
that that was made clear that that was the last
Nolan movie, So what does it matter? And I've even
seen him talk about it after the fact, like years
after the fact, and someone asked him like, well, did
did they have an idea to do something with you afterwards?

(40:28):
And he was like, nope, that sucks, Like I just
I don't know. He was the least necessary addition to
that film in a film that has a lot of
unnecessary characters in it. I mean, that movie is chock
full of people, Like if you think it's just the
Baine movie, it ain't just the Bain movie. There's Catwoman

(40:49):
there's tali al Goouol, There's Robin there's uh scarecrows in
that movie, just like way too much going on and
Joseph Gordon Levitt being and it does nothing. I think
Premium Rush came out the same year, much more interesting
movie than Dark Knight Rises.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
A couple other things. I know that we alluded to
it earlier, but five hundred days this summer, it's a
good movie. You take the belief that you might want
to Manic Pixie dream Girl out of it, and what
has left has some very good acting in a decent story.
Maybe now that you've talked about Don John the only
one that I feel like we really need to give

(41:31):
a little bit of highlight to which I have a
feeling you've never seen it. That is going to be
two thousand and four's Mysterious Skin. Have you seen this one?

Speaker 2 (41:38):
I have not.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
So this is a Gregor Rocki film, which that means
that it is made for a very specific audience. This
is the story about two boys who were both abused
sexually as kids, and it affects how their lives are
like weaved into their young adulthood. One become rather reckless

(42:03):
and make some interesting choices. That's Joseph Gordon Levitt and
then the other played by Brady Corbett. He becomes this
like weird recluse and you kind of have to see
it to understand the entire thing. But the movie is
made very well. Michelle Trachenberg is in it, plays a

(42:24):
great part. It's It's got a really great reputation for
how it portrays child sex abuse and how it affects people.
This movie is really well done. Again, like an indie
Darling of the early two thousands, one that has a
huge fan base. Gregor Rocky's films have affected quite a
few and have not been super easy to see, so

(42:47):
not a lot of people that are into film or
getting into film have seen these necessarily. But Mysterious Skin
is one that I I kind of hesitate to give
as one of the answers for the first two questions,
primarily because it doesn't really it doesn't really capture the
rest of his career in a great way. But it
is an excellent performance in a really great, harrowing, sort

(43:11):
of depressing, crazy movie.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
Greg Iraki is a fantastic arbiter of being gay in
the industry and doing it right and standing up for
being gay in the industry. Yeah, he I know. He
directed an episode of Dahmer because again they were trying
to get, you know, people that were marginalized by Dahmer

(43:36):
to direct things. So Asian American obviously it's a pretty
big one. I don't necessarily think that worked very well
because that show still is just as many problems as
they were trying to avoid. But I will say two
thousand and seven Smiley Face pretty fucking weird movie for
Greg Rocky to have made, because that's a funny, weird movie.
Speaking of Anna fairis there you go? Anna fairris An

(43:59):
A Fairis? Chris Pratt? What are you doing?

Speaker 1 (44:01):
Pal?

Speaker 2 (44:02):
Still? I never will understand it. I will never you
know what I do? I question tangent, but a question.
We've brought this, We've brought some of these people up
this evening, in and out of recording. What's more unconscionable
Chris Pratt and Anna Faris or Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
Probably Chris Pratt.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
For me, I have to go with Ben Affleck because
Jennifer Garner seems like like a genuinely amazing human being
the O so is Anna Faris for that matter. Like
I'm not saying she's not, but like the only reason.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
I lean towards him is because it wasn't just that
sounds like marginalizing, but it's not. It wasn't only the
wife that became victimized, like it was his entire fan
base in a way, like he he he made a
hard right turn from wife and what he was doing
into religion and the schwar to Niggers.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
I mean, his father in law is now Arnold Schwarzenegger,
which has to be one of the fucking most bizarre
setups you could have. I know my father in law,
he's not Arnold Swarzenegger. If I imagine my father in
law is Arnold Schwarzenegger, I would be terrified.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
Even now my father in law is also a hard
rite Anyways.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
Yeah, Gregor Rocky not someone we're gonna do an episode
on because not enough movies. Not enough movies?

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Is he not made more than five? Right?

Speaker 2 (45:33):
He's more more than five. I mean the other thing
is trying to see all of them is probably the
bigger issue.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
I think people that are queer that are coming onto
our show, like myself and others, I have not heard
them saying Gregor Rocky is someone I want to talk about.
There are other queer icons that are much more out
in the open publicly for everybody to see.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
I just checked the list. There's literally five that are
like semi large names.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
Right, that's what.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
Yeah, that's great directly, all right.

Speaker 2 (46:01):
I mean again, smiley face is a fun one if
that's if if you want to check out something that's
not depressing, Smiley face mysterious Skin sounds pretty depressing. Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
Uh literally, he's like, he's got a trio films that
he's referred to as the tin Apocalypse Trilogy. That's just
the thing that he does. So let's go into our
third question about Joseph Gordon Levitt and not Gregor Roki.
What is the biggest impact the subject has had on
pop culture? Chris, do you have an answer for this
or should I fully bulldoze into mind?

Speaker 2 (46:36):
I have an answer, and I think, again, this is
like the easy way out only because again this was
not this was your episode idea, so I know that
you're going to have a more nuanced answer. My answer
is I feel like he has set a good example
for what it means to be a child actor turned
adult actor. That doesn't one of the best lose their

(47:01):
mind become you know, substance, you know abuse substances. Not
making a moral judgment on anyone who has. I was
never famous as a child, so I don't know what
the fuck that feels like. I'm fucked up as an adult,
so I know what that feels like now. But I
was fucked up on my own. I wasn't fucked up
in the industry like so many kids work, because again,
a child working in this industry, let alone adults like you,

(47:25):
hear the dynamic between adults in the industry. God knows
the dynamic between kids and adults. I think Joseph Gordon
Levitt has done a good job at being a positive
force for you can be an actor, You can be
a child actor, you can transition to being an adult actor,
and you can also go and do life stuff like
you alluded to. He went to Columbia. Did he drop out, Yes,

(47:47):
but he did decide to go there for a while,
so you know, and again he makes interesting choices. I
think he's a good example of what it looks like
to be a modern day actor. Isn't problematic, has been
able to navigate his He's an actor his entire life essentially,
Like that's his one gig pretty much. He's been an

(48:08):
actor since he was a kid, so there's been nothing
else for Joseph Gordon Levitt to do. He's diversified himself
into music and other things by his own choice. But
he was a child actor made good and that is
fucking count on two hands one hand. Child actors made
good from his time and a place. Now, that's a

(48:28):
different story. Child actors made good now is like Miranda
Cosgrove or what's Jeanett McCurdy another one?

Speaker 1 (48:37):
I mean both from my gas.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
Yeah, they did. And that's the thing like Joseph Gordon
Levitt probably has too. Whenever he writes his book about
his life, it'll probably have all sorts of wild stories
in it. But again, he doesn't seem to be strung out.
He doesn't seem to be not taking care of himself.
They're not finding him in an alley wit two in
the morning in La scrounging looking for banana peels or something.
He's seems to be well adjusted. So that's for someone

(49:03):
like that in this industry, that is not something to ignore.
That is something to be again proud of. Into kind
of lawed.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
I agree. I would also like to point out the
I'm sure you're not fully aware slightly insensitive considering what
happened to his brother in twenty ten, his brother was
found dead in Hollywood. His brother was thirty six years old.
The LA Coroner's office came back and said that it

(49:33):
was from ketamine intoxication because of an overdose, and JGL
has publicly disputed that it was a drug overdose. So
we don't really know what happened there. And the crazy
thing is his brother played a big part in what
my answer is for part three. I'm gonna get on
a little bit of a soapbox for a moment because

(49:54):
this is This is probably the main reason why I
chose to do this episode for our show at all.
Joseph Gordon Levitt is one of my biggest inspirations and
the main reason is because of something he has done
with his brother called Hit Record. Hit Record is what
I think is his biggest impact on pop culture and

(50:16):
hit Record is a collaborative media platform that he made
with his brother, and it started out as like I
think it was two thousand and five ish, so like
right before YouTube got big, and basically started out as
we're gonna post videos and get feedback from people on
our videos for movie ideas, for like little bit parts,

(50:38):
little sketches could be music related, all kinds of that stuff,
and just be able to get that one to one
feedback from fans literally, and it turned into we're gonna
work with people to make films. The movie Don John
was written and directed by Joe as a part of
Hit Record and collaborating with the people with ideas, with feedback,

(51:02):
with like script revisions, with writing help, and it turned
out pretty good. And it was because of this network
that he had made where all these people joined together
to make a product and he was the main collaborator
on that product. So his name is there as the
writer and the director. But I have sort of wanted

(51:24):
to be a very similar situation. A lot of the
stuff that I've done for like this media network that
I've started with a podcast network and a YouTube channel
and a magazine printing all that stuff, a lot of
that has come from watching what he's done with Hit
Record and seeing how people working together can be stronger

(51:44):
than the voice of one person, and the way that
you can can work together to inspire each other to
motivate each other. Is such an important story that you know,
it gets told to us as kids, but till you
see evidence of it, it's not something that a lot
of us can rely on. It's not something that a

(52:05):
lot of us can believe, especially if you're a rather
cynical person like myself.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
But you're cynical.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
No, When you put yourself in a situation surrounded by
people that are smarter than you, you can feel like
you're pushed to new heights. And through watching him, I've
found you. I've found my collaborative partner for someone's favorite
with doctor Will Dotson, I've found Erica Schultz, who is

(52:34):
an incredible writer and has helped me with all kinds
of things. All of these people are because I was
inspired by his ability to find good people to work with.
And I don't think my life would be the same
if he had not done that.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
It's a hell of an answer. Look to your point
about collaboration and the collaborative spirit being important for you,
I mean, I'm right there with you. I you know,
and look Joseph Gordon Levit's work with Ryan Johnson a
bunch of times, so that right there alone, even outside
of hit record. You have someone who appreciates the collaborative
process clearly because he goes and works with the same

(53:13):
guy multiple times. So being this guy for the industry
is a good thing. Carving out a little section of
the world for yourself and the things that you want
to do is admirable. I mean, look, actors creating production
companies are a dime a dozen really, Like I mean,
every every big name or halfway big name actor has

(53:34):
their own production company or or they've co founded one
with two other actors type thing. But again, Joseph Gordon
Levitt seems more interested in engaging directly with people like
yourself and myself and less necessarily the bigger industry as
it were. And bridging that gap is something that's important

(53:54):
because that's not easy to do, and it really has
to come from his direction to Matt. It has toff
come from his direction to us because then it's like, well,
it's kind of you know, legitimizing everything too, And I mean,
clearly that's what he's aiming for, is to democratize the process.
I mean, he's been in the process for so long.
The last thing you want to do is keep people out,

(54:16):
I would think, But maybe what do I know.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
Yeah, I get it. There's a lot here. There's a
lot that you can find in his filmography, there's a
lot that you can find in him as a person,
And there's something about all of this that just feels positive,
positive in a way that you are like proud to support,

(54:40):
positive in a way that makes you proud to have
grown up in like almost at the same time, like,
I'm only six years younger than so right watching his journey.
When I was old enough to watch his films, he
was just barely older than me. So angels in the
outfield was like, oh, like that, he's just barely older
than me. I can go out and do this right

(55:01):
now if I really want.

Speaker 2 (55:02):
Right, you could have been a child actor. Any one
of us could have been. Theoretically, he just was.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
The way that Hit Record has made books, made DVDs,
made music CDs. There's been Hit Record TV, which is
this big thing that they were doing for quite some time.
It is continued to be this entity for a long time.
And when you think about the fact that YouTube wasn't
a thing when this first started, like that's a completely

(55:32):
different world. And for something like this to grow with
the world, I kind of feel like he was right
at the perfect time, hitting the cusp of the collaborative
medium that we have today, which is like harnessing the
Internet as a creator, which there's still people that don't
understand how to use it properly now, So without this

(55:55):
group that he made, I mean, the worst thing that
I didn't say at the beginning, this came in one
of those like acting droughts that he had. He just
didn't have roles, and he's like, well, if nobody's gonna
give me a role, I'm gonna go out and fucking
do it myself. Make there and that thing. Like we've
talked about that on past episodes before. If it's not
gonna happen for you, you gotta make it happen. Sometimes no,

(56:18):
not sometimes you have to make it happen.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
H go, if I ever write a book, it's just
we call go do the damn thing, because that's all
this is like the only way to know if you
like this, the only way to know if you want
to do this, the only way to know anything in
life really, but this kind of thing specifically is to
go and do it. Just hit record, as he would say,

(56:41):
absolutely it's the truth. I mean, sometimes doing it is.
Just getting to the point where you do something for
a lot of people is not easy. I think you
and I and plenty of other people we work with
take it for granted. Then we could just be like, oh,
let's sit down and do a podcast, and we're all
so entertaining and we're all so good at this. It's like,
what are the other people doing right? Right? Because theoretically

(57:04):
nothing is stopping anyone from doing anything. It's just the
will to do it.

Speaker 1 (57:09):
We've all got cell phones, We've all got the ability
to record a podcast no matter where we are.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
Yeah, there are apps on your phone right now that
you could record a podcast. It might sound even better
than this one right now because it's using current production.
Things build into it. We have to run this stuff
through post production. There are people that just on your
iPhone you can get studio quality sound recorded. It's not
that unrealistic anymore. Yeah, And why isn't everybody doing it?

(57:34):
Is the question, And the answer is because it ain't easy,
and it ain't easy to do it well. You can
do it, but doing it well is another thing.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
Well, even just taking that first step and literally hitting
record is one of the most difficult thing for one
of the most difficult things for a lot of people,
because ideas are kind of a dollar a dozen, and
when you take that step to actually produce something and
put yourself out there, that costs just so much more,

(58:04):
especially for people that have never put themselves out there
in any way. The amount of rebuke that you could get,
the amount of negative feedback that you may not be
ready for, the amount of you know, you've never had
people on the internet attack your appearance like I have.
There's so many ways that there's everybody out there is
going to rip you apart, but there could be three

(58:27):
point eight million people ready to completely agree and worship
your viewpoints on whatever you want to talk about.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
And change your life completely.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
So hit record and see what happens.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
Do the damn thing. If anyone listening to this wants
to start their own podcast. The only piece of advice
that I can give you for free, Aha.

Speaker 1 (58:46):
Just kidding.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
I give you plenty of advice for free, but the
piece of advice that I can share quickly and easily
is if you want to do it, just do the
damn thing. See what happens maybe, and you'll figure it
out as you go. But plan ahead, take as much
into account as you can ahead of time, but just
do the damn thing and see what happens. And yeah,
that's We're not fucking rocket scientists here, not at all.

(59:09):
We just have microphones in front of our faces.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
Well, Chris, do you even have an answer? What is
a cinematic bridge? This is our fourth question? What's a
cinematic bridge to Joseph Gordon Levit? Is there anybody like him?
That you would say? If people like their films, they
might like Joseph Gordon Levitz.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
I will say someone who strikes me similar in tone
to Joseph Gordon Levitt, someone who has been working in
the industry for a while, maybe not as long, but
seems like a good arbiter of the industry as well,
is able to move within the industry as a director,
as a screenwriter, as an actor. It's kind of like

(59:50):
older Joseph Gordon Levitt, but only older by a couple
of years. If you resonate with John Krasinsky, you'll probably
resonate with Joseph Gordon Levitt. Both seemingly very nice people
both in reality, and most of the time, if not
all the time, they're never playing the villain. In anything.
They're often like the person that you, as an audience

(01:00:11):
member are meant to sympathize or empathize with. And John
Krasinsky just strikes me as older Joseph Gordon Levitt. You know,
it's directed, he's written, he's acted, and kind of do
all of them shown himself to be someone that can
be creative in multiple facets. Maybe it's not the best answer.

(01:00:32):
There aren't a lot of John Krazinsky movies out there,
but you know, John Krasinsky as an actor I think
has a similar vibe to Joseph Gordon Levin.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
I could see that. I kind of funny enough, went
the exact same weight, like somebody that's a little older
that feels like him. Unfortunately, mine had some issues that
shortened his career, which has led to us not knowing
if you could have had the same vibe. I feel
like if he had not had had to deal with Parkinson's,

(01:01:01):
Michael J. Fox would have had a very very long run,
like Joseph Gordon Levitt, of interesting choices, of positive contributions.
And obviously Michael J. Fox has done a lot for
Parkinson's research and his foundation, but the way that he
was always collaborating, always giving back, always, Like you know,

(01:01:25):
in that documentary that came out just a couple of
years ago, you find out things like him shooting Family
Ties and leaving and shooting back to the future at
night and then waking up a couple hours later by
somebody literally like shaking him in bed saying it's time
to go to go back to family Ties. That is

(01:01:46):
the amount of sacrifices that he is making in that life.

Speaker 2 (01:01:49):
That sounds amazing, well and beyond doesn't that sound amazing?
Though it does, doesn't it? Like that's what's fucking crazy.
And maybe I'm just fucked up in the head, But like,
can you imagine being like I'm going to work in
the morning on the TV show that I'm the star of,
and then at night I get to go be an
actor in a movie that I'm the star in and
I get to sleep four hours. But I'm getting to

(01:02:10):
do what I love for a living all day. Like
fucking sign me up, brother, Like I'll sleep when I'm dead.
At this point, what's.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
Crazy is at that time, he didn't even know he
was the star yet. He was doing this just to set.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
I know. But back to the future, I mean we
all knew. Everybody, Yeah, everybody knows. Actually, what's interesting is
there's another actor whose name I would like to throw
into the pot. But obviously the amount that we have
is been truncated unfortunately due to life choices. Heath Ledger,

(01:02:47):
similar to jgl seemingly a good guy, seemingly willing to
collaborate and be collaborative, working on things that most people
would not have thought he'd be working on that Joker role,
his final role a big indicator of that. But Heath
Ledger also, I really wonder what life would have been
like if Heath Ledger was still around, because he was

(01:03:07):
not even hitting his stride yet as an actor, like
if he God, yeah, I mean, look, The Dark Knight Rises,
the movie that jag Ella is in, is a completely
different movie, if not a worse movie, because Heath Ledger
passed away after The Dark Knight because he was meant
to be in The Dark Knight Rises clearly, clearly they

(01:03:30):
left him alive at the end of that movie, So
I don't know. Heath Ledger, I think is another interesting
comparison in terms of kind of a younger actor who's
working and then becomes an adult and is.

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
Working On top of that, they were both in a
Nolan Batman movie, and they were both in Ten Things
I Hate About You together and their interactions are amazing.
I think this might even be the best of the
three picks that we just mentioned. Is this is a
strong choice.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
Heath Ledger is an actor who I really like a
lot more than I probably realize, and it it does
bum me out because he is one of the first
actors I really remember dying from od ing. It was
like him and then like the other one obviously that
I mean, I don't know. For some people, it's gonna
be sadder than Heath Ledger is Philip Seymour Hoffman. I
mean that one hurts a lot too, because those are

(01:04:21):
those are two actors that are just like, do you
see the shit that they make? These are the things
that they make out of fucking nothing. Philip Seymour Hoffman
is like one of the best parts of Twister, a
movie that has a lot of really good parts, and
he's one of the best parts. I know he annoys
some people in that movie, but he's great. Like so
many actors taken so early because of just accidental overdoses,

(01:04:43):
like accident being the key phrase here like it's yeah,
it's it's really sad because Heath Ledger is you know,
thankfully we have JGL he's still around, but Heath Ledger
is one of those people who gone way, way, way
too soon.

Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
Man. Yeah, there's there's a lot that we could talk
about on that. I mean, the Britney Murphy, the River Phoenix,
River Phoenix.

Speaker 3 (01:05:07):
Anton Yelchin, oh my, oh my dude, antonone, even Anton
Yelchin is is sad in a way that is hard
to comprehend really, because.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
Like getting run over by your own car because the
assholes who made the fucking car didn't do a good
enough job with the break system is such an ignominious
way to die for anyone, let alone someone that hundreds
of thousands, yet millions of people knew. That's just so
fucked And he wasn't even the first person for it
to happen to. He was just the person it had

(01:05:37):
to happen to for them to do something about it,
which is even more fucked up. Yeah, Anton Yelchin is uugh.
Having just watched Green Room for the first time, Yeah, yeah,
And he's probably the best part of those Star Trek
movies that JJ abrams made like inspired casting to cast
Anton Yelchin. But yeah though that we could do a

(01:05:58):
whole episode about those actors in the movies that they
didn't get to be in.

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
Wow. Yeah, well this has been This has been a
fun episode. I'm glad that we decided to do it. Chris,
anything you want to share with the audience about GGL
or where to find you?

Speaker 2 (01:06:16):
No, I have a direction to go with JGL stuff,
and I guess I've seen more of his things than
I realized. So oops, oops, fuck me on that one.
Where you can find me and my episode on Holy
Matrimony the Joseph Gordon Levitt child marrying movie is over?

Speaker 1 (01:06:32):
Yeah? Is uh?

Speaker 2 (01:06:34):
Can you imagine them putting that on the box for
the movie Witness? But dumb uh. You can find everything
I work on at Weirdingwaymedia dot com, and you can
find a whole lot of things that I don't work on,
like Eighties TV Ladies, which is an award winning podcast,
The Feminine Critique, Twisted and Uncorked, the Projection Booth, Dark Destinations, Cambridge,

(01:06:55):
and Mashan. I could keep going, but you should instead
go over to Weirdingwaymedia dot com and check out the
whole host of shows that we have on offering there,
including this one What about You Ryan? Where can people
find you and the things that you work on?

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
Go ahead and go to your podcast provider and search
up the Disconnected. There you will find a physical media
focused podcast where I do a live show every Thursday
night and immediately after upload the audio as a podcast
where we go over all of the announcements for the
week for physical media, have a guest on to discuss
something about film that you will hopefully find interesting, but

(01:07:30):
then perhaps even more interesting if you're not into physical media.
Every Monday, I also post an interview with a industry
related professional, whether that be a critic, a director, a filmmaker,
an actor. I've had people on there like Sean Baker,
Todd Straus, Schulsen, Paul rust. I hope that there will
be somebody there that you will find interesting and yeah,

(01:07:53):
we would love to have you. And one big thing
that we don't talk about enough, we definitely want interaction
on the show. So if you got a feeling about
some of our answers, you got a feeling about your
own answers, let us know in the comments. Hit us
back with some feedback. Let's talk it out. If you're
watching this on YouTube, leave a comment. We want to
hear from you. Tell us what your answers are and
why ours are stupid.

Speaker 2 (01:08:14):
But either way, smash that like button, press that bell,
do all of those things as well, do the holy
trinity of things. And then if you wouldn't mind helping
us out, head on over to iTunes regardless of where
you're getting our show and review the show on iTunes. Please.
That helps us find more people who are not looking
around on YouTube for the show, but it also just

(01:08:34):
helps us in general. So do that. It costs you nothing,
helps us out immensely. Hey, you know that's your altruism
for the day, Joseph Gordon Levit's all about altruism and
doing a good turn daily. That's a boy Scout thing
or Scouts of America or whatever name they're masquerading under. Now,
just go and do that for us. You'll help us out,
and yeah, we'll appreciate you forever.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
We'll see on the next episode. Keep pushing those boundaries
and hit record

Speaker 3 (01:09:14):
Final