Joseph Gordon-Levitt biography and personal life

Biography

Joseph Gordon-Levitt became a movie star as a child. As a child, his peers considered him an upstart, although the guy worked his ass off and saw with his own eyes that working in Hollywood was far from the generally accepted, enviable ideas of glamor. Since then, the actor has earned Primetime Emmy Awards and Young Artist Awards, been nominated for a Golden Globe, has become accustomed to avoiding the press and has disliked laudatory articles. According to Joseph, it would be more correct to accept a person as he is, and not to “drive” him according to a list of certain requirements and standards.

Childhood and youth

Joseph Gordon-Levitt was born on February 17, 1981. Joseph's hometown was Los Angeles. The boy grew up in a Jewish family that was never strictly religious. The father of the future actor Denis Levitt and mother Jane Gordon worked together at one of the radio stations. In his youth, Joseph's parents were hippies and were of the opinion that a wife should not give up her last name upon marriage, which is why their son received a double last name.

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a child
My maternal grandfather Michael Gordon was a fairly famous film director. It is not surprising that from an early age Joseph Gordon-Levitt also began to join the world of cinema and television. At the age of 4, the boy began attending a musical theater group, where he first took part in the theatrical performance of “The Wizard of Oz” in the role of the Scarecrow.

During the performance, the little artist’s talent was noted by a casting agent, thanks to which Joseph soon starred in a peanut butter commercial and several other commercials. At the same time, he continued to participate in amateur musicals.

In the early 2000s, Joseph studied at Columbia University, by which time the young man was already a fairly famous actor.

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The Hollywood star was very friendly with his brother Daniel, who is 7 years older than him. The young man was professionally involved in photography and dancing, opened his own studio, and even received the nickname Flaming Dan for his unusual fiery artistic accompaniment to his performances. Relatives founded the company HitRECord, which helped young filmmakers realize their ideas.

In 2010, Dan died; the cause of death was not reported, but the tabloids rushed to voice their own version - drug addiction. Offended by such conclusions, Joseph called the journalists fools and refused to discuss this topic.

The beginning of the way

And the beginning was laid long before Joseph was born.
A love of art runs in the Gordon-Levitt family. The grandfather of the future actor was a director, whose filmography includes films that received Oscar nominations. Parents worked in radio. The elder brother was a fakir, the founder of a meditation school and a photographer. The future actor was born in Los Angeles in 1981 into an American-Jewish family. He was brought up in the spirit of pacifism. From 6 to 12 years old he did gymnastics. He received his education (French literature) at Columbia University, but did not graduate, sacrificing his diploma for the sake of filming. From early childhood he was interested in cinematography, theater, acting and dreamed of acting in films. Already at the age of 5, Joe took part in amateur musicals, and at seven his filmography began with the film “Not a Step Back.” This was followed by a dozen minor, unnoticeable roles in films and TV series. In 1992 - a short appearance in the famous “Beethoven” and the first big role in the drama “A River Flows Through It”. This was the beginning of success. Further, there were many films where Joseph Gordon-Levitt played teenage boys. Constantly acting, the actor, first of all, set himself the goal of developing.

Movies

Joseph Gordon-Levitt began his film career quite early. At the age of 7, the boy made his debut in the film “Not a Step Back.” He first appeared in a feature film in 1992 - it was the film “Beethoven”: the role of the young actor lasted only a few seconds. Then there was work in Robert Redfort’s film “A River Runs Through It,” and since 1996, Joseph began starring in the serial comedy “The Third Planet from the Sun,” this project brought the actor popularity and several awards.

Shay Astar and Joseph Gordon-Levitt / Still from the series “3rd Planet from the Sun”

After the broadcast of “The Third Planet from the Sun” ceased, Joseph Gordon-Levitt stopped acting for a short time, but after graduating from university, he returned to big cinema. From that point on, he worked mainly with independent directors.

In 1999, the actor starred in the comedy melodrama “10 Things I Hate About You,” which the creators position as a modern adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play “The Taming of the Shrew.” The main roles in the film were played by Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles.

In 2001, the guy actor received the main role in the psychological drama “Manic.” The film shows the problems of society through the prism of a psychiatric hospital.

Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt / Still from the film “10 Things I Hate About You”

In 2005, the film Mysterious Skin was released, in which Joseph played a homosexual street hustler. In the same year he appeared in the film “Brick”. In 2006, he was busy filming the films “The Forced War” and “Killer.” The next couple of years brought Gordon-Levitt only minor roles in not very popular films.

The 2009 indie comedy-drama 500 Days of Summer earned Gordon-Levitt a Golden Globe nomination. Joseph and his co-star Zooey Deschanel convincingly played a romantic relationship; after the film, fans began to spread rumors about the real romance of the stars, which their colleagues did not confirm.

Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt / Still from the film “500 Days of Summer”

The following year, the actor appeared in the arthouse drama Hesher, where he played a misanthrope who suddenly begins to care for orphan T.J.

2010 brought Gordon-Levitt a successful role in the science-fiction thriller Inception by Christopher Nolan. The film is based on the original idea of immersing yourself in other people's dreams. The team of main characters makes a living by stealing corporate secrets from the subconscious of other people. They are faced with a non-trivial task: not to steal information, but to infiltrate it.

The film ends with an ambiguous open ending. The main roles in the blockbuster were played by Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy and Marion Cotillard. The project won 4 “technical” Oscars: for cinematography, sound, scene editing and special effects.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tom Hardy / Still from the movie “Inception”

In 2011, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen played the main roles in the tragicomedy “50/50” (“Life is Beautiful”). The film tells the story of a young man who plays sports and avoids bad habits, but upon examination by a doctor he learns that he is terminally ill.

In 2012, the viewer could see his favorite in 4 films at once. Gordon-Levitt played Detective John Blake in the blockbuster comic book The Dark Knight Rises. When Joseph's name was announced in the cast of the upcoming film, fans were sure that the actor would play the Joker, who had previously been played by the deceased Heath Ledger. The main evidence for this rumor was the visual similarity of the performers. But the filmmakers did not replace one actor with another, showing respect to Ledger and moving the plot of the trilogy forward.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as John Blake / Still from The Dark Knight Rises

At the end of The Dark Knight, there is a hint that the character of Joseph becomes a kind of successor to Batman. There have been suggestions that the person who will play the role of defender of the weak in the following projects has been found. But Gordon-Levitt himself explained that the creator of the trilogy, Christian Bale, had already decided to end the story. Fans of the actor hoped that he would play Batman in Zack Snyder's Justice League, but the director chose Ben Affleck.

This was followed by the role of Robert Lincoln in the biography Lincoln. Two other films this year brought leading roles to Gordon-Levitt's treasury. The actor played cyclist Wiley in the film “Urgent Delivery.” But the audience especially remembered another film with Joseph’s participation - the science-fiction action film “Loop of Time.”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis / Still from the film “Looper”

In the time-traveling blockbuster, Gordon-Levitt played hitman Joe, who kills people sent from the future who are sentenced to execution by those who play the role of judges in the future. Joseph convincingly transformed into a brutal character, despite his not very tall height (176 cm) and his appearance, which is not suitable for a professional killer. The plot of the film begins with the fact that one day Joe’s target becomes himself, but 30 years older. The role of a killer from the future was played by Bruce Willis.

In 2013, the film “The Passion of Don Juan” was released, which became the actor’s directorial debut. Gordon-Levitt also wrote the script for the comedy film and played the lead role. The plot of the film tells about a modern womanizer who constantly gets into trouble. The project, with a modest budget for Hollywood of $3 million, grossed 10 times that amount at the box office.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Johnny / Still from the film “Sin City 2”

In 2014, Joseph received the leading role in the sequel to the noir-style detective thriller Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For. The film is based on Frank Miller's graphic novel Sin City. The film is distinguished by its unique color scheme and star cast: Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Bruce Willis, Eva Green, Lady Gaga and others.

In 2020, the actor appeared in the biopic “The Walk” by Robert Zemeckis. He played the role of French street tightrope walker Philippe Petit, who in 1974 walked without a safety net between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. The film is based on Petit's autobiography, Reach the Clouds.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden / Still from the film "Snowden"

In 2020, Gordon-Levitt played the lead role in the political thriller Snowden. The film is based on the biography of former CIA and NSA employee Edward Snowden, who leaked information to the press about intelligence services spying on citizens. The film is based on the books “The Snowden Files: The Story of the Most Wanted Man in the World” by Luke Harding and “Time of the Octopus” by Anatoly Kucherena. Joseph himself reacted with understanding to the action of his hero:

“It is the duty of any patriot not to allow his beloved country to do wrong things. I agree with him on this. I am grateful to fate that I was born and raised in America. But at the same time, I will not remain silent when I see that the principles on which our country is built are being trampled into the mud. The government should not be the only source of power. It's a servant. And people need to control it, which is what Snowden tried to do.”

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Gordon-Levitt is confident that the government is monitoring citizens using gadgets, so he installed several programs on his smartphone that he hopes will encrypt data transmission. It’s one thing when a person talks about himself, and quite another when information is collected without his knowledge.

In the winter of 2020, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was nominated for the Hasty Pudding Theatricals Award, one of the oldest in the United States in the field of culture, as, according to the commission’s formulation, “a figure who can look into the future and is able to create conditions that are revolutionary in their essence for the development of an artist’s creativity.”

Biography and creativity

Joseph Gordon-Levitt was born on February 17, 1981 in Los Angeles (California, USA) into a Jewish family that did not adhere to strict religious traditions[2]. His father, Dennis Levitt, worked for Pacifica Radio, and his mother, Jane Gordon, was a program editor for the same radio station. Joe had an older brother, Daniel, who passed away in 2010.

Joseph began his acting career at an early age: in 1988, he made his debut in the television movie “Not One Step Back.” His first role in a feature film came in 1992, Joseph appeared for a few seconds in the film Beethoven. He then played with Robert Redford in the film “A River Runs Through It” (another title is “And the River Rolls By”), and since 1996 he played in the popular television series “The Third Planet from the Sun” [3], for which he received two awards from the influential Hollywood publication The Hollywood Reporter and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In addition, Joseph played one of the leading roles in the successful comedy 10 Things I Hate About You, a quasi-Shakespearean modern youth film, where Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles appeared on the screen with him.

In 2001, after graduating as an actor from Columbia University and taking off the air of the series “The Third Planet from the Sun,” Joseph Gordon-Levitt almost completely switched to filming with independent directors. In 2005, the actor received widespread public recognition and positive reviews from critics around the world for his role as a street hustler in cult director Gregg Araki's Mysterious Skin. And a little later, Rian Johnson’s film “Brick” was released in limited release - a university detective story shot in the neo-noir genre, in which Joseph played a student investigating the mysterious death of his ex-girlfriend.

In the fall of 2006, the actor was busy filming the film “The Forced War” directed by Kimberly Pierce. In addition, Joseph can be seen as a hitman in the thriller “Killer” starring Diane Lane and Mickey Rourke.

In 2009, Joseph starred in the romantic comedy 500 Days of Summer with Zooey Deschanel. Gordon-Levitt plays lovestruck romantic Thomas Hanson

, for which he was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award and the Detroit Film Critics Society Awards.

In 2010, the film starring Gordon-Levitt, Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and Hesher, starring Natalie Portman, were released.

In the 2011 film Life is Beautiful, Joseph played a young man named Adam who learns that he has cancer.

2012 was rich in premieres with Joe's participation. In the summer, the final part of the trilogy about Bae was released. Gordon-Levitt again worked with Christopher Nolan and played officer and later detective John Blake. In August, the film "Urgent Delivery" was released, Joe played the main role. In September, the premiere of the film directed by Ryan Jones “Looper” took place. The role of the main character was specifically written for Joseph. In November, the film “Lincoln” was released in wide release, where he played the son of the 16th President of the United States.

In January 2013, the comedy film “The Passion of Don Juan” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, in which Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the director, screenwriter, and also starred. The film also stars Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore. In Russia, the film was released in wide cinemas in September 2013.

In 2014, the film “Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For” was released.

On September 22, 2014, the BBC Russian Service reported, citing American media, that Joseph Gordon-Levitt would play the role of ex-CIA officer Edward Snowden in a film directed by American film director Oliver Stone[4]. Oliver Stone acquired the rights to film adaptations of the books by lawyer Anatoly Kucherena “The Time of the Octopus” and Guardian newspaper journalist Luke Harding’s “The Snowden Files: The Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man” to work on the script for his still-untitled film[5]. On November 10, 2014, director Oliver Stone, in an interview with Channel One host Vladimir Pozner, when asked whether he would shoot this film in Russia, answered:

“I don’t plan to film it here in Russia. I've been working on a film about Edward Snowden for a year now, but we shot it in Europe and partly in the USA. This is a feature film. Starring the wonderful young actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, very talented[6].”

Personal life

Joseph Gordon-Levitt never shared much information about his personal life, despite this, some facts did become known. In 1999, during filming, he began a relationship with colleague Julia Stiles. The affair lasted 7 months, after which the guy began dating Larisa Oleynik, an actress whom he had known since the filming of “The Third Planet.” This relationship lasted 3 years.

Over the years, interest in Joseph's person grew, which became the reason for the emergence of a lot of rumors about his connections. Gordon-Levitt's relationships with actresses Evan Rachel Wood and Lucy Liu, model Devon Aoki, and dancer Lexi Hulme were actively discussed. After filming together, Gordon-Levitt was credited with having an affair with Scarlett Johansson.

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Scarlett Johansson
At the 2014 Oscars, the actor presented the Visual Effects category with Emma Watson and then took a selfie together. The Potter heroine was immediately listed as Joseph's potential girlfriend. A similar situation arose after the movie star’s photo shoot with top model Claudia Schiffer. Pictures of the couple, some of them very frivolous, were published in the American edition of GQ.

At one time, rumors spread in the yellow press about the actor’s gay orientation. This information, like the rumors about the listed novels, was not confirmed.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt now

As a director, Joseph is currently pursuing a project with his friend Channing Tatum, with whom he worked in the films Forced War and Krazy. In the new film, both will show their musical abilities, since, according to insiders, it will be a comedy musical, an adaptation of the 50s film “Guys and Dolls” with Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra. It is unknown when the film will appear in the actors’ filmography, since it was only in mid-2018 that Tatum completed filming the action film Triple Frontier.

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Yoda
The premiere of the drama “7500” about the hijacking of an airplane by terrorists has been announced for the summer of 2020. Gordon-Levitt replaced lead actor Paul Dano in the cast. The film crew is headed by German director Patrick Wohlrath, who was nominated for an Oscar in the short films section.

Together with another titled colleague, Jamie Foxx, the actor starred in a sci-fi film by Netflix, which does not yet have a title. Joseph plays an employee of a unit fighting the spread of a certain substance that gives people superpowers.

The dramatic film “The Case of the Chicago Seven” faces a difficult fate. At first, Steven Spielberg, who saw Heath Ledger in the leading role, agreed to take the director's chair. After the refusal of the first and the death of the second, the winner of various film awards, Aaron Sorkin, took on the task of filming the film. But at the end of 2018, production company Amblin Entertainment announced the suspension of filming for an indefinite period.

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The plot of the film centers on the trial of US citizens who opposed the Vietnam War and were accused of an anti-government conspiracy. In addition to Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the ensemble cast includes Sacha Baron-Cohen and Seth Rogen.

According to rumors, the man will play the main role and act as a producer of the film “Squad K,” dedicated to the far-right organization Ku Klux Klan. The screenplay will be written by playwright and Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Schenkkan.

Films of an already famous actor

The turning point was Gregg Araki's 2004 film Mysterious Skin . Joseph's work was appreciated by both television viewers and famous film critics. And the next year the success was repeated - the role in the crime thriller presented a different side to the talented guy. This was the reason that films with the actor in the title role began to actively appear in the filmography.

In 2007, the actor played the main character in Scott Frank's drama Deception, and a year later he appeared on screens as Private Tomy Burgess in the military drama Kimberly Pierce, in which he demonstrated his indifference to the topic of social problems in cinema. The next breakthrough in the actor’s filmography was the film “500 Days of Summer” by Marc Webb in 2009. For his skillfully played romanticism and recognition by thousands of fans around the world, he was nominated for an award from the DFCSA and the American Independent Spirit Film Award.

2010-2012 were very productive in Joe's life. The world saw him in different roles, he changed the main roles one after another. The following films from his filmography were successful at this time:

“Electra Lux” by Sebastian Gutierrez – 2010
“Inception” by Christopher Nolan – 2010
"Hasher" by Spencer Sasser - 2010
“Life is Beautiful” by Jonathan Levine – 2011
"The Dark Knight Rises" by Christopher Nolan - 2012

A real surprise for viewers was the film “The Passion of Don Juan”, which occupies a special place in the actor’s filmography - he directed and wrote the film, and at the same time played the role of the main character - he turned into a young man named John, who simply cannot live without porn. This project was so valuable to Joe that he was forced to abandon filming in the comedy Django Unchained by Quentin Tarantino.

In 2020, the world saw the biographical film “The Walk,” where Gordon-Levitt played the main character. The prototype of the character was Philippe Petit - a man who walked along a tightrope stretched between the twin towers.

The latest project in Joseph’s philography was the political thriller “Snowden,” filmed in 2020 by director Oliver Stone. The scandalous and long-awaited film from his filmography has further expanded the actor’s popularity, but he is not going to stop and loosen his grip. Having so many loyal fans, it becomes disrespectful not to continue to work on yourself.