Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been something of a rising star these past couple of years with excellent turns in (500) Days Of Summer, Inception and most recently cancer comedy 50/50. But now he’s looking to expand his horizons by directing a new comedy that he’ll star in with Scarlett Johansson.
Speaking to Deadline, JGL was fairly tight-lipped about plot details save that it’ll be about a modern-day Don Juan and his quest to become less of a “selfish dick”. He went on to say, “I wrote myself a helluva role, one that people wouldn’t necessarily have thought of me for”.
Asked if he had any reservations about watching himself on screen, he said that his work in short films had helped, “That’s a big part of what I’ve learned making and appearing in short films. It takes practice to get used to seeing yourself and not being freaked out and self conscious by the sound of your own voice.
He goes on to explain that it’s something that he’s always wanted to do, “I was a child actor for years and quit at 19, went to school awhile, and a big part of why I came back was that I ultimately wanted to make movies. I spent a year working with Chris Nolan, Rian Johnson, Steven Spielberg, and I did my best to pay attention. I’ve also been making short films for a long time now, I’ve directed a ton of them, and that is a huge part of why I feel comfortable and confident in this.”
It seems that others certainly have faith in him too as he’s locked in funding from The Hurt Locker‘s producer Nicolas Chartier’s Voltage Pictures.
It’ll be tough to slot it in to JGL’s busy schedule though as he’s got a ton of films coming up including Premium Rush, The Dark Knight Rises, Looper and Lincoln. He’s also acknowledged that it might also keep him out of the small part he has in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.
“It will be tricky schedule-wise, but I was honest with Quentin upfront,” he said. “He was so cool and encouraging. He said, ‘You strike me as the kind of guy who would want to direct,’ and I took that as high praise.”
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Well, we always thought JGL would go far – here’s our one-to-watch feature showing exactly how his star has risen.
