In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast features in-depth conversations with today’s most noteworthy actors and creators. Join host and senior editor Vinnie Mancuso for this guide to living the creative life from those who are doing it every day.
More than two decades ago, Joseph Gordon-Levitt gave his collaborative creative community the name HitRecord not for its punchiness, but as a command. There is nothing the 41-year-old would like you (yes, you!) to do more right now than grab the nearest video equipment—camera, phone, laptop, whatever—and just make your art already.
“If you feel that attraction to the art of acting, then just do it. Fuck the career,” Gordon-Levitt says on In the Envelope. “If you want to pursue a career, that's great. Do that, too. But don’t let that interfere with the real pursuit. The real pursuit is your creative pursuit, and it’s one that happens inside of yourself. It’s not one that happens in Hollywood.”
It’s a concept Gordon-Levitt returns to often over the course of the conversation—the idea of forging a creative path independent of the Hollywood machine. It’s been on his mind lately as he digs into the lead role on Showtime’s “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber.” Gordon-Levitt plays Travis Kalanick, the real-life founder of the titular ride-sharing company. He’s a man juggling his ambition with the billion-dollar tech culture that often necessitates “ambition” to translate into, well, being a terrible person.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Uma Thurman in "Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber," Courtesy Showtime
It’s not a perfect one-to-one comparison to Gordon-Levitt himself, but he does recognize that push-pull oxymoron of wanting to be an artist and having to make money from your art. “I think we’re more and more conflating those two things: being an artist and being a professional entertainer,” he says.
To that end, he adds, “I don’t think you’re going to learn almost anything about acting unless you just do it…and you don’t have to do it in Hollywood. Show business does not have a monopoly on creativity. Acting is something you can do right now, by yourself. Pick up any book, and just start reading it out loud.”
The first step—besides, of course, just hitting record—is tracking down and learning the basics of editing software. Tinkering around with Final Cut Pro is what led Gordon-Levitt to drop out of Columbia in 2004 and return to acting after a four-year hiatus. That spark of ambition has informed every move he’s taken since, from his Sundance-debuting short films to regular dips into Hollywood blockbusters, all the way up to “Super Pumped.”
“Learn to make your own things. Learn to shoot; learn to edit,” he says. “What you shouldn’t do is just wait around for professional show business to cast you in a role and limit your creativity to that. You can make great, great films on a phone. It takes work; it takes a lot of work. It’ll show you that the hard part of making a great film isn’t the millions of dollars in budget; that’s icing on the cake.”
Listen and subscribe to In the Envelope to hear our full conversation with Gordon-Levitt: