Joseph Gordon-Levitt's life-changing Sundance saga began with a t-shirt (2023)

Joseph Gordon-Levittcan trace some of his most important, life-changing moments to a t-shirt from 32 years ago.

Long before he appeared in a film at the Sundance Film Festival and proved to the world (and himself) that he was more than just a child comedic star, and years before he got his first directing job there or broke his heartZooey Deschanelin(500 days of summer,or used it to pitch his homegrown crowdsourced storytelling platform HitRecord, Gordon-Levitt first heard about the festival through a souvenir from the Sundance Kid himself.

"There have been many meaningful occasions at Sundance for me," says the 41-year-old actor, who returns there this weekend with the musical dramaflora and son"But, you know, the first time I've everheardabout Sundance when I was 10 years old and I was thereA river flows throughdirected byRobert Redford.I remember he gave me a Sundance t-shirt and I didn't even know what it was."

That was in the summer of 1991, the year Redford's longtime film get-together in Utah rebranded itself with the name of his charismatic outlawButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.Over the next few years, the festival would shake up the entertainment industry by attracting outsider filmmakers such asQuentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez, Steven Soderbergh,andPaul Thomas Anderson— and countless others in the decades to come.

Gordon-Levitt idolized the festival as a teenager and dreamed of starring in a film that had Sundance's Hardscrabble indie credibility, and Redford's t-shirt gift was the start of that fascination. "I don't think he thought I would know," says Gordon-Levitt. "I was just a kid." This boy also had no idea how important the festival would become for him and his career. What follows are just a few of those memories.

"What would be cool is if I could find this shirt," says Gordon-Levitt.

2001 - Manic

Gordon-Levitt became a household name as one of the startled aliens posing as humans on the NBC sitcom3. stone from the sun,In 2001, however, the series ended after six seasons and the then 19-year-old was at a crossroads.

“I was very happy to be there3. Stone from the Sun.I loved the show, but it was very different from the movies I saw when I was that age," he saysReservoir Dogs, Sling Blade, Swinger,andSex, lies and videotapeto his favourites. "All I wanted to do was be a part of itthosetypes of films.”

They weren't all Sundance graduates, but the festival was considered the ultimate platform for this type of indie drama. It was the opposite of Hollywood's glamor, a proving ground for unknown or overlooked talent. "I just wanted to be in Sundance movies," Gordon-Levitt recalls. "AndNobodythought I could. They knew me as the child of3. Stone from the Sunand10 things I hate about youand even my agents would smile condescendingly at me and say, "What you have to do is get on another sitcom and you're going to make a lot of money." Or "Here's another light romantic comedy." I didn't want none of that. "

What he booked instead was a role as an explosive, erratic boy locked in a psychiatric ward with other struggling children in the dramaManic,actorDon Cheadleand his future(500 days of summerEmployee Deschanel. "I finally wanted to go to Sundance in a Sundance movie," says Gordon-Levitt. "It was my first time and it really was everything I was hoping for."

He wanted the "indie" experience - and he got it. “It wasn't at one of the bigger, nicer venues.Manicwas shot with digital camcorders, which were fairly new and of relatively low quality at the time. There was a subsection for these micro-budget digital films. But just being there was just so meaningful to me.”

IFC Films bought the film, but it wasn't a big sale and it didn't see a mass release. It showed that Gordon-Levitt had potential and proved something to the industry and to his own representatives as well. "That's all true," he adds. "And maybe even more important for myself."

2005 —brick andMysterious Skin

AfterManic,Gordon-Levitt enrolled in college and was still struggling to find work, but this film's Sundance debut gave him a calling card he didn't have before. "It changed everything for me," says Gordon-Levitt.

After seeing it, he says casting directorShannon Makhanianrecommended him to two filmmakers—Rian Johnson,now known forknife outandthe last jedi,andGregg Araki,best known for the cult favorite of Generation XDie Doom-Generation.They decided to give Gordon-Levitt the lead roles in their new films, and both projects brought him back to Sundance in 2005.

At Arakimysterious skin,Gordon-Levitt played a young prostitute dealing with a traumatic, abusive past in Johnson's neo-noirBrick,He was the hard-nosed high school version of Humphrey Bogart trying to solve the murder of a classmate.

"WhenManicplayed, it was almost more of a personal turning point than a career turning point. I still couldn't get roles in the films I'd wanted to be in for years," he says. "brickandmysterious skin,That's when things started to move in the industry. Sundance 2005, when those two movies came out, was the beginning of the industry that saw me as something bigger.”

brickwent into the festival with surprisingly low expectations, even from Gordon-Levitt's team.

"You know,brickis an unusual film even for Sundance,” says Gordon-Levitt with a laugh. "It was written in this highly stylized way by this boy named Rian that no one had ever heard of. I remember my agent and manager trying to meet my expectations at the time. They're like, "Well, it's really cool, but it's very, uh, you know...from the boxand we don't want you to get your hopes up about how audiences will take it. ' They clearly saw it and said, 'This isn't going anywhere.

But it was a crowd favorite at the festival and won a special jury award. "I remember watchingbrickgoing in for the first time with such expectations. When they sat in the audience, they were definitely in. They laughed in the funny parts, they were calm in the dramatic parts. You could feel this energy in the exciting parts. Itclearplayed."

2009 —(500 days of summerandSpark

As well asManicgot him rolesMysterious SkinandBrick,Those two movies led to him starring in two other movies - 2007The Lookout, directed byScott Frank(who would later help shapeThe Queen's Gambit) and 2010beginning,the literal mind-bender ofThe dark knightfilmmakersChristopher nolan.

Gordon-Levitt's return to Sundance came in 2009 with the big-budget film Fox Searchlight(500 days of summer,which reunited him with Deschanel in the story of a whirlwind romance that is not the love of either of their lives, but changes them both in meaningful ways. The bittersweet rom-com was like a lap of honor at the festival for Gordon-Levitt, who had struggled for so long to find a spot at Sundance. Now he was a recurring favorite.

"I remember being backstage and dressed sloppily, Sundance style, in jeans, and I think I was wearing an Obama shirt. Zooey wore a beautiful designer vintage dress and we had this moment. It's exactly what you think. Everyone loved it and it was exciting. But I think it's worth noting that in our culture we place a lot of value in those moments — the world is telling you that you're good. But those moments are fleeting. The moments that give me true joy when I think about them(500 days of summerYou're not at Sundance tonight when the world loves the movie. It's about editing and rehearsing the scenes and then shooting and doing take after take until we get it right. It's the creative process itself.”

Gordon-Levitt had gradually realized that he just loved making things, even more than showing things.

Also that year he made his Sundance debut with his first attempt at directing, the short filmSpark,withCarla Guginoas a suspected arsonistErich Stoltzas an insurance investigator. The visual effects were created using homemade paper crafts, adding a playful, almost innocent twist to the dark tale.

"It was based on a short story by Elmore Leonard, and I had recently acted in a film called Elmore Leonardkillshot'" Gordon Levitt recalled. "killshotThis is how you would normally write an Elmore Leonard short story. [Sparkwar]: What if you did an Elmore Leonard short story in one lotstrangerWise, with a bunch of cardboard cutouts and things like that. We had a great time. I'm still proud of itSpark.”

2010 – The launch of HitRecord

Sparkwas created under the banner of Gordon-Levitt's HitRecord project, which he created with his brother Dan as a unique breed of people-driven production company. It was conceived as a collective, open to anyone who wanted to collaborate, a crowd-sourced playground that produced music, stories and illustrations, sometimes weaving them into films.

Sundance provided HitRecord with studio space in the basement of a shopping center in Park City, Utah, to house cameras, computers, editing suites and other filmmaking tools. The idea was not just to make films for Sundance, but to make oneatsun dance. A reporter stopped by on the first day to see everything in motion. (Disclosure: I was that reporter.)

"Probably something you didn't know was that we made an effort to have internet," reveals Gordon-Levitt more than a decade later. "We put this whole big thing together and we've been planning forever, and it was this momentous start of that endeavor. And it was all based on the idea that we would be able to collaborate on various art projects with people from Sundance who have migrated to our premises and anyone else in the world who wants to participate online on our website.”

But the link was dead. "It still wasn't working and still wasn't working, and we launched that day — and itstilldidn't work. And my production partner,Jared Geller,ended up running a long, wacky wire from another store down into the basement. Everything started to worksecondsbefore you and I started our interview. Jared gave me the thumbs up and I seamlessly transitioned to "Come on! You can see this website we made!'”

The result of their weeks of effort:Morgan M. Morgansons Date mit Destiny,an old-fashioned story full of neologisms.

Gordon-Levitt and HitRecord returned to Sundance over the years as the collective grew and a television series was launched. But he also turned his attention to larger solo direction.

2013 —Don Jon

This film about a Jersey guy full of toxic masculinity was Gordon-Levitt's debut as a writer and director. He starred as the title characterScarlett Johanssonas the woman of his dreams who still can't live up to his warped, X-rated expectations.

"I've always wanted that," he says. "Directing a film starring Sundance. It was a life goal. Weirdly, I remember loving the experience of seeing the film, but one of the things I remember most afterwards is talking to my mom about the film.Don Jonis heavily concerned with the objectification of women—and men too—but my mother always raised my brother and I to focus on that. And I made a film about it, but in a roundabout way. It satirizes it and puts that objectification right in the face.”

"The film is running in Sundance, which is where I wanted to play it and it did well in front of a big audience and all that external validation was there. But when I think about that night, the first thing that comes to mind is a conversation I just had with my own mother," he says.

It would be years before his next big Sundance experience, but that too would involve a mother's story.

2023 —flora and son

Gordon-Levitt's latest film,flora and son,will debut on the opening weekend of this year's Sundance Film Festival.Eva Hewsonstars as a single mother in Dublin whose struggles to earn a living while raising a struggling boy have dashed most of her other hopes and dreams. She still holds onto music as a passion and Gordon-Levitt plays her online guitar teacher.

The musical is directedJohn Carney,the filmmaker behind the 2007 hit Sundance musicalOnce."He strikes a balance between the kind of magic that only a musical can produce, but also by grounding it in real, human, heartfelt life in a way that I think is quite unique," says Gordon-Levitt. “Finally making music in a film is meaningful to me in a new and different way. Even if it's more of a humble musical - that's more my style."

Despite his long history at Sundance, Gordon-Levitt says the annual gathering means more to him than just a platform to showcase his work. He considers it an inspiration and quotes something he once heard from the guy who gave him his first Sundance t-shirt.

"I would only agree with Mr. Redford when he tries to bring our focus back to the creative process itself," says Gordon-Levitt. "Ultimately, I think that's the spirit of Sundance. And the creative process itself is something people can have - you can have, I can have,anyonemay have - whether you come into Sundance or not come into Sundance. It doesn't always have to be the industry's elite clique. It can be anyone, anyone.”

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