After intense movies like Mysterious Skin, Brick and The Lookout, Joseph Gordon-Levitt might not seem like Mr. Romantic Leading Man. (500) Days of Summer is a romantic-comedy more in the indie film tradition of his other movies. The film tells the story of Tom (Gordon-Levitt)’s relationship and break-up with Summer (Zooey Deschanel), out of order and with subjective film devices. If you’ve ever felt like you were Han Solo after scoring with a lady, then this movie knows what you’re thinking.
Crave Online: How different was it to work with Zooey Deschanel on a romantic comedy?
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: I’m delighted they made it with both of us. We showed them. Well, we’ve been friends for a long time. We did a movie together called Manic almost ten years ago which is really different from 500 Days of Summer. But, a movie I really love, it’s got Don Cheadle in it. That was the first time anyone let me be serious for a second. I remember when we were talking about it, how to approach it and what tone should we go with, because you could sort of elevate it. [She] really thought, ‘No, I think I want to just play it very real.” I think [she was] so right to do that because then, this sort of dreamy cinematic stuff is grounded in something that feels genuine.
Crave Online: How did you approach some of the whimsical aspects of the movie, like, you have to look right at the camera, you have to do the same scene in two different ways?
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: I love doing stuff like that. You don’t often get to break the fourth wall. Movies are so good for that, there’s a camera right there, why wouldn’t you look at it? For thousands of years of theater tradition, the fourth wall never was there, that’s pretty new actually, the idea that you ignore the audience is a new thing, it’s become entirely prevalent but it’s pretty new. I love kind of poking holes in that convention. That reality/expectations sequence, we had to be probably more conscious of our rhythm than you would in a normal scene, and [director Marc Webb] was really good at keeping us aware of, okay, so this bit has to happen in approximately this much time, because on the other screen, this thing is happening, you have to make room for it.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Well, even when we weren’t dancing, Marc still put on the Hall & Oates song for when we were shooting those strutting moments, and that helped.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: That’s a good question. I wanted to bring the same kind of honesty. I think a lot of movies that called comedies sort of shook the need to be emotionally honest. “Oh, it’s just a comedy, we’re just trying to make people laugh so we don’t have to feel anything.” And I think that’s exactly wrong.
Crave Online: Is this the anti-romantic comedy?
