Joseph Gordon Levitt is going to play Cobra Commander in the live-action G.I. Joe movie. First, you'll see him in a much more realistic sort of war drama, Stop Loss. He plays a soldier dealing with post traumatic stress disorder after a stint in Iraq, while his commander faces getting sent back under the stop loss provision. Levitt was sure to give his current film its due while dropping tidbits about the next one along the way.

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CraveOnline: What drew you to Stop Loss and what did you relate to most about the character?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: Tommy's just about as different a character to my own personal stuff as I maybe have ever played. I was brought up by peace activists. I was blessed with a family that loved and supported me. Tommy I think was not so fortunate. This isn't in the movie but this is something I spoke about with Kim a lot. That speaks to her strength as a director that she took the time to figure out with me who this guy's dad is, who's this guy's mom, what was his life like before he enlisted, what does that mean, why does he enlist, what are those demons that he left at home that he's trying to cover up and that he has successfully covered up finding a new family of sorts in the military and Texas? How do those demons come back to get him when he returns home and does no longer get to be an outstanding soldier in Iraq because you can't be a soldier when you're back home. There's not people trying to kill you. You don't have a rifle, etc. Those things are all I think implicitly in the movie because I was thinking about them all day long but they're not explicitly addressed. That's Kim for you, that kind of thorough, in depth analysis of a character's psychology and personality is what she's all about, what she's so good at.

CraveOnline: How good a shot are you really?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: Not as good as Chann, I'm better than Vic. Some people took dates [to the firing range], right? It was like a date for some people. Texas. It's a bizarre love/hate relationship I have with guns. Mostly, they're machines designed to kill people and the more you have them around you, the more likely you are to get shot, but I gotta admit, it's an exhilarating thing to shoot a gun. It just is.

CraveOnline: Most of you have worked together before, right?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: Yeah, I worked with Channing before and Rob worked with Channing before.

CraveOnline: Any lasting relationships formed?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: Yeah, it's funny. Normally, the standard drill is you get really close with people when you work on a movie and then you probably don't see them again, or hardly. It's even rare to keep one friend from a movie. I swear to God, I'm good friends with Rob, with Vic, with Channing, with Ryan, with Abbie, with Mamie. I've seen all of them recently and they're all friends of mine. That's extremely, extremely rare and I think it just speaks to the fact that Kim cast a cool bunch of people and we all had an experience that was so intense and so positive together that we're still friends.

CraveOnline: Did you based Tommy on any real soldiers?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: Yeah, it was all based on people. We were hanging out with soldiers before shooting the movie, while shooting the movie. We were just hanging out with a couple of the guys we trained with last night. That was not only did I base my character on that, I couldn't have possibly done this movie without being able to soak up who they were and take all that I admired about them and try to put it into what I was doing.

CraveOnline: What was military training like?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: We slept for like three hours a night. We had to wake up and do an hour watch. It was like two hours outside of Austin just in the middle of absolutely nowhere.

CraveOnline: You had a really big gun, right?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: That's the military's sense of humor for you. They give the big gun to the small guy.

CraveOnline: Was the sergeant on the set?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: Yeah, I guess his credit officially is military advisor, Sgt. Major Jim Dever, as well as Mender and Quay under him. They were basically watching out every move and making sure that everything we did, from the way that we wore our cap to the way that we saluted to the way that we walked to the words that we used, that that was proper and buyable as soldiers.

CraveOnline: Did you do any research on stop loss?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: Yeah, I went to a recruitment office. Guy was really cool, really smart but if he could have gotten me to sign it immediately, he would have. He wouldn't have said, "You know, you maybe want to read that whole thing."

CraveOnline: Just for research?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: Yeah, just to check it out.

CraveOnline: They didn't recognize you?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: No, I'm a master of disguise.

CraveOnline: Talk about a very different kind of war movie, how is G.I. Joe going?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: G.I. Joe is not a war movie. I wouldn't call Stop Loss a war movie so much as a soldier movie because it's about guys coming home. It's not a movie about any political specific message or not trying to convince you. It's not really making any grand statements about the war because, and I think the reason for that is of all the soldiers that I got to know, and I got to know and got close to quite a few guys, they didn't have any simplistic unilateral opinions about "the war" in general. I think when you're actually over there, it changes. When you're getting shot at, all that matters to you is you want to get your buddies home safe and you want to get yourself home safe and that's it. Stop Loss is a story about these human beings. It's not about "the war." But G.I. Joe is just a fun day at the thrill park. That's all it is, and it's so much fun. It really is.

CraveOnline: Kids still play G.I. Joe today. What's it like playing for real?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: It feels a lot like being a kid actually. It really does.

CraveOnline: Is there any military accuracy whatsoever in it?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: It's not aimed at that, no. There's no boot camp, there's nothing military, it has nothing to do with reality in any way. They're shooting lasers.

CraveOnline: Were you a fan?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: No, I was a Thundercats kid.

CraveOnline: Are you giving an eye towards more commercial projects after doing so many indie films?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: To me, what's important is making a good movie and of course I want people to see it. Stop Loss will get much more exposure than some of the smaller movies that I did, but it was made with the same spirit as some of those tiny independent movies that I made. Kimberly Pierce is an artist. She's not doing this to make money. I don't think any of us were there to make money. In fact, I think, well, I don't know if this is exactly a fact, but I do know that none of us were there to make money. We all were doing it because we cared about it, believed in it and that's what matters to me.

CraveOnline: I think they want G.I. Joe to make money.

Joseph Gordon Levitt: Well, I wasn't talking about G.I. Joe. [Laughs]

CraveOnline: Do you have anything else coming up?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: I shot a movie over the summer called Uncertainty, a little independent movie that should be finished this year.

CraveOnline: Are you doing festivals with that?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: Yeah, hopefully. It's not done yet, but I think yeah, it'll do the festivals.

CraveOnline: Are you still in college?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: No.

CraveOnline: Did you Graduate?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: No.

CraveOnline: Will you go back?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: One day I think I'll go back.

CraveOnline: How long did you stay?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: I stayed about two years.

CraveOnline: At Columbia, right?

Joseph Gordon Levitt: Mm-hmm. I don't think I'll go back to school in the United States though. I'd like to go somewhere else.