Joseph Gordon-Levitt Net Worth

Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Quotes

• The whole concept of celebrity pisses me off. While I'm not a celebrity, it's such a weird concept that society has cooked up for us. Astronauts and teachers are much more amazing than actors.
• Most scripts are bad. I read a lot of them. Brick (2005) was a good script just to read. It was like, "Oh my God, these words feel so good in my mouth". A lot of movies try to set up a world with cool sets, costumes, camera work. In Brick (2005), the world is born from the words.
• To me, a sex scene in a movie generally means a gratuitous scene that doesn't serve the story but gives a kind of excuse; we've got these two actors, we want to see them naked, so let's bring in the music and the soft light.
• Actors didn't use to be celebrities. A hundred years ago, they put the theaters next to the brothels. Actors were poor. Celebrities used to be kings and queens. Then the United States abolished monarchy, and now there's this coming together of show business and celebrity. I don't think it's healthy. I don't want to sound self-important, but all these celebrity shows and magazines--it comes from us, from Hollywood, from our country. We're the ones creating it. And I think it works in close step with a lot of other bad things that are happening in the world. It promotes greed, it promotes being selfish and it promotes this ladder, where you're a better person if you have more money. It's not at all about the work itself. Don't get me wrong. I love movies. But this myth of celebrity has nothing to do with movies.
• [in 2004, about Mysterious Skin (2004)] At the heart of the movie, to me, is there's these two characters that can have one horrible, traumatic experience but react to it in opposite ways and it shows how different people see things differently. Well, today, there's a president in my country that doesn't understand that and he thinks that if you don't see it exactly his way, you're wrong and evil. And that's not the way the world works. There can be one event but everybody who sees it sees it a little different or sees it a lot different and that's what the movies about and that's what damn "Dubya" [President George W. Bush] needs to understand. Or let him not understand it and go about his ways and go back to his ranch and never bother us again.

Interesting Facts about Joseph Gordon-Levitt

1. Joseph's parents, Jane Gordon and Dennis Levitt, met as political activists in California. Gordon ran for Congress, in 1970, with the Peace and Freedom Party. Both are founders of the Progressive Jewish Alliance.
2. Graduated from Van Nuys High School with honors in June 1999.
3. Began acting at the age of six with auditioning and landing small roles in commercials and television until he landed his breakout role in 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996).
4. Joseph's paternal grandfather, Milton Levitt, was born Milton Levitz in Ohio; Milton's father, Louis Levitz, was a Russian Jewish immigrant, and Milton's mother, Fraudel "Fannie" Isaacson, was born in 1894, in then-Ottoman Palestine, to a Russian Jewish family (that wave of movement to the area was known as the "First Aliyah"). Joseph's paternal grandmother, Celia Roth, was born in Pennsylvania, to Polish Jewish parents. Joseph's maternal grandfather, Michael Gordon, was born Irving Kunin Gordon in Maryland, to a Jewish family from Lithuania and Russia, while Joseph's maternal grandmother, Elizabeth A. Cohn, was born in Ohio, to a Romanian Jewish father and a Russian Jewish mother. Joseph's grandfather Michael Gordon was a prominent Hollywood film director, who directed such classic films as Cyrano de Bergerac (1950), Pillow Talk (1959), Portrait in Black (1960), and many others. His career was crippled when he was blacklisted during the McCarthy-era "Red Scare" panic that swept the US in the 1950s.
5. After spending six seasons on 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996), he attended Columbia University in New York City. He studied history, literature and French poetry.
6. Auditioned for the role of Elder Aaron Davis in Latter Days (2003) before winning the role of Elder Paul Ryder.
7. His favorite actors include Daniel Day-Lewis, Warren Oates, Gary Oldman, and Gena Rowlands.
8. He appeared in a preschool production of "The Wizard of Oz" before he began acting professionally.
9. Was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, but moved to New York City after attending college at Columbia University.
10. Good friends with Mysterious Skin (2004) co-star, Michelle Trachtenberg.
11. Was ranked #6 on Entertainment Weekly's '30 Under 30' the actors list (2008).
12. Had an older brother, Dan Gordon-Levitt, who passed away in October 2010. He was a photographer and a world-renowned fire spinner.
13. Joseph was nominated for a Tony Award in 2009 for Best Special Theatrical Event with his fellow producers of the Broadway show "Slava's Snowshow".
14. Originally, James Franco was set to play the role of Arthur in Inception (2010); however, due to scheduling conflicts, James was forced to drop out of the film and the director of the film, Christopher Nolan, later gave the role to Joseph.
15. Enjoys playing the drums and the guitar.
16. Good friends with Channing Tatum and David Krumholtz. Also friends with Leonardo DiCaprio, Zooey Deschanel, Anne Hathaway, and Emily Blunt.
17. Joseph is often said to bear a striking resemblance to his 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) co-star, Heath Ledger. Both actors also played significant roles in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy with Heath as Batman's nemesis, The Joker, in The Dark Knight (2008) and Joseph as Batman's ally, Officer John Blake, in The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
18. He has said that he has been told many times by producers that he needed to pack on some weight because he appeared "too skinny" on screen. He did bulk up recently, but only to more greatly resemble a young Bruce Willis in their film Looper (2012).
19. Speaks French.
20. He is entirely of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.