Joseph Gordon-Levitt Does GQ, is Angry at GQ

You guys, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is just adorable. I mean, first, come on. Look at these pictures. He goes beyond “adorable” territory and into “f-cking hot” territory in a matter of suits (check out the gallery—trust me: check out the gallery).

This is JGL on the cover of August 2012’s GQ, which featured Joe in a variety of three-piece suits and took him for an interview through his old stomping grounds in Van Nuys, California. Here’s a few great quotes from the interview.

At the ripe old age of thirty-one, Joseph (who prefers to be called ‘Joe’, apparently) wants to be younger:

“When I was younger, I wanted to be something. Now, I just want to be younger.”

And former 3rd Rock From the Sun costar, John Lithgow, on what it was like to work with a young JGL:

“It’s kind of extraordinary that he was playing an old man in a young boy’s body then, because that’s kind of what he was. He was a very mature boy—I remember him carrying on about the ecological damage that is done when people build new golf courses. What teenager worries about that? And now he’s a very youthful adult. He’s done a flip-flop.”

Another former co-star of Joe’s, Zooey Deschanel, on their long-term relationship and what it was like in the early years:

“A little bit of a contrarian” is the way Zooey Deschanel describes the Joe she first met on the set of the 2001 movie Manic. “Very intellectual. Very, very serious and very intense.” Joe, then 19, had just decided to quit acting and was headed to Columbia University to read Nabokov. Deschanel, meanwhile, had just dropped out of college to become an actor.

“We would joke about that. I would be like, ‘You hate movies.’ And he’d be like, ‘You hate books,’ ” she says. “The Joe that I knew back then, I would never think of him as having anything but wonderful qualities. But you would say something, and he would go, ‘What do you mean by that?’ Not a word went unexamined, you know?”

What JGL has to say about how “we” normal people “idolize” celebrities:

“I really don’t like this notion that some people are more important than other people. These stories about these elevated people called ‘celebrities’ teaches you that what you have to say doesn’t matter. It’s degrading.”

And last, Joseph Gordon-Levitt on what he was like as a young’un:

“I was a sort of serious little dude—snobby. I thought girls my age were very frustrating. They were, like, looking in their compact mirrors and shit, and I thought that was evil,” he says, adding that he was in danger of becoming “a hopeless ivory-tower douchebag. I’m a little more forgiving now. I’ve grown to laugh at myself a little bit more than I did.”

And this is what JGL had to say on his Tumblr about GQ discussing his brother’s death without his explicit permission, claiming that his 2010 death was a result of a drug overdose:

First of all, I’d like to thank both of the Jims and everyone else at GQ for putting me on the cover of their magazine this month. That kind of exposure is a huge help to all the work I love to do, and I’m deeply appreciative.

I’m writing this because I have a problem with what their article says about my brother. I’ll be honest, it really made me feel terrible. Here’s a quote:

‘…the elder Gordon-Levitt died of an alleged drug overdose in 2010. “It was an accident” is all Joe will say about that.’

Using the word “alleged” technically allows the writer to say whatever she wants. The “allegations” to which she must be referring were made by a handful of gossip websites. They are factually incorrect according to the coroner’s office and the police department. I don’t like publicly speaking about my brother’s death, but I’m making an exception to correct this irresponsible claim.

By the way, while I asked the writer not to dwell on how he died, I did say quite a bit about how he lived, and how much he means to me. Dan was a brightly positive, genuinely caring, and brilliantly inspiring person, and I liked the idea of such a wide readership learning about him. My parents and I are disappointed with what the article chose to focus on regarding this sensitive subject.

thanks
J

What can I say. Always eloquent, that JGL.