He’s come a long way from “3rd Rock from the Sun,” and it doesn’t seem that there’s anything Joseph Gordon-Levitt is uncertain about. Gradually building a formidable resume in the last several years with challenging roles in worthy independent films, Gordon-Levitt says his project choices come naturally.
“It’s sort of like love,” he says. “You can’t make a checklist. It feels good when it’s good.”
One decision that was easy to make was agreeing to appear in “Uncertainty” — an unconventional film that is essentially two movies in one, showing both outcomes of a young couple’s decision to either visit family or go out for Dim Sum on a hot summer afternoon — one of which leads to a suspense-thriller chase, and the other plays out as a quiet family drama. The film’s dialogue was entirely improvised, offering Gordon-Levitt a unique opportunity to stretch his acting muscles.
“Even just the audition felt like some of the best acting I’ve ever done,” he says of his work opposite co-star Lynn Collins. Because the film emphasizes the enormous implications of a simple choice, Gordon-Levitt muses about one such decision he’s made in his own life.
“When I was 19, I quit acting for a while because I had been doing it since I was 6 years old, and I’d wanted a bit of uncertainty in my life,” says the actor, impishly plugging the film’s title. “I actually ended up coming back to acting but it was because I decided to, not just because that was the momentum. I think embracing that kind of uncertainty is important every day.”
