Man of the Month: July

From 8th-12th grades, I had a video tape that I used to keep snippets of important television happenings (So, yes: I've always been this pop culture obsessed.). It was labeled “Melrose Place Tape #5” from a project I had undertaken of recording an entire season’s worth of 'Melrose Place' on VHS to send to my friend Ayesha who was spending 6 months of our 8th grade year with her grandparents in Pakistan. Upon her (and the tapes’) return, 'Melrose Place' quickly got replaced. Aside from 'General Hospital' which I’d record every day, and shows like 'Party of 5,' 'Buffy' and 'Felicity' which I recorded weekly, I kept careful track of when my many celebrity boyfriends would be on various talk shows so that I could tape them all. Then, I’d transfer scenes that I liked or interviews I wanted to keep onto this video tape. Man, I really knew my way around a VCR. Life skills, you know.

With ‘Brothers Bloom’ recent release (from the director of 'Brick'), all the film festival/indie rock love hoopla around the upcoming '500 Days of Summer' and the premiere of a TV version of one of my favorite 1990s movies, '10 Things I Hate About You,' I’ve been thinking about Joseph Gordon-Levitt quite a bit these days. And when I think of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I think about an interview I kept of him on this tape – it was with Jay Leno during the time that he was on '3rd Rock From the Sun,' but towards the end, because he had short '10 Things I Hate About You' hair, not the bob.

In this interview, he talks about having a hyphenated name, and how it really is both of his parents’ last names joined, and about how they used to be hippies but now they drive BMWs. As a member of the hyphenated last-name club, I actually think about this quite a bit. But, I feel like I’ve already told that story on this blog, so I have come up with some new reasons to like this seemingly well-adjusted, smart guy who likes what he does and just happens to be our latest Man of the Month:

1. This trailer:
   
   
   
   
2. This interview (From Entertainment Weekly, 4/24/2009):
   
   EW: How would you describe your character in '(500) Days of Summer?'
   JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: He's a bit of a hopeless romantic who has taken perhaps a little bit too seriously pop songs and love stories. He has to figure some s--- out and man up a little bit.
   
   EW: You've never made a movie as outright romantic as (500) Days. Are you a fan of the standard romantic comedy?
   JGL: Well, who is a fan of the standard romantic comedy? The vast majority of Hollywood love stories — let's be honest, they're full of s---. Love is not about winning and losing. Love is not about happy endings or good guys and bad guys. [At] most movie studios, the big decisions get made by accountants and lawyers. They don't get made by artists.
   
   EW: Is that why you've done so many independent dramas since 1999's '10 Things I Hate About You?'
   JGL: I'll stand up for '10 Things I Hate About You.' I think that was a good movie. [Laughs] The A-R-T word is a complicated one. I shouldn't have brought it up because you can sound pretentious calling things art. But when I make a movie, it's because it inspires me. People always smirk when I say this, but when I saw the designs for the character that I play in 'G.I. Joe,' it was like, ''Wow! How'd I get to be that guy?'' That's exciting to me.
   
   EW: 'G.I. Joe,' in which you play Cobra Commander, opens three weeks after '(500) Days of Summer.' Are you prepared for the amount of fame that could bring?
   JGL: I don't know. When I was younger, I used to hate that kind of recognition. I still kind of have a problem with the intersection of this word called ''celebrity'' and acting. What makes it worth it for me is that people that saw '(500) Days of Summer' at Sundance have been coming up and saying, ''Wow, that really meant something to me.'' So if you're asking, ''Are you prepared for so many more people to connect with you in that way?'' I want that connection. That's a dream come true.