Early acting work '' in 2009 Gordon-Levitt joined a musical theater group at the age of four and played the
Scarecrow in a production of
The Wizard of Oz. Subsequently, he was approached by an agent and began appearing on television and in commercials for
Sunny Jim peanut butter,
Cocoa Puffs,
Pop-Tarts, and
Kinney Shoes. In the same year, he made an appearance as a boy who witnesses a murder in an episode of
Quantum Leap. During 1992–93, he played in
The Powers That Be, a sitcom starring
John Forsythe, as a clever young boy named Pierce Van Horne. Also in 1992, he portrayed
Gregory Kingsley in the made-for-TV film
Switching Parents, based on Kingsley's real-life case of "divorcing" his parents. In 1994, he starred in the Disney film
Angels in the Outfield as an orphan who sees angels. In 1996, he got the role of
Tommy Solomon on the sitcom
3rd Rock from the Sun. The series ran for six seasons. The
San Francisco Chronicle noted that Gordon-Levitt was a "Jewish kid playing an
extraterrestrial pretending to be a Jewish kid". Gordon-Levitt had a supporting role in 1998's
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, the 1999 film
10 Things I Hate About You, a modern-day adaptation of Shakespeare's
The Taming of the Shrew, and voiced Jim Hawkins in
Treasure Planet (2002), a Disney adaptation of the novel
Treasure Island. In 2000, he began attending
Columbia University. He said that moving to New York City from his hometown forced him to grow as a person. His films include 2001's drama
Manic, which was set in a
mental institution,
Mysterious Skin (2004) in which he played a gay prostitute and
child sexual abuse victim, and
Brick (2005), a modern-day
film noir set at
San Clemente High School. In
Brick, he had the lead role of Brendan Frye, a teen who becomes involved in an underground drug ring while investigating a murder.
Brick received positive reviews, with
The Minnesota Dailys critic commenting that Gordon-Levitt played the character "beautifully", saying the performance was "true to (the) film's style", "unfeeling but not disenchanted", and "sexy in the most ambiguous way". Another review describes the performance as "astounding". In 2001, Gordon-Levitt made his debut on the New York stage to excellent reviews in the off-Broadway premiere of
Austin Pendleton's
Uncle Bob at the SoHo Playhouse. Gordon-Levitt starred opposite
George Morfogen in the gritty, two-character play. The production was directed by Courtney Moorehead and produced by Steven Sendor. He starred opposite
Steve Sandvoss as a young, judgmental missionary in
Latter Days (2003), a film that centers on a sexually repressed
Mormon missionary (Sandvoss), who falls for his gay neighbor. He also had roles in
Havoc and
Shadowboxer. while
New York magazine stated that he is a "major
tabula rasa actor ... a minimalist", and his character is effective because he "doesn't seize the space ... by what he takes away from the character". The
San Francisco Chronicle specified that he "embodies, more than performs, a character's inner life". His 2008 and 2009 films include
Stop-Loss, directed by
Kimberly Peirce and revolving around American soldiers returning from the
Iraq War, and
Killshot, in which he played a hoodlum partnered with a hired killer played by
Mickey Rourke.
Varietys Todd McCarthy praised his performance, saying he "expressively alternates between enthusiasm and forlorn disappointment in the manner
Jack Lemmon could".
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone said the film "hits you like a blast of pure romantic oxygen" and credited both lead actors for playing "it for real, with a grasp of subtlety and feeling that goes beyond the call of breezy duty". He was subsequently nominated for a
Golden Globe Award. He later played villain
Cobra Commander in
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. On November 21, 2009, he hosted
Saturday Night Live. In 2010, he replaced
James Franco and starred alongside
Leonardo DiCaprio in
Christopher Nolan's science fiction thriller
Inception, which received favorable reviews. In 2011, Gordon-Levitt began filming
Christopher Nolan's
The Dark Knight Rises, in which he played
John Blake, a police officer who emerges as a key ally of
Batman. In
Premium Rush, he played the starring role of a
fixie-riding, brash
bicycle messenger; he portrayed the younger version of
Bruce Willis' character, in a shared role for the time-travel thriller
Looper; and the supporting role of
Robert Todd Lincoln in
Steven Spielberg's biopic
Lincoln. All three films were released in 2012. Gordon-Levitt played a new character, Johnny, in the sequel
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014), described by the filmmakers as "a cocky gambler who disguises a darker mission to destroy his most foul enemy at his best game". In October 2013, it was reported that he was one of the frontrunners to play
Scott Lang / Ant-Man II for
Marvel Studios' superhero film
Ant-Man, a role which eventually went to
Paul Rudd. In 2015, Gordon-Levitt starred as
Philippe Petit in the biographical drama
The Walk, directed by
Academy Award-winning director
Robert Zemeckis. Gordon-Levitt then played
National Security Agency surveillance leaker
Edward Snowden in
Snowden, directed by
Oliver Stone. The film was released in North America on September 16, 2016, and also starred
Shailene Woodley,
Melissa Leo,
Zachary Quinto,
Tom Wilkinson, and
Nicolas Cage. In 2017, Gordon-Levitt had a voice cameo in
Star Wars: The Last Jedi. In 2019, Gordon-Levitt starred in
7500 directed by
Patrick Vollrath, which had its world premiere at the
Locarno Film Festival on August 9, 2019. It was released on June 19, 2020, by
Amazon Studios. That same year, Gordon-Levitt had a voice cameo in
Knives Out. Gordon-Levitt starred in
Project Power, directed by
Ariel Schulman and
Henry Joost, opposite
Jamie Foxx and
Dominique Fishback; it was released on August 14, 2020, by
Netflix. He next played lawyer Richard Schultz in the drama film
The Trial of the Chicago 7. The film was written and directed by
Aaron Sorkin, and released September 25, 2020. In March 2021, Gordon-Levitt was announced as voicing
Jiminy Cricket in
Robert Zemeckis'
live-action film adaptation of
Pinocchio. In 2022, he starred as
Travis Kalanick, former CEO of
Uber, in
Showtime's anthology series
Super Pumped, based on the bestselling book
Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber by Mike Isaac.
Directing and producing Gordon-Levitt's first film as director, the 24-minute-long
Sparks, was an adaptation of a short story by
Elmore Leonard starring
Carla Gugino and
Eric Stoltz.
Sparks was selected for the 2009
Sundance Film Festival to be shown as part of a new program for short films. In 2010, he directed another short film, ''Morgan and Destiny's Eleventeenth Date: The Zeppelin Zoo''. He was one of the many producers of the Broadway show ''
Slava's Snowshow''. In 2013, Gordon-Levitt wrote, directed, and starred in his screenwriting and directorial debut,
Don Jon. The film also stars
Scarlett Johansson,
Julianne Moore, and
Tony Danza, and it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2013. Following the premiere, the film was acquired by
Relativity Media, and Gordon-Levitt stated: "I always intended this to be a movie for a mass popular audience. Everyone told me it was a long shot ... I couldn't possibly be more grateful." In September 2019, Gordon-Levitt was announced to be writing, directing, starring, and executive producing
Mr. Corman, a comedy-drama series produced by
A24 for
Apple TV+.
HitRecord HitRecord (pronounced ; often stylized as hitREC●rd) and -- the introductory summary -- of the HitRecord article. Content within the and tags of the HitRecord page gets automatically copied here (enter WP:Transclusion in the Wikipedia search bar for technical details). Note also that this relatively unusual structure is used as an example in the Wikipedia editing guide, in the WP:Transclusion article. If you "break" the way this works, you will invalidate the example, and will need to update that article with a different example, unless you wish to confuse readers of that article. ------------------------------------------------------> Gordon-Levitt created the platform in 2010 after a period of stagnation in his acting career. "I wanted to be creative, and no one was letting me [so I said] OK, I have to figure out something to do on my own." The company has $6.4 million in venture capital. On 6 November 2020, Gordon-Levitt released
Hong Kong Never Sleeps, a collaborative short film paying homage to Hong Kong created on hitRECord, on his Facebook page. It features photos and videos he collected from Hong Kongers since August 2020, which some themed around the
Hong Kong protests starting in 2019, and voice by actors he recruited in October 2020. == Political views ==