There's a scene in Christopher Nolan's astonishing new sci-fi film Inception in which Joseph Gordon-Levitt dances mid-air like Fred Astaire. The grace with which Gordon-Levitt executes this near-impossible act is utterly mesmerising.
Yet, here in a London hotel room, Gordon-Levitt doesn't look like an action hero. There's not much of him; he takes up barely half the chair on which he perches, tilted forward. Immaculate in pointy black shoes, pinstripe trousers, waistcoat, shirt and tie, he looks as though he's stepped out of a fashion shoot.
What we really want to know is: did Gordon-Levitt himself understand what Nolan was on about the first time he read the script? He quickly dismisses a frown and smiles benevolently: "Of course, yeah. People keep asking me that, but in terms of plot and character the script is so considered, which is really inspiring for me as an actor. Most summer blockbuster movies don't make sense — start to pick them apart and they pretty soon fall to pieces... but Mr Nolan demands that everything makes sense."
On his interactive filmmaking website hitRECord.org he calls himself Ordinary Joe, although in reality Gordon-Levitt is anything but.
Taking risks
Born 29 years ago, he has been acting since he was six; his first performance was as The Scarecrow in The Wizard Of Oz. From the ages of 15 to 20 he was a regular face on TV as floppy-haired alien Tommy in the sitcom 3rd Rock From The Sun. But then he took an enforced break from acting, enrolling to study French at Columbia University.
He got the lead in Manic, about a kid in a mental institution, and was then cast as a hustler in Gregg Araki's 2004 Mysterious Skin. Gordon-Levitt was said to be taking a risk, but Araki was also taking a risk on a child actor on the cusp of manhood.
Next he starred in Brick, Rian Johnson's high-school noir, which was ambitious enough to draw Gordon-Levitt to Nolan's attention: "It's certainly one of the movies of mine Mr Nolan had seen. I'm not sure if he watched (500) Days of Summer, though..."
In (500) Days, as a charming indie geek in lovelorn pursuit of Zooey Deschanel, Gordon-Levitt was both low-key and appealing, unassuming yet scene-stealing, a goof and a pin-up.
He's a chameleon on the screen, shape-shifting from film to film, lighting up the screen with his smile. He likes to be pushed as an actor; he doesn't just turn up on set; he paid for his own trip to Kansas to visit the places inhabited by the characters in Mysterious Skin.
In Nolan, he's found his ideal match, and not just because Nolan has the power to turn Gordon-Levitt into a big-league movie actor. The first time the two met, they chatted about violence in movies. The second time, when Gordon-Levitt had been offered the role of Arthur, Leonardo DiCaprio's meticulous assistant, he met up with both Nolan and his stunt co-ordinator. "They fitted me for a harness and strung me up on some wires. I told them, ‘Hey, I really want to do this, I can't wait to do this. I'll do anything you ask and I won't complain.'"
Did he keep his word? Gordon-Levitt laughs: "Yep! It's incredibly motivating once you've made a commitment to a director that you really admire. I had to live up to my promise."
‘Nothing but a rumour'
He loves acting, but it's far from the only thing he does.
He launched HitRECord to encourage people to upload short films, poems, songs — anything creative — and share their work with the rest of the world. This summer HitRECord will put on a series of underground live events in New York but Gordon-Levitt has no intention of taking another sabbatical from acting. He says talk of an appearance in Nolan's next Batman film is "nothing but a rumour" and deftly changes the subject to shaving his hair off to play a cancer patient in Seth Rogen's new film.
There is a also Hesher, a small film co-starring Natalie Portman that was picked up at Sundance: "Someone described my character as a Dionysian death metal sage!"
He tips back on his chair and explodes with laughter, his fragile body shaking uncontrollably: "Now that's something that even Mr Nolan wouldn't have thought of!"
And he urges me to go straight out and watch Inception again: "I've seen it twice and I can't wait to see it again. For sure."
