Looper: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Director Rian Johnson Discuss Simplicity & Transformations
“As a writer, time travel is a really tricky thing to jump into. As is the case with Looper, the goal is to have it not feel complicated. Time travel sets up the situation but then I wanted it to get out of the way,” says writer, director and seemingly all around ace Rian Johnson. “I wanted this to be about the characters dealing with a situation and not be about timelines. I didn't want it to be a puzzle, I wanted it to be a ride.”
If that was the goal, then Johnson and crew should bask in their successful rollercoaster of intelligence, emotion and visual stimulation. Although being sold as a time travel movie, Looper – starring the fantastic trio of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt and Bruce Willis - is ultimately less scientific and numerical as one would imagine a film with that tag line would be. “The mechanics of the time travel in Looper is really simple. It’s not one of those movies that's really about time travel,” explains star and first time executive producer Gordon-Levitt. “It uses it as a springboard to ask a basic human question: ‘what would you say to your future self if you could meet them?’”
The film opens in the year 2044, where we meet Joe (a prosthetic toting Gordon-Levitt), a gun for hire better known as a looper. While time travel hasn’t been invented yet, it exists in 2074 exclusively on the black market. When the mob looks to eradicate someone, the victim is sent back to 2044, where a looper will quickly kill and dispose of the body. With enough money for drugs and women, everything is fine until the mob unexpectedly sends back Joe’s future self (Willis) for immediate assassination.
Written specifically for Gordon-Levitt, the casting of Willis allowed for Johnson to get a quality actor to emotionally ground the difficult and vulnerable role of future Joe, but also created a slight hiccup for production due to the fact that the two actors looked nothing alike. Remedied with daily three-hour make up applications, Gordon-Levitt ‘s face was given subtle tweaks that laid the basic foundation for his thorough character transformation. “We used practical prosthetics to alter just a couple of key features, but really it was about relying on (Joseph's) performance, mannerisms and what he could bring to his character. It was Joe wrapping himself around Bruce.” explains Johnson. “My favorite thing as an actor is to become somebody else and really transform myself. I always want to disappear. My favorite actors are the chameleons,” states Gordon-Levitt. “Looper really afforded me the opportunity to transform more than I ever had before in a movie and it’s a bizarre experience looking in the mirror and seeing a different face. It’s a really inspiring thing.”
While Gordon-Levitt’s metamorphosis is immediately recognized, he’s also quick to spotlight his co-star Emily Blunt’s impressive turn as Sara. “She's such a brilliant actress. Speaking about chameleons and transforming, (Emily’s) so different from the character she plays,” he laughs. “She's this very refined, young, British lady and in Looper she's this bad ass girl who works on a farm and convincingly wields a shotgun. She really transformed herself and her American accent sounds flawless.” While little has been revealed about Sara and her role in the film (to discuss Blunt’s magnificent performance would really be hitting spoiler territory), Gordon-Levitt had no issue complimenting her contribution and impact on set. “I was so impressed with her. We just hit it off right away and it's nice to get to work with people that you really connect with.”
Since working together on the high-school backdropped drug noir Brick in 2005, Johnson and Gordon-Levitt have created a solid and unmistakable bond that goes far beyond a movie set. “(Rian’s) one of my best friends in the world and that absolutely helps when you're on set to understand how he thinks,” shares Gordon-Levitt. “My job as an actor is to understand what the filmmaker has in mind and deliver the ingredients that they need to cut the movie together. Rian is definitely able to communicate to me what he wants.”
Now that it’s time for audiences to board Johnson’s highly anticipated endeavor, the writer/director is extremely excited to hear the various theories that people will no doubt associate with the universal questions his movie proposes. “I'm not of the mindset where I hope everyone gets it right,” he smirks. “I’m in the mindset where I can't wait to see what people come up with when they chew on this.”
Looper invades theaters Friday, September 28.
If that was the goal, then Johnson and crew should bask in their successful rollercoaster of intelligence, emotion and visual stimulation. Although being sold as a time travel movie, Looper – starring the fantastic trio of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt and Bruce Willis - is ultimately less scientific and numerical as one would imagine a film with that tag line would be. “The mechanics of the time travel in Looper is really simple. It’s not one of those movies that's really about time travel,” explains star and first time executive producer Gordon-Levitt. “It uses it as a springboard to ask a basic human question: ‘what would you say to your future self if you could meet them?’”
The film opens in the year 2044, where we meet Joe (a prosthetic toting Gordon-Levitt), a gun for hire better known as a looper. While time travel hasn’t been invented yet, it exists in 2074 exclusively on the black market. When the mob looks to eradicate someone, the victim is sent back to 2044, where a looper will quickly kill and dispose of the body. With enough money for drugs and women, everything is fine until the mob unexpectedly sends back Joe’s future self (Willis) for immediate assassination.
Written specifically for Gordon-Levitt, the casting of Willis allowed for Johnson to get a quality actor to emotionally ground the difficult and vulnerable role of future Joe, but also created a slight hiccup for production due to the fact that the two actors looked nothing alike. Remedied with daily three-hour make up applications, Gordon-Levitt ‘s face was given subtle tweaks that laid the basic foundation for his thorough character transformation. “We used practical prosthetics to alter just a couple of key features, but really it was about relying on (Joseph's) performance, mannerisms and what he could bring to his character. It was Joe wrapping himself around Bruce.” explains Johnson. “My favorite thing as an actor is to become somebody else and really transform myself. I always want to disappear. My favorite actors are the chameleons,” states Gordon-Levitt. “Looper really afforded me the opportunity to transform more than I ever had before in a movie and it’s a bizarre experience looking in the mirror and seeing a different face. It’s a really inspiring thing.”
While Gordon-Levitt’s metamorphosis is immediately recognized, he’s also quick to spotlight his co-star Emily Blunt’s impressive turn as Sara. “She's such a brilliant actress. Speaking about chameleons and transforming, (Emily’s) so different from the character she plays,” he laughs. “She's this very refined, young, British lady and in Looper she's this bad ass girl who works on a farm and convincingly wields a shotgun. She really transformed herself and her American accent sounds flawless.” While little has been revealed about Sara and her role in the film (to discuss Blunt’s magnificent performance would really be hitting spoiler territory), Gordon-Levitt had no issue complimenting her contribution and impact on set. “I was so impressed with her. We just hit it off right away and it's nice to get to work with people that you really connect with.”
Since working together on the high-school backdropped drug noir Brick in 2005, Johnson and Gordon-Levitt have created a solid and unmistakable bond that goes far beyond a movie set. “(Rian’s) one of my best friends in the world and that absolutely helps when you're on set to understand how he thinks,” shares Gordon-Levitt. “My job as an actor is to understand what the filmmaker has in mind and deliver the ingredients that they need to cut the movie together. Rian is definitely able to communicate to me what he wants.”
Now that it’s time for audiences to board Johnson’s highly anticipated endeavor, the writer/director is extremely excited to hear the various theories that people will no doubt associate with the universal questions his movie proposes. “I'm not of the mindset where I hope everyone gets it right,” he smirks. “I’m in the mindset where I can't wait to see what people come up with when they chew on this.”
Looper invades theaters Friday, September 28.
Feed Source:
Gofobo Staff
Author:
Tristen Gacoscos
Date:
Array on
movie: Looper 2012