Joseph Gordon-Levitt interview
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Dania Ramirez in an interview with the resource Collider talked about their work in the thriller "Premium Rush". Read excerpts from the interview below.
- How did you both get into the project?
Dania Ramirez: When my agent gave me the script, I read it for fun, but then decided to read again and think about my character and how I can show her on the screen. By the time the project was already occupied by Joe, and I know that the director is David Koepp, whose script I admired. So I went to audition, and then I was invited again in order to try with Joe some scene together and see if we approach each other as partners. We will do it right.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: The first time when I was given the script to read "Premium Rush", I was filming the drama "50/50" the movie about a guy who is struggling with the disease, and whose body is beginning to give up. My hero is a very strong person and is sure in his body. So the offer to ride a bike in New York during the summer looked very cool.
- Were you sure at 100% that you can play bike messengers? Were you arrogant?
Dania Ramirez: I do not know whether you can call yourself a self-assured, if you are confident. You just put yourself in a situation in which you will have to have a certain level of faith in your own strength and to know that you know how to do something well.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: It does not matter you're a messenger or just going on a bike, you can not doubt. You must be confident and reasonably able to make decisions and implement them. This is one of the main features of my character - Wiley. He takes the split-second decisions without hesitation. But I would call it a quality self-confidence, not arrogance.
- Have you more fun or work contrary to expectations?
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: It was crazy fun!
Dania Ramirez: Oh, I think it was a bomb!
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: I expected it to be fun, that's what happened. And I also know that I will have to work hard, and we did it.
Dania Ramirez: I expect that it will be very difficult, as it was assumed that the film we have to drive a bike, so I knew that exercise will be healthy. But as aspects of gladness, of course, it was present at the shooting, and now, when I look at the screen.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: I would like to prepare, how to be in shape and learn how to ride your best. For me it was important.
- Joe, if you compare your work in such action, as the "Cobra", "Inception", "Time loop", how hard was to shot in "Premium Rush"?
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Well, in terms of physical effort, the first "Premium Rush", and in the back of it breathing "Inception." I spent a bike all day, every single day. The entire film is on the bike. In "Inception" there were a lot of cool action scenes, but here is one action-packed scene in the whole movie.
Dania Ramirez: We need to take into account that most of the film we travel by bicycle, while talking to each other. Therefore, in the first six weeks of training before we went to train in New York, we set a stamina, because it was impossible to stray from the breath during dialogues. You have to shoot the scene and go with very fast in the heart of New York City. Education is different from training to other action games.
- What particularly surprised you in the bike culture and bike messengers themselves?
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: For myself, I noted a sense of belonging to this community. There is a real culture and ethics of the bike messengers, as well as among the people who love to ride bikes.
Dania Ramirez: They genuinely respect each other. Before, when I saw the messengers on bicycles, I thought of them as an individual person. Now I understand that they are connected to each other by bonds.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: They preach a moral: more bikes and fewer cars. If the majority of people will use bicycles instead of cars, the air will be cleaner, and people will be in the best physical shape. Great - really the best form of transport, when it comes to how to get from point A to point B. A car should be used to carry heavy things.
- Did you like working with Michael Shannon? How much of what he did, was written in the script?
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: It is, of course, graced the stage with his presence, but mostly it was not improvised. It was a well-written script, which at one time attracted all of us to participate in the project. Shannon was fun! I think Shannon perfectly fit in this range.
- Joe, you wrote the script and shot your first feature film, is not it?
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Yeah, I'm a screenwriter, and director of the project under the name "Don Jon's Addiction". I learned so much by working with great directors, that I decided to take a chance. Closer to the premiere I will talk to you guys about my movie. My breath catches at the thought that I had removed Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore. We had a lot of fun!
- How often do people ask you to explain the ending of "Inception"?
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Not very often. But my favorite movies are those that trigger the desire to start a conversation.