Joseph Gordon-Levitt has revealed that he was “mostly embarrassed” about starring in 10 Things I Hate About You.
The acclaimed 1999 teen comedy marked one of the actor’s earliest leading roles in a movie. It also launched the careers of Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles.
Gordon-Levitt, who would go on to star in films including Inception, 500 Days of Summer and 50/50, said that he was “not sold” on the movie at first, as he wanted to do “serious movies” at the time.
“I was going to arthouse cinemas and watching movies coming from Sundance [Festival] and, you know, watching Sling Blade and Reservoir Dogs and Soderbergh and Tarantino, and that’s what I wanted to do,” he told Vanity Fair.
The Project Power actor then said that when he appeared in two movies at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, Brick and Mysterious Skin, he realised that he was unhappy with much of the work he did in the years prior.
“I know this sounds weird to say or it sounds like I’m not grateful, [but] I was always a little embarrassed before then,” he said. “I was mostly embarrassed about 10 Things I Hate About You, to be honest. I was.
“And when I got to do these Sundance movies, I felt like I was doing what I wanted to do. They felt like a reflection of me and the art that I liked. When I look back now, I’m kind of equally proud of all those things, but subjectively at that time ... it was really meaningful to me.”
Gordon-Levitt added that he had an “incredible” experience filming 10 Things I Hate About You, and that he and his fellow cast members quickly bonded with each other and hung out off-set, but also that he remained embarrassed about the film for many years after its release.
Gordon-Levitt’s superhero movie Project Power launched on Netflix last week (14 August), with The Independentcalling it “dense and incomprehensible”.
