Joseph Gordon-Levitt Admits He Didn't Take Director Christopher Nolan's Advice

Christopher Nolan is one of the most famous and critically acclaimed filmmakers of our time. The director has worked on movies like "The Dark Knight" franchise, "Tenet," "Man of Steel," and several other movies.

Due to his experience and far reach in the movie industry, many actors strive to work with him. One of them was Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The actor collaborated with Nolan on two separate occasions: "Inception" and "The Dark Knight Rises."

Since working with the director, Levitt was very open about his admiration. He even tried to toe the same line and go into the directing sector of Hollywood. Before he got into it, Nolan gave him some advice as a veteran of the sector, but the "Tenet" actor ultimately discarded this advice.

Besides acting, Levitt has always been interested in being a director. The actor told Deadline that he had always been interested in filmmaking right from when he took a break from acting for college. He revealed that his desire for the director's chair started then and he saw acting as a road to filmmaking.

"Wanting to direct a movie started back then, honestly. When I decided to start acting again, I had, not long before that, gotten my first copy of Final Cut Pro," the "500 Days of Summer" actor said. "I started to edit things, and I loved that so much it became the biggest motivator for me dropping out of college.

"I realized I could be sitting there, making and cutting stuff, or I could be writing this paper," he continued. He also admitted that when he started acting again in 2003, it was so he could "make a movie." "I love acting, and I hope to do it the rest of my life. But since I started acting again in 2003, I've had this goal to one day make a movie."

Before he started directing, the actor went to get advice from people who were in the game for a long time, like Rian Johnson, Steven Spielberg, and Christopher Nolan. However, Levitt didn't take all the advice given to him.

While Levitt might have taken the advice of other directing veterans, he wasn't too keen on Nolan's. The actor revealed that Nolan gave him sound advice that he used numerous times, but there was one time he wasn't in support of the advice.

HuffPost reported that Levitt said, "I told Chris Nolan that I was going to direct a movie, and he was instantly supportive, which meant a lot to me. I told him I was going to act and direct at the same time, and he was like, 'Are you sure you want to do that?' So, he wasn't just like, 'Do whatever you want.'"

The actor's first movie as a director was "Don Jon," and he was to play the roles of both an actor and a director. When he told Nolan, the director wasn't in support of it. He felt that the roles would be too overwhelming for Levitt's first time.

The "Looper" actor recalled, "He was like, 'Are you sure you want to do that your first time?' I said I really do, and he was like, 'OK, but I'm raising my hand now and saying that you might want to think about that. That's a whole extra challenge that you maybe want to do your second time.'" Despite the advice, Levitt held his ground and played the two roles in the movie.

At the peak of his career, Levitt appeared in several movies like "Inception," "The Dark Knight Rises," "Looper," "500 Days of Summer," and many others. However, right after 2016, the actor stopped appearing in movies.

Levitt revealed that his hiatus was because he wanted to spend more time with his children. He also said that it was the longest he'd gone without acting since he started. He returned to the big screen with "7500," where he acted as an airplane pilot tasked with protecting the plane's cockpit from hijackers.

He made his comeback with this film because he was worried the momentum he built up as an actor had dwindled while away. "There were, of course, voices in my head expressing concern about momentum, career building, and things of that nature," Levitt admitted.

"But I knew that if I wanted to be happy, I had to choose my first project back as what would challenge me as an actor and really intrigue and inspire me. And with 7500, I think I really did find that," he added.

When Levitt starred in "The Dark Knight Rises" in 2012, the actor played the role of John Blake, a Gotham City cop. The movie's last moments revealed that Blake's real name was Robin, and he had the means to become the next Batman. However, the movie was the last part of the trilogy, so his storyline ended somewhat ambiguously.

In response, Warner Bros decided to push a new movie with a shared DC universe under a separate continuity from the trilogy.

In an interview with Jake's Takes, Levitt was asked about the new DC movie and if he would be interested in playing Robin or Nightwing. He responded, "To be perfectly honest, [I'm] completely out of touch with everything you just said." So it's safe to say that the actor won't appear in the upcoming movie.