Click here to listen to the interview (11:47)

When I spoke with Joseph Gordon-Levitt on September 12, 2012, it wasn't with his latest film, Rian Johnson's LOOPER, that I wanted to start. Instead, I was curious about why he had flown to thousands of miles in order to make a cameo of only a few seconds in Johnson's second film, THE BROTHERS BLOOM. The experience of making Johnson's debut film, BRICK, did more than give Gordon-Levitt a great role in a dazzling film, it was the start, as they say, of a beautiful friendship. After discussing the trick of playing Bruce Willis' younger self in the time-traveling plot of LOOPER, he discussed what has guided him in making such smart choices career-wise. We finished up by talking about a short film Levitt-Gordon made and narrated based on a French poem by Jacques Prevert, an effort that helped launch the next phase of Levitt-Gordon's career behind the camera with Johnson as mentor.