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Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Stop-Loss
By Fred Topel | Image property of Paramount Pictures
Stop-Loss is about the struggles soldiers have readjusting to home life after the current Iraq war, including one who gets ordered back under the stop loss rules. The issues are timely, but the film's stars kept it about the characters. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Tommy, a soldiers with PTSD.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt Battles Stop-Loss
"I wouldn't call Stop-Loss a war movie so much as a soldier movie because it's about guys coming home," he said. "It's not a movie about any political specific message or not trying to convince you. It's not really making any grand statements about the war because, and I think the reason for that is of all the soldiers that I got to know, and I got to know and got close to quite a few guys, they didn't have any simplistic unilateral opinions about 'the war' in general. I think when you're actually over there, it changes. When you're getting shot at, all that matters to you is you want to get your buddies home safe and you want to get yourself home safe and that's it. Stop-Loss is a story about these human beings. It's not about 'the war.'"
From MTV films, Stop-Loss may be the most mainstream film Gordon-Levitt has made in his film career. This too is not about any issues with Hollywood. "To me, what's important is making a good movie and of course I want people to see it. Stop-Loss will get much more exposure than some of the smaller movies that I did, but it was made with the same spirit as some of those tiny independent movies that I made. Kimberly Pierce is an artist. She's not doing this to make money. I don't think any of us were there to make money. In fact, I think, well, I don't know if this is exactly a fact, but I do know that none of us were there to make money. We all were doing it because we cared about it, believed in it and that's what matters to me."
Stop-Loss
Stop-Loss
The character himself was quite a stretch for the actor. "Tommy's just about as different a character to my own personal stuff as I maybe have ever played. I was brought up by peace activists. I was blessed with a family that loved and supported me. Tommy I think was not so fortunate. This isn't in the movie but this is something I spoke about with Kim a lot. That speaks to her strength as a director that she took the time to figure out with me who this guy's dad is, who's this guy's mom, what was his life like before he enlisted, what does that mean, why does he enlist, what are those demons that he left at home that he's trying to cover up and that he has successfully covered up finding a new family of sorts in the military and Texas? How do those demons come back to get him when he returns home and does no longer get to be an outstanding soldier in Iraq because you can't be a soldier when you're back home. There's not people trying to kill you. You don't have a rifle, etc. Those things are all I think implicitly in the movie because I was thinking about them all day long but they're not explicitly addressed. That's Kim for you, that kind of thorough, in depth analysis of a character's psychology and personality is what she's all about, what she's so good at."
Through training, Gordon-Levitt became quite a decent shot himself. "Not as good as Chann[ing Tatum], I'm better than Vic[tor Rasuk.] It's a bizarre love/hate relationship I have with guns. Mostly, they're machines designed to kill people and the more you have them around you, the more likely you are to get shot, but I gotta admit, it's an exhilarating thing to shoot a gun. It just is."
Stop-Loss opens to theaters on March 28th.
For stills, trailer and more movie info, go to the Stop-Loss Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Paramount Pictures
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