Joseph Gordon-Levitt Talks Apple TV+'s 'Mr. Corman,' Fatherhood, and HITRECORD [The Fourth Wall #37]

There are few performers who manage to maintain a high profile in the public eye, and who are perpetually coveted by filmmakers, in the way that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has. Having started as a child actor in hit films like “A River Runs Through It” and “Angels in the Outfield,” Gordon-Levitt came into adulthood while starring in the iconic sitcom “3rd Rock from the Sun” and the fan-favorite rom-com “10 Things I Hate About You.” It was in the 2000s where his star rose into the stratosphere, turning in widely acclaimed work in films such as “Mysterious Skin,” “Inception,” and his frequent collaborations with Rian Johnson, including the lead roles in “Brick” and “Looper.” This is all without mentioning his Golden Globe-nominated performances in “(500) Days of Summer” and “50/50,” or his directorial debut firestorm, “Don Jon,” which Gordon-Levitt also wrote and starred in, or the fact that Gordon-Levitt is as talented a musician and singer as he is a performer and filmmaker.

With a huge resume of beloved films under his belt, Gordon-Levitt has been somewhat absent from our screens recently, with his biggest acting credits in the past few years being “Snowden,” “Project Power,” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7.” The actor also began to shift more of his efforts towards ramping up operations on HITRECORD, a collaborative media platform owned by Gordon-Levitt that fosters collaboration between its users as well as Gordon-Levitt himself. For example, one user might create a short animation, which can then be “remixed” by another user who adds original music, a third user who does voiceover narration, and so on, until the original submission has turned into a collaborative, complete project. HITRECORD now boasts a user base of over 80,000 people and pulls in about 1,000 pieces of original, user-created media every day. However HITRECORD isn't the sole reason for Gordon-Levitt's absence from the silver screen and it just so happens to serve as the genesis for his latest venture, "Mr. Corman:" parenthood.

Writing, starring in, and even directing eight episodes of the 10-part miniseries which streams on Apple TV+ this summer, Gordon-Levitt, now 40, reflects on his life and the new perspective that comes with fatherhood through the lens of an alternate reality. He plays Josh Corman, a middle school teacher in San Fernando who struggles with a crisis of conscience when he considers what might have been if he had pursued a musical career instead of becoming a teacher.

You can hear all about “Mr. Corman”, including why it was essential to bring additional writers on board, how the arrival of COVID-19 affected the show’s scripts while it was already in production, and how becoming a real-life father directly influenced the inception of the show.

The first two episodes of “Mr. Corman” are available now on Apple TV+, and the remaining episodes will debut on the platform weekly, beginning this Friday, August 13th.