Find me somebody who doesn’t like Joseph Gordon-Levitt at least a little bit and I’ll show you a robot masquerading as a human. The guy just exudes a likability and down-to-earth personality that can seem like a rarity in Hollywood. Maybe it’s his open embrace of the internet by participating in Reddit AMAs or just that charming smile your significant other can’t get enough of, but the dude knows how to work the interwebs.
The actor/singer/web entrepreneur is turning 34 today, which means that it’s a perfect time to roll out a few JGL GIFs and revisit some of his web triumphs.
That time he recreated a viral video.
Yeah, your aunt couldn’t get enough of “David after dentist” and forwarded it to you on several occasions, but did she have the gusto to recreate it? Because Joseph Gordon-Levitt did, and the guy is pretty convincing as a doped up 7-year old.
When Jimmy Kimmel was assembling his Blockbuster YouTube Parodies sketch for his post-Oscars show, all he had to do was send out the word and JGL was ready. No second takes, no cue cards, just Joseph Gordon-Levitt showing up with his lines prepped and a goofy look on his face, ready to take a classic viral video to the next level.
When he showed up to the Star Wars premiere looking like Yoda in pajamas.
It was actually kind of surprising more celebrities didn’t get into the cosplay action when The Force Awakens had its big Hollywood premiere. Sure, there were hired guns dressed as Stormtroopers and every celebrity there was gushing to anybody with a microphone about how much they “just looooved Star Wars,” but did they truly nerd out? Nope. This is where Gordon-Levitt stands alone. Dude took to the red carpet in some Yoda cosplay that said “Yeah, I put this together in the car on the way here, so what?”
The guy LOVES to sing and pretend to sing.
Let’s get real: this article could have solely been dedicated to JGL’s affinity for singing and pretending to sing. I have no doubt Gordon-Levitt has a former middle school theater teacher who tears up every time — which by my calculations is roughly every 5.3 months — he breaks out into a song and dance number. It doesn’t matter if it’s singing in an indie flick, lip-syncing ’90s jams, strumming a guitar on a radio show, or belting out a ragtime version of “B*tch Better Have My Money,” if there’s a gig with even the possibility of an opportunity for crooning, you can bet Levitt will be warming up his vocal chords.
He’s helping to foster new talent.
It’s one thing to take advantage of the internet for one’s own publicity; plenty of celebrities are good at that, and there’s nothing wrong with that approach. It’s another thing though to take advantage of the internet with the intention of helping others capitalize on their talent, and this is where Joseph Gordon-Levitt stands out from the pack. Gordon-Levitt launched hitRECord, an online collaborative community, way back in 2004 with the intention of helping creatives come together to build their projects, whether it be a short film or musical project. As Gordon-Levitt told our own Jamie Frevele, the platform is a way of actually making things happen on social media.
So much of what goes on the internet is sort of about, “Hey, look at me, look at me! I posted my video on YouTube! or “I posted my photo on Instagram!” That’s all fine, I don’t have anything against it, but this is something different. Rather than, “Hey, look at me!” it’s, “What can we all do together if we work together?”
You gotta give the guy props for doing his small part to make the internet a more creative place.
Those GIFs.
Some celebrities just make for better GIFs. It’s not something that can be taught in Become a Star University — pretty sure that’s a real place — it’s something you’re born with. Or at least something that the internet deems you suitable for. And with JGL’s charming looks and twinkly smile, it’s only natural that his face become an never-ending loop of GIF nonsense.
JGL and puppies, c’mon! That amount of adorable is certainly in violation of some sorta internet protocol.