Working alongside Quentin Tarantino is a dream for many actors and it’s reasonable to see why, as he is generally regarded as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. However, Joseph Gordon-Levitt once declined the offer to star in one of Tarantino’s movies back in the early 2010s.
Despite being an avid admirer of the Pulp Fiction director and having immense respect for his work, the actor did explain his reasoning behind declining the alluring offer. Even though he would have loved to star in a Tarantino flick, at the time, he was more focused on perfecting his directorial debut.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt refused the offer to star in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained
The early 2010s was a great time for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as he would go on to star in two iconic Christopher Nolan projects, involving Inception and The Dark Knight Rises. And following his rise in the industry, the actor was also offered a role in Quentin Tarantino’s heavily star-studded Django Unchained, but he chose to pass it. Although the Inception actor did express his love and admiration for the director, he was too focused on his directorial debut Don Jon at the time and wasn’t available for Django Unchained. He said,
“No, I’m not going to get to do that. I’d love to, but it just doesn’t work. I’ve been in touch with Quentin about it, and it was so cool to trust me to do this little part in his movie. I would have loved, loved to have done it. He’s one of my very favorite filmmakers, and he was really supportive of me directing, and that meant the world to me.”
But crafting his directorial debut was far from easy for the actor, as following the absurd premise of the movie, it was hard to get funding for his passion project. However, the inclusion of Scarlett Johansson did help in getting his passion project running.
Scarlett Johansson’s inclusion helped in getting Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Don Jon greenlit
Considering that the satirical rom-com followed a premise of a man being addicted to hardcore p*rnography, securing funding for the film was a hard task for Joseph Gordon-Levitt. However, even before the movie was greenlit, Scarlett Johansson agreed to star in the lead of the project alongside Gordoh-Levitt, and following her status in Hollywood, the movie was then able to secure funding.
Although Gordan-Levitt did miss the opportunity to star in Django Unchained, which was a huge hit at the box office and garnered rave reviews, things did work out for the actor as well. Following the release of the actor’s passion project, Don Jon did decent at the box office and garnered around $41 million at the box office from a budget of $7.5 million.
Don Jon is available to stream on Hulu.
Source: IndieWire
