Gordon-Levitt goes from ‘3rd Rock’ to Sundance kid with string of indie-fest films

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Gordon-Levitt goes from ‘3rd Rock’ to Sundance kid

PARK CITY, Utah — Joseph Gordon-Levitt charmed Sundance Film Festival fans a year ago with the romance “(500) Days of Summer.”

Now the “3rd Rock From the Sun” co-star is assailing Sundance crowds with a wild man role in “Hesher,” the tale of a heavy-metal anarchist who bursts into the lives of a grieving boy and his family.

A flurry of films that passed through Sundance — the teen dramas “Manic,” ”Mysterious Skin” and “Brick” — helped former child star Gordon-Levitt graduate into adult roles and showed he was more than just that alien kid in human form on his sitcom.

In the title role of “Hesher,” Gordon-Levitt bears little resemblance to the clean-cut young romantic of “(500) Days of Summer,” which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. His Hesher has long, stringy hair, tattoos everywhere and a mad-dog demeanor that shouts: “Mess with this guy at your own peril.”

“I just love to act. It’s my favorite thing to do in the world, and what keeps it interesting to me is the creative challenge. So different kinds of characters, that’s what I just love to do,” Gordon-Levitt, 28, said in an interview.

“My favorite kinds of actors are the chameleons, like Daniel Day-Lewis or Peter Sellers, people like that. To me, the highest compliment you can pay to an actor is, ‘Man, I didn’t recognize you.’ So yeah, Hesher is really different from Tom in ‘(500) Days of Summer,’ and you know, that’s what keeps it spicy for me.”

Gordon-Levitt has been mixing up his work in independent films with big Hollywood pictures, among them last summer’s action tale “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” and next summer’s “Inception,” a science-fiction thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Christopher Nolan (”The Dark Knight”).

“Hesher” director Spencer Susser said Gordon-Levitt is a chameleon himself, remaking his persona to fit each role.

“When I met Joe, I thought he was just a great guy. I thought, I want to see your Hesher, and we got into a room, we started to play with it, and I was blown away, because he turned into a different person,” Susser said. “I know Joe now, but I know Hesher, too, and they’re different people.”

Violent, profane and unpredictable, Gordon-Levitt’s Hesher insinuates himself into the life of a boy (Devin Brochu) who’s mourning the death of his mother in a car wreck. Moving in with the boy, his catatonic father (Rainn Wilson) and doting grandmother (Piper Laurie), Hesher becomes an unlikely agent of healing for the family.

The film, which also stars Natalie Portman as a store cashier who befriends the boy, lets Gordon-Levitt cut loose with abandon as Hesher sets fires, trashes strangers’ pool furniture and plays avenging demon by inflicting nasty retribution on bullies.

For Gordon-Levitt, it was an irresistible ride on the wild side.

“That was it. That’s why I wanted to do it, and that’s really why I do any movie that I do. I’m lucky enough, I made money on television when I was young, so I don’t have to do parts to support myself. I just do stuff because it’ll be fun and challenge me,” Gordon-Levitt said.

“‘Hesher’ is easily one of the most fun parts I’ve ever gotten to play, because he is really liberated from a lot of the anxieties and stresses that we all carry around. So to play the part right, I have to do that, and it was liberating.”

On the Net:

Sundance Film Festival: festival.sundance.org/2010