Image Credit: George Pimentel/Getty Images

Actor, troubadour, and new-media independent-film trailblazer, Joseph Gordon-Levitt owned every foot of Park City’s Eccles Theater last night, though at times it seemed his feet never touched the stage. Hit RECord at the Movies, a variety show of sorts featuring short films from Gordon-Levitt’s open-collaborative production company, a reading of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer from Parker Posey and Brady Corbet (Sundance entry Simon Killer), and the (500) Days of Summer star joking and singing, encouraged plenty of fan-interaction. Gordon-Levitt invited tweeters onstage to debate the meaning of “independence,” and before he even appeared, a voice echoed throughout the theater reminding everyone to turn ON their recording devices. They did, capturing every moment of the 90-minute performance from hundreds of perspectives. Many of those recordings have already been uploaded to the Hit RECord website, where they might become part of the company’s next unique project.

Before leaving on a jet plane back home, Gordon-Levitt sat down with Entertainment Weekly to discuss the modern independent film spirit, his plans for Hit RECord, and working with Daniel Day-Lewis.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You practically bounced on stage last night when you came out, you were so excited. Did the show have a different vibe than previous shows because it was Sundance?
JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: It felt like a triumphant return. Our first show ever was for 99 people back in 2010. We were in the New Frontier section, and we set up this headquarters, a sort of rec room where we were making things throughout the entire festival and then screened what we had made for this theatre with 100 seats. Sundance really was the perfect place to launch the production company. I definitely take a lot of inspiration for what I want to do with Hit RECord from what Mr. Redford has done with Sundance. I mean, look, when he started Sundance, he was like the biggest star in Hollywood and I’m certainly nothing like that. But when you have some success as an actor, you’re given a certain amount of opportunity and I so admire what he did with the opportunity that he had. He could have easily gone and just lived on a yacht or whatever, but he chose to put a lot of himself into creating this community that fostered independent film. I just admire that so much. It grew organically. It was not something that he put together with the help of Hollywood structures; that’s why he wanted to come out to Utah. Their prime interest wasn’t to make money. Their prime interest was to make movies that they felt. READ FULL STORY »