Exclusive Clip: Joseph Gordon-Levitt talks about casting

As Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s brash, loud, “sort of dick” father in last year’s comedy drama Don Jon, Tony Danza certainly wasn’t the most sympathetic character we had the pleasure of meeting.

In fact, as Jon Sr., we spent most of the 90 minutes of Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut hoping someone would shout back and give him a taste of his own short-tempered medicine.

Of course, this was the point — and a large part of the reason why our eventually loveable central character (the vain, vaguely narcissistic Jersey Shore-type Jon Martello, played by Gordon-Levitt) began the film as the person that he was. That is, a muscle-popping, sex-obsessed, Italian-American stereotype.

And as Gordon-Levitt himself says, Danza still managed to bring depth to the character, despite him being a “lecherous dude… all but hitting on his son’s girlfriend.”

As it turns out, the relationship of the kid from 3rd Rock From The Sun and the veteran actor goes back 20 years, to when they worked together on Angels in the Outfield in 1993.

In this exclusive clip we go behind the scenes on Don Jon, and see Gordon-Levitt explaining “the charm that Tony brings to the character.”

Originally published at https://www.thenationalstudent.com.