Few actors have enjoyed success in as wide a range of genres as Joseph Gordon Levitt, from sitcoms to romcoms, to thrillers to dramas. During a retrospective of his career, Levitt recalled one particular project he tried very hard to get out of, which was10 Things I Hate About Life, the 1999 retelling ofThe Taming of the Shrewstarring Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles.
“I’ll be honest, I was not sold on doing10 Things I Hate About Youwhen I first read the script. I was like, ‘I don’t wanna do one of these high school romantic comedies. I want to do serious movies.’ That’s all I wanted to do when I was that age. I was going to arthouse cinemas andwatching movies coming from Sundance. WatchingSling BladeandReservoir Dogsand Soderbergh and Tarantino. That’s what I wanted to do. And10 Things I Hate About Youcame around and I was like, ‘Nah. NO.'”
As a young actor anxious to be taken seriously, Gordon-Levitt’s reluctance to appear in a high-school rom-com was understandable. Even when he was finally convinced that the film could be a valuable opportunity for him, the role in the film thatJoseph Gordon-Levittactually chased was handed over to a different actor.
“A bunch of people in my life, my agent and you know other people were like, ‘Are you sure? Just like consider this, this is a pretty good one of these. And you know it would probably be a good thing. Just like try.’ I auditioned for two parts when I auditioned for10 Things I Hate About You. I auditioned for the part Iplayed Cameron, and I also auditioned for the role that I really wanted. That I thought was kind of funny was the character Michael that was played by David Krumholtz. The director offered me the role of Cameron and I was like, ‘Uh, ugh.'”
Fortunately, the actor’s misgivings proved unfounded. The film received praise for itsintelligent take on Shakespeare, and many of the lead cast, far from getting boxed in as high-school comedy actors, went on to have sterling careers. During a past interview regarding the film, Gordon-Levitt had credited the talent of the cast and their closeness for making10 Things I Hate About Youa classic of its genre.
“We all just hung out so much. I think we all just kind of fell in love with each other like we all just really loved hanging out genuinely and I think that’s, if I had to guess, I think that’s why the movie turned out so good and why people like it so much is because we really, really liked hanging out together and that kind of thing doesn’t actually always happen.”
“This is, of all the movies that I’ve done, probably the most outstanding example of that. Of a whole cast all like actually liking each other and hanging out with each other all the time. And that kind of thing shows through.”
