Joseph Gordon-Levitt Quotes

[In acting] I like the fight scenes because you don't have to remember lines.

When you're working through the [fight] scenes, you're working on such adrenalin. And then, later, you're like, "Oh, god, my back hurts. Where did that come from?" Your entire arm can be bruised up, but you don't even think about it while you're working.

I'm always excited to do the fight scenes.

I enjoy fighting scenes. I like fighting in film. I like pretending to fight in films.

You always start a fight scene or an action scene with, 'What are we learning about this character at the moment, and how are we gonna arc him or her in the next three minutes,' and it's no different with 'Deadpool' or 'Atomic Blonde' or 'John Wick.'

Shooting a fight is like shooting any other scene. You have to tell a story using a very specific choreography.

Everyone realizes when it comes to fight scenes, that's gonna be my wheelhouse.

I'm fairly comfortable in fight sequences and stuff like that. I've done a few of them. I'm comfortable with that sort of stuff as long as I'm reasonably fit, and it's fun to do actually. I'm like a kid in a toy shop doing that stuff.

You'll still work with some directors where that doesn't happen, and sometimes it's out of necessity because you're in a really complicated, choreographed fight scene and the whole thing is being prevised in a computer, so it's been decided months before, but I think that's sneaking into the way action scenes are shot.

Sometimes when you do fight scenes you think, "Oh, I'll be hit in the face," because people get carried away with their vanity and want to look too cool to care, but we were all really careful with each other.

To shoot a decent fight, you need to cover all the different angles, and it ends up eating a lot of days.

It's easier to do an action scene than a love scene. I love fighting. When the camera's not rolling, I'll usually punch some of the actors, just for fun.

I think it distinguishes television from every other medium. It's what makes it kind of radical, and risky, and fun.

I think one of the things that is important, for me, though a lot of people would disagree with me, is that you be founded in theater so that you understand what an audience is, what kind of an animal it is and how to play with it. How to have fun with it, how to sympathize with it, all the things that an audience is. I don't think you're going to find that out unless you do theater.

Action movies live and die by the story that you're trying to tell. It's hard. It's very difficult to do an action movie that stays engaging.

I went for a more classical approach to filmmaking with lots of dolly, track and cranes, and slightly slower, more choreographed fight moves, so you get more fight moves in one take.

I do have fun. Even when I’m fighting I’m enjoying it: I think there’s nothing as exhilarating as protecting that which you find precious.

I was a martial artist. So, for me to be able to do all of the fights is a blast. It's so fun. It's like dancing, but more bad-ass. I really enjoy doing it.

The genre of '80s action movies, I think, changed really when The Matrix came out and Keanu Reeves was able to perform kung fu. Then you had Matt Damon in the Bourne films, doing a great job. So it's different now, they can train actors to do their own fights convincingly on screen, so those guys aren't needed anymore. But I think everything goes around in circles; people still do want to see the guys that can do stuff for real, that's why The Expendables is so popular. I think it will come back again.

It's a fun thing to do, to put yourself in the service of something if you think you can add an interpretation. It's no different than any other storytelling.

What’s this? (Fang) One for all and all for fun, my friend. You didn’t think I’d let you fight demons all on your own, did you? (Thorn)

I think a good story, well told is a good story, well told, whether you're watching the episodes all in a row or not. However, it might be fun to take a closer look at how the previous episode ends and how that end relates to the beginning of the next episode.

TV is such a success nowadays because it gives back in a way that features can't. If you go to a film, you only get two hours of great storytellers and performers, and you pay top dollar for that. If you're subscribing to premium channels and you're getting all of these amazing TV shows, and you're watching them as you want, where you want, when you want, on what you want, I think that is the "the golden era of TV" in what television shows are offering to audiences. We're giving them a lot more. It's quality.

The older ones recently saw Mr and Mrs Smith and I think they thought that was the funniest thing they'd ever seen because, of course, watching your parents fight as spies is some strange sort of childhood fantasy.

I think the first duty of all art, including fiction of any kind, is to entertain. That is to say, to hold interest. No matter how worthy the message of something, if it's dull, you're just not communicating.