Much like some of his characters, Joseph Gordon-Levitt seems to be making his moves regardless of a paycheck.
With a waning list of Hollywood blockbusters in recent years, confused fans are left wondering what exactly the 44-year-old has been up to in the last decade?
Gordon Levitt has has his share, with a string of hits and even some awards. But now, the Golden Globe winner has somewhat retreated into the shadows, favoring a smattering of short films and indie productions coupled with a passionate focus on his company, HitRecord.
In addition to his family, the online collaborative media platform appears to hold the key to his withdrawal from mainstream Hollywood.
Gordon-Levitt co-founded the company with his older brother Dan in 2005, who died just five years later at the age of 36.
Dan’s death is said to have triggered a seismic shift for the actor who reevaluated his career, his outlook on life and the importance of prioritizing family.
Following a string of big hitters, Gordon-Levitt (pictured) somewhat retreated into the shadows, favoring a smattering of short films and voice roles coupled with a passionate focus on his company, HitRecord
His career decisions are said to have been inspired by his older brother Dan Gordon-Levitt (left) who died, aged 36 in 2010. The siblings had cofounded HitRecord together in 2005
‘His brother’s death has had a lasting impact,’ an insider told the Daily Mail. ‘Joseph has continued to work since that moment in a mixture of on camera and voice roles, but what it taught him most was that life is fleeting and should be enjoyed.
‘It’s not that Joseph doesn’t enjoy working, but he also enjoys life and working on projects that were dear to his brother.
‘Dan was his hero, and Joseph is living his life the way he believes his brother would be proud of. It has had a major life altering impact on their business and his life. No question about it.’
Known as ‘Burning Dan’ because of his work as a fire-spinning artist, Gordon-Levitt’s lookalike brother was found unresponsive in his Hollywood home in October 2010. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. A cause of death was not made public.
Gordon-Levitt – who has long been a private star – has previously opened up about the impact his brother has had on his ‘eclectic taste’ over the years.
‘The biggest transformation I’ve ever seen is my brother,’ he told the Off Camera Show in 2016. ‘Growing up, he was always a pretty shy, introverted guy, dressed unremarkably, talked quietly… He got really into photography, and he also got really into fire spinning… even though he was really inspired by it he thought, “yeah but I’m not really the person that does that.”‘
He recalled how after Dan took a trip to the Burning Man festival, he asked himself: ‘Why shouldn’t I be the kind of person who spins fire if I want to?’
‘It changed his life,’ Gordon-Levitt said. ‘He became such an extroverted person… I love hearing about people who say I can be who I want to be and change themselves.’
‘Dan was his hero, and Joseph is living his life the way he believes his brother would be proud of,’ an insider told the Daily Mail
Gordon-Levitt, 44, made his acting debut in 1988, at age seven, in Stranger on My Land before he landed the role of Tommy Solomon on 3rd Rock from the Sun in 1996 (pictured – backseat far right)
Hollywood came calling in the 1990s, most notably with rom com classic 10 Things I Hate About You (pictured alongside his costar Larisa Oleynik)
Born to Dennis Levitt and Jane Gordon in Los Angeles in February 1981, Gordon-Levitt caught the acting bug early. He would dress up and entertain his parents at their home in Sherman Oaks before starring in commercials and then making his acting debut in 1988, at age seven, in Western TV film, Stranger on My Land.
Small roles soon followed with Family Ties and Murder, She Wrote before he was cast as Tommy Solomon on 3rd Rock from the Sun.
Hollywood came calling in the 1990s, most notably with rom com classic 10 Things I Hate About You. After a brief break from acting to study at Columbia University, he dropped out and threw himself back into acting with fervor, eventually landing the lead – and at the time his biggest role to date – in 500 Days of Summer alongside Zooey Deschanel in 2009.
The kid who started out selling Kellogg’s toaster pastries on national TV had hit the big time.
After that, more major roles started pouring in – including in Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Looper (2012), Lincoln (2012), Don John (2013) and Snowden (2016).
The latter, in which he played the titular Edward Snowden – a former National Security Agency intelligence contractor-turned-whistleblower – was his final blockbuster before a three-year hiatus, elicited by parental duties.
Gordon-Levitt, who married Tasha McCauley, the founder and CEO of technology company Fellow Robots, in December 2014, became a first-time dad in August 2015. Their second child, another son, followed in June 2017. Then in July 2024 the actor revealed they had secretly welcomed a daughter in 2022.Â
He marked his screen return in 2019 with 7500, a catch-your-breath thriller set almost entirely in the cockpit of an airplane that Gordon-Levitt’s character is piloting through a terror-related hijacking.
After a brief break from acting to study, he landed the lead – at the time his biggest role to date – in 500 Days of Summer alongside Zooey Deschanel (both pictured)
He took another break from acting in 2016 after his film Snowden, prioritizing his family. He has three children – two sons and a daughter – with his wife Tasha McCauley (pictured together in 2016)
He returned in 2019 with Amazon Prime thriller 7500, telling Variety at the time: ‘I had actually taken a number of years off from acting because I had kids’
‘I had actually taken a number of years off from acting because I had kids,’ he told Variety at the time. ‘I knew that, when I came back, that I wanted to find something that was a creative challenge and that would inspire me.Â
‘And I did my very best to ignore the voices in my head, which were talking to me about career building and momentum and all that jazz. Instead, I focused on why I love acting.’
Unlike his former costars Anne Hathway, Emily Blunt and Jeremy Strong – who all went on to scale the upper echelons of Hollywood – Gordon-Levitt shunned the fanfare and turned primarily to streamers, smaller TV roles and voice acting for which he has tallied up a handful of credits: Young Mr Burns in a 2025 episode of The Simpsons, Jay in a 2021 episode of Star Wars: Visions, Jiminy Cricket in live action Pinocchio and Detective Hardrock in 2019’s Knives Out.
He also focused on his growing company, winning a Primetime Emmy Award for his HitRecord on TV series and receiving a nomination for documentary, HITRECORD x ACLU: Are You There Democracy? It’s Me, the Internet. His pandemic TV series Create Together with Joseph Gordon-Levitt also won him an award in 2020.
‘Joseph is very content with his career and where it stands,’ the insider told the Daily Mail. ‘Over the last few years, he has chosen projects that he likes over huge tentpoles as he is as big of a celebrity as he wants to be.
‘Being in Eddie Murphy’s return to the Beverly Hills Cop series was a big moment for him, and then sprinkle all that with his voice work and other work he’s getting into in the new year, he’s very happy with how everything is going.’
Perhaps his biggest passion right now is using HitRecord to inspire others to create, and to campaign against the ‘unethical business practices’ he has deemed an ‘urgent problem with today’s big AI companies.’
It’s a passion he shares with his wife, a scientist at Santa Monica think tank The RAND Corporation. She was among a handful of prominent people who had Sam Altman pulled as CEO of OpenAI over fears he was flouting the dangers of AI. He was reinstated five days later following significant backlash and remains in the position today.
Gordon-Levitt recently addressed the dangers of technology at the United Nations and – along with 17 peers including Natasha Lyonne and Daniel Kwan – launched the Creators’ Coalition on AI in December.
‘He’s always going to be an entertainer, and his recent talks about AI show that,’ our insider said. ‘He’s a very forward-thinking person. He’s a smart guy and he wants to always be in the mix of new ideas – that really intrigues him. And if he can incorporate that into his work and in his life, that makes it that much better.
‘If people think his star is falling, that’s on them.’
