Joseph Gordon Levitt is a strange character. On the one hand, I appreciate that he (unlike Kristen Stewart, who doesn’t apply in this instance) has escaped the “child star” trap, but I also take slight offense at his recent claims that pretty girls aren’t funny and that (allegedly) Anne Hathaway is an insufferable snob. However, I can truly get behind JGL’s recent promotional efforts for action thriller Premium Rush, in which he plays a dedicated bike messenger pursued by Michael Shannon. Because, let’s face it, this looks like a truly frivolous, popcorn-munching movie. So let’s review some excerpts from JGL’s recent “20 Questions” feature with Playboy, shall we?

On his former “child star” status: “I wouldn’t say I was a normal kid. I’d say I was a lucky little kid, because unfortunately it’s not normal to have extraordinarily good parents who love and support you. I played baseball, did gymnastics, took piano lessons and started acting as just another one of the things I did. I wasn’t pressured into it. But it was acting I loved. I had a really cool acting teacher who taught us how to become a character, to be realistic and feel those feelings, so I hated being expected to behave like an idiot in TV commercials because they seem to think that’s what sells toys or whatever. I remember on Beethoven we weren’t allowed to pet the dog because it would have distracted him. For a dog lover that was disappointing and weird.”

How he avoids tabloid status: “Being on TV when I was a teenager in high school was way harder than anything I’ve experienced since. It prepared me for what it is to work in pop culture. I’ve learned I have basically two different interactions with people. I love when someone approaches me and tells me they’ve seen me in something that made them feel something and that they connected to it. That’s part of why I do it. The other interaction is with people who really don’t care about the movies or anything like that. They just sort of buy into the fame thing, and that feels icky to me.”

On his grown-up movie star transition: “As a teenager in the 1990s I loved the spike of indie films coming through Sundance, and films like Pulp Fiction, Big Night, Sling Blade, Trees Lounge and Swingers. Had I said to my agents at the time that I wanted to do that stuff, they would have said, “You’re making a ton of money doing TV, and that’s what you’re going to do.” I went to school, quit acting for a while, and when I came back everyone wanted me to do another TV show and make more money. I didn’t want to. I made a decision that I was going to do only work that inspired me creatively, not what was supposed to be good for my career.”

On 500 Days of Summer: “The attitude of ‘He wants you so bad’ seems attractive to some women and men, especially younger ones, but I would encourage anyone who has a crush on my character to watch it again and examine how selfish he is. He develops a mildly delusional obsession over a girl onto whom he projects all these fantasies. He thinks she’ll give his life meaning because he doesn’t care about much else going on in his life. A lot of boys and girls think their lives will have meaning if they find a partner who wants nothing else in life but them. That’s not healthy. That’s falling in love with the idea of a person, not the actual person.”

On romance: “Making checklists of things you’re looking for in a person is the numero uno thing you can do to guarantee you’ll be alone forever. You can’t meet someone and think, Do they have everything I want in a person? You just have to pay attention, keep your eyes open, listen to people and be present. I guess what I look for in a girl is someone who’s doing that too. Beyond that there’s not much more I would specify, because you never f#@*ing know, man.”

On people talking about how & Zooey Deschanel should just do it: “It’s awkward when people say that. Whatever. Zooey and I just think it’s funny. It is funny. We’ve been friends for 10 years. She loves movies, music and art, and she’s incredibly knowledgeable about that stuff. She’s turned me on to so many good movies and so much good music. It’s fun just to have conversations, watch movies with her and stuff like that.”

On time-travelling in Looper: “I’m a sucker for Rian Johnson’s thing. He’s the writer-director of Looper, and I also made Brick with him. He’s a dear friend and a brilliant filmmaker–a great writer, a great mind. Looper brings all the exhilaration and chemical feelings you hope to get from an action sci-fi movie. But Rian has also come up with a concept that will tickle your intellect while he tells a sincere story about the cyclical nature of violence and how violence begets violence. I love going to a good movie more than anything, and this movie just hits it.”

[From Playboy]

On that last note, I love that JGL is a true movie fan who loves movies “more than anything,” and I’m much more willing to be a fan of a total movie dork than someone who acts like they’re above it all, you know? Of course, now I’m going to change heart and entirely disagree with Regular Joe (sorry, dude) and echo the sentiments of Kaiser when she says that he and Zooey are absolutely perfect together. Hey, it’s true.

Photos courtesy of Playboy and WENN