SPEC Film to host Joseph Gordon-Levitt

The Social Planning and Events Committee Film Society will host Inception star Joseph Gordon-Levitt as its fall speaker later this month.

Now 23 years into his professional acting career, Gordon-Levitt got his start as a child star in ‘90s favorite 3rd Rock from the Sun and was nominated this past year for a Golden Globe for his performance in (500) Days of Summer.

Students, particularly females, reacted with enthusiasm.

“I think he’s really good-looking,” College and Wharton junior Danielle Fiorino, who remembers him from both Inception and his earlier films, said. She added, “It’s kind of exciting to see someone I’ve watched grow up in movies.”

“I’m really excited because I saw him in Inception ... it’s such a cool movie,” Wharton sophomore Lilian Chen said.

College freshman Owen Gantz was less enthusiastic. “I’ve actually never heard of him before,” he said.

Gordon-Levitt also founded an open collaborative production company in 2005 called hitRECord that allows artists without access to production equipment to work together online on film projects.

In addition to speaking about his acting and production careers, Gordon-Levitt’s talk will include an interactive video collaboration that showcases various digital multimedia projects unique to hitRECord.

“SPEC Film chose Joseph as our key speaker this year in order to serve the Penn community’s aspiring actors, producers and directors,” SPEC Film Director and College junior Kambiri Cox said in a statement.

In previous years, SPEC Film has hosted directors Spike Lee and Danny Boyle.

Gordon-Levitt will speak from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. on Nov. 17 in Irvine Auditorium. Ticket are $2 and go on sale to PennCard holders at the Office of Student Affairs in Houston Hall beginning Nov. 8.

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