Joseph Gordon-Levitt Reveals How He Got Scarlett Johansson & Anne Hathaway For $41M Rom-Com

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Reveals How He Convinced Anne Hathaway For A Cameo In His Directorial Debut, Don Jon, Starring Scarlett Johansson.

By Amitabh Mukherji
April 22,2023
Featured Image

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, while making his directorial debut with 2013’s Don Jon, had to tackle a sensitive topic of a man addicted to hardcore pornography. Despite the film’s out-of-the-box premise, getting memorable cameos from several Hollywood A-listers, including Anne Hathaway, wasn’t the challenging aspect for the Inception actor.

Gordon-Levitt’s Friendship With Anne Hathaway

Gordon-Levitt’s Friendship With Anne Hathaway

During an episode of Vanity Fair’s Scenes Selection, Gordon-Levitt revealed how he managed to include cameos from several Hollywood stars, including Anne Hathaway. He said that it wasn’t hard to convince them as he was friends with all of them, especially Hathaway, with whom he previously worked on Nolan’s TDK trilogy. He expressed,

“We might as well point out my dear friends who did me the favor to appear in these movie posters. Emily and John and Chan and Annie. I spent probably way too much time coming up with these and had a lot of fun designing these movie posters. ‘So Hard So Fast 3D’ and ‘The Special Someone’ [Laughs] The one for the dudes and the one for the ladies.”

Scarlett Johansson’s Inclusion In Don Jon

Scarlett Johansson’s Inclusion In Don Jon

Getting funding for his directorial debut wasn’t easy, but Scarlett Johansson’s inclusion, who agreed to star in the film even before it got funding, helped the movie get greenlight. Gordon-Levitt explained that Johansson’s inclusion in The Avengers and his inclusion in The Dark Knight Rises helped in securing funding for the movie. He said,

“Because of Scarlett’s name, and because The Avengers was going to come out when she and I were attached to the script, that was it. I owe a great deal of credit to Scarlett, who got on board before anybody before we even had our financing. Her making that commitment was a huge part of us being able to do it.”

Despite enduring several problems while making his directorial debut, Gordon-Levitt’s Don Jon became a decent success and garnered around $41 million against its $7.5 million budget.

Read More About