A few weeks back I was lucky enough to participate in a webcam (which is apparent by the scattered structure) interview with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel for their upcoming film 500 Days of Summer. The films debuted at the Sundance film festival this year and was met with stellar reviews, 500 Days Of Summer opens on July 17th.

Tell us what it was like to work on independent films such as this.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Uh-huh.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: I mean, I would say it was like probably 60% improvised…

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: …would you say?

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a really good script so–

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: It was a great script, great script.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: …because we were shooting on little digital video cameras this big, we could just go off.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: They had so much–yeah, they just kept adding scenes. We would shoot the scenes as written and then they’d be like, “Oh, let’s just make a scene where you guys are walking down the hall.” We would be like, “Oh, okay.”

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Let’s do it. Sure.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Yeah, sure.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: But Manic was all about, for me, Manic was about trying to stay focused on pain and strife and frustration, and these things. (500) Days of Summer was much easier because I was really just playing a guy whose [INDISCERNIBLE] madly in love with this girl, and she should have to play madly in love with me. And so I just kind of focused on her and listen [INDISCERNIBLE] in the morning. It was easy.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: It was–this one was more, yeah, light-hearted.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah.

So the movie seems to be a harking back to the era of Cameron Crowe and Woody Allen comedies that rely more on heart than surrealism or gross-out gags. Was it a welcome change of pace for you two to do something so different?

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Yeah, definitely.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: I mean…

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Thank you, first, ‘cause…

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: …thank you. Yeah.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: …that’s a really nice thing to say.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Wonderful [OVERLAPPING].

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: My favorite kind of comedies are the ones where it’s not necessarily from a punch line or from some gags, it’s from–oh–

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: I recognized that.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah, I know how that feels.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Yeah, yeah, agreed. Yeah, my favorite movies are definitely more along the Woody Allen-Cameron Crowe lines than the gross-out comedies.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Uh-huh.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: And I had been sort of like waiting with bated breath for something like this to come along, and even better was with Joe. It’s like a dream come true.

INTERVIEWER: In the film, both Tom and Summer experienced a fairly extreme transformation or ideas about love. In fact, they seem to interchange their ideas. Have your ideas about love changed in your own lives?

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Definitely, of course. I mean, I think that it’s just like anything that you–like believing in God or believing or believing in anything, that’s like a lifelong question.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Santa Claus.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Yeah, exactly. It’s like a lifelong question that you’re constantly–I mean, of course, like I personally have always believed in love, like I–you know.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: All you need is love.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: All you need is love. But I think, you know, just depending upon how you grow up and your experience is, you’re gonna have different points of view about it. And as your experience continues to happen in your life, you end up having a different perspective, which is why you have more perspective as you get older just because you’ve been through myriad of things.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Well said.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Thank you.

Zooey, music has surrounded you for a good part of your adolescent/adult life. Summer is a very musically-inclined character in “500 Days”. Is that something that attracted you in this picture, or is that something you brought to the picture?

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: All the music references were there in the film and they were all–it was like both Tom and Summer have what I considered to be very good taste in music. But I think one of the things about the film more than anything that it’s saying is that like these are sort of how we present ourselves to the outside world that not–music isn’t just something to be inspired by and moved by, but also something–it’s a way that we express ourselves–our taste in music is a way that we express ourselves. And the way that we–

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Uh-huh. That it’s a creative act.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Yeah, exactly. That the way we communicate with others is partially like our taste.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Right.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: So I really like that aspect of it, for sure. And it was nice to work on a set where music was a really big part of it. And everyday Mark would play music and we’d bring in music and we’d dance…

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Uh-huh. Dance party.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: …on our break.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Everyday.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Everyday, in the hair and makeup trailer, we’d have a dance party…

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: After-lunch dance party.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: …after lunch, and whenever possible, basically. So, yeah, I mean–

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: I think it’s a sign of the times…

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: For sure.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: …a bit because now more than ever, we, and any music-lover, has this super abundance to choose from. It’s not just what’s on the radio and it’s not just what’s at the record store, you can get anything. And so, what you choose is kind of an art and a craft in itself. It’s like the art of the DJ or the curator. And I love that about now, about the 21st century. And I think–I’m glad that it’s sort of evident in “(500) Days of Summer”.

INTERVIEWER: Now, this film is being released against summer blockbusters, what do you think sets this movie apart from the rest to lure in audience?

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: It’s awesome.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Because it’s awesome. Yeah, I mean, summer blockbusters–I mean, I almost–it’s hard to connect the two. I mean, I know it’s a movie and those are movies, but it’s like such a different–you’d be looking for a very different type of entertainment. I would say, though, this is, at heart, a very entertaining film. I find it–

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: It’s a really good summer movie, actually.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: I agree. And if you’re looking for something a little bit more light-hearted…

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Uh-huh, right.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: …fun.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah. Maybe a few less like timpani drums and blood…

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Yeah.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: …and more…

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Yeah.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: …like Joy Division and kissing.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Yeah. Yeah. If you like Joy Division and kissing…

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: …this is the movie.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: What summer blockbuster has Joy Division and kissing?

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: I don’t think–I can’t–Wolverine? No.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: No. No. Transformers 2.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: No.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: No

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: No.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Terminator?

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: No way. No. No.

INTERVIEWER: Joseph, what made you decide to do more independent work after “10 Things I Hate About You”?

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Well, you know, to me, I actually don’t really make such a distinction between independent work and studio work or whatever. You can put things in a lot of different categories, but what’s important to me is there a good script? Is there a cool filmmaker that I connect with? Who else am I gonna be working with? That’s what matters to me. So whether it’s–well, yeah, that’s what matters to me, and “500 Days” is a perfect example. I mean, it’s kind of an indie movie, but it was actually produced by Fox Searchlight, who’s owned by Fox who’s like–I think the point is it doesn’t really matter necessarily who’s paying the bills. What matters is who are the people that are making the movie.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: And it’s the same. I mean, they’re all the same. It has nothing to do with anything.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah. And there are plenty of independent movies that are sell-outs, and there are plenty of studio movies that are genuine works of art and vice-versa and–

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Yeah.

INTERVIEWER: Now, University of Michigan, there was a brief clip in the trailer, but is there a full “Slumdog Millionaire” style choreographed dance sequence?

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Maybe.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Perhaps. I wouldn’t call it–like “Slumdog Millionaire” had not come out when we…

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: No.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: …made the film. It wouldn’t even connect.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: And the “Slumdog Millionaire” dance number was just awesome…

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Yeah, awesome.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: …but it’s sort of outside of the story. It’s like the credit sequence, whereas there is a dance sequence in this movie and it fits perfectly into the story.

INTERVIEWER: Now, this is Marc Webb’s first feature-length film. He uses some interesting techniques, from incorporating graphics, animation, and even to dancing as you guys just discussed, all done in a nonlinear time frame, and I think he pulled this off really well. Before filming, did you have a sense of what he would use stylistically for both of you?

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: I had a little bit of an–I mean, I knew his aesthetic in terms of making music videos, which is like–I mean, it definitely spans the gamut. It’s not like–he doesn’t have like–he’s versatile, but he has his own style.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Uh-huh.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: But I was like–I mean, I knew that he was gonna do an amazing job visually, but like I kind of forgot about that part ‘cause he was such a good actors’ director that–

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah, it’s true.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: …he was so great at working with actors and just such a lovely genuine person that he just seemed like an actors’ director. As soon as I was on set, I forgot about everything else, and then seeing the film, I was reminded that his background is in music videos, which is mainly a visual medium, so I was reminded by being completely blown away. That’s my piece. What do you think?

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Well, he was also really good at describing what it was gonna be, and that’s always a sign of a good director. I mean, yeah, the movie turned out very similarly to what I had envisioned based on what he told me, and that’s not always the case at all.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: I guess, I mean I wasn’t really listening–

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah. Well–but could you–you’re so–I’m a little more of a faker than you are, I think. I mean, you’re just so honest and in it right there and I’m like, “Oh, what it’s gonna look like?” Like, “How is it gonna work?”

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: You’re not a faker.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: I think we’re almost fakery. What do you think?

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: All right, that’s a fake. You’re a fake. Okay, fake. No. You’re not a fake. I’m confused. Anyway–

INTERVIEWER: What would you two say your personal favorite romantic comedies?

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Oh, wow. I mean, it’s hard because like the genre of romantic comedy seems to like now at this point, refer to like a very, very narrow, like set of films that seem to have–like a lot of them have the same plot. So I’m gonna like go back a little bit in the past and say that like, okay, like Broadcast News is kind of like a romantic-comedy but that was a kind of–it got drama and I love that film, and I love Annie Hall. And that’s also kind of like a romantic-comedy but also…

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Uh-huh.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: …have dramatic elements.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah, “Manhattan.”

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: “Manhattan.” I love “Manhattan.” And I love all the screwball comedies from the ‘30s that are basically, I guess, what we’d call–if they came out today, we’d probably call them romantic-comedies, but they’re the Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant and like “Bringing Up Baby and 20th century with Carole Lombard and John Barrymore.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: What’s the name of the film–wait, why can’t I think of it? With Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in the newspapers?

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Oh, “His Girl Friday.”

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: “His Girl Friday.” Yeah.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Oh, that’s a great film. That also has a lot of dramatic elements, too.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah, yeah. [INDISCERNIBLE].

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: The guy, he is on death row, I think.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Right. That’s true.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: You know, that I thought, you know…

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Right, right.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: …escaped from jail or something.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: I’ll be a little more, I don’t know, not so cool. But I’ll admit it. I love “Swingers”. I really like it. It’s kind of–

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Well, “Swingers” is a great movie. Yeah.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: It’s a kind of a cliché thing for a guy my age to say, but I really like that movie, a lot. It meant a lot to me when I was 16, and it still means a lot to me.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: It’s so funny when he like calls the girl like six times–

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah.

INTERVIEWER: What clichés do you think “(500) Days of Summer” avoids?

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: That’s an interesting wording of it because–so you’re asking what clichés it avoids. I think “(500) Days of Summer” doesn’t so much avoid clichés as it kind of walks right up to them and has a conversation with them, and sort of follows some of them and deviates from other ones, and that’s what I like about it because avoiding clichés, I think, then you just, you know, you start becoming obscure.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Also, it’s like–if your goal is to not be something, it’s like…

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Right.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: …that’s not a goal, that’s too amorphous. That’s such like–to be like, “Oh. My only goal is to not be this.” It’s like, “Well, you’re already not that.”

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Uh-huh.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: It’s like if you aim for something, you’re–then you–like it’s something actual.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Uh-huh.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: It’s like you’re not thinking about what you’re not.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: You know, I think the main goal of working on a movie is you wanna actually be telling a story.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah, yeah, yeah. A friend of mine says, “It’s the easiest thing in the world to say what you’re not. It’s the hardest thing to say what you are.”

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Exactly.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah.

INTERVIEWER: Joseph, I’d first like to say “Brick” is one of my favorite movies of all time.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Oh, thanks.

INTERVIEWER: But between your role here and your surprising turn as Cobra Commander in the new G.I. Joe film, are you ready for a new level of exposure?

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Cobra Commander.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: A new level of exposure. You know, I was on TV every week. There’s not–it doesn’t get more exposed than that. So, yeah, sure I’m ready, but thank you.

And, Zooey, your style is very much ‘50s. What about that decade that draws you to it, and do you find it ironic that the conformity that defined the ‘50s sets you apart?

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: I actually don’t think my style is ‘50s. I don’t agree. I like some of the shapes of the clothes in the ‘50s, but my favorite films are more of ‘60s. Starting 1960, the French new wave began, and then Fellini was making a lot of really amazing films in the ‘60s as well, in that great Italian cinema as well. And then in the later ‘60s, the United States started to…

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Catch up.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: …fall in line, films like “Bonnie and Clyde” and “The Graduate”. I mean, thematically like my taste definitely is very ‘60s and early ‘70s and late ‘70s, and then I love the ‘30s. But like clothes-wise, I like ‘60s clothes, too. I mean, I like things that are old, generally. I like the ‘50s, but I would say more of my favorite things come from the ‘60s than the ‘50s for sure.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: To me, though, it seems that it’s just that you are sort of outside of time that it’s like “I like this. It doesn’t matter if it’s…

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Right.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: …happening now or if it happened then.”

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Right. Right, right. Sure, sure.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: But that’s how you said it.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: I love musicals. I mean, some really great musicals were made in the ‘50s for sure. But like if I were to only define myself by having a taste in that, then that would be a lie because it’s like–I have a pretty broad taste and I don’t–‘50s, like when somebody says ‘50s, I just think of like the ‘80s when everything was like ‘50s revival, like those like Johnny Rockets, and all those late ‘50s where everything was like ‘50s revival, like–and I wouldn’t say–

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: And Ronald Reagan.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Yeah, and Ronald Reagan. Yeah, I wouldn’t say that I’m just really very, very aligned with the ‘50s. I don’t pay–that’s not my decade, so there we go.

Just two more questions and we’ll go. You know, sometimes the exaggerated realm of this movie. How do you keep your characters grounded, keeping them from being too naive and love-drunk or too much of a cold witch?

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: I think we just both tried to–I mean, I just was saying that in the other room, but I’ll say it again. I think we’re both just trying to be as sincere as we could in the moment. I mean, Summer is pretty straightforward about her wants and needs and where she is; and then Tom has his own thing, so your feeling with it is sort of more of just an unfortunate event than anything, I think.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: And I think all of the sort of larger-than-life elements of the movie, they don’t come because, well, we just wanted to do this larger-than-life thing. It all comes from a sincere point of view, even the most surreal parts like the dance number…

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Yeah.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: …because–you know, I mean, I know how it feels when you finally got to be with the girl that you’ve had a crush on for so long and it feels like that. And so it doesn’t come from like, “Well, it’ll be great if we throw in a dance number.” It comes from like, “How does it feel? How can we describe how it feels?” ‘Cause we could, you know–what it looks like to an objective eye. It just looks like someone may be smiling to themselves, walking down the street, but what feels like…

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Is a dance number.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: …is a dance number, and that’s–I mean, there you have kind of the summary of what “(500) Days of Summer” is. It’s more about how it feels than…

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: [INDISCERNIBLE] summary. “(500) Days of Summary.”

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Right. It’s a summary movie.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: It is a summary–in summary–

And last question…

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: …in summation.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Uh-huh.

And last question is what do you–what would you both like, “I insist to take away from this film”?

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah, that’s an interesting question.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Yeah. I don’t really like to tell people what they should take away because I like to go see a movie and be allowed to feel–like I don’t want to feel that somebody is trying to teach me a lesson about something, and I think it is like a very–just sort of sacred relationship you have with your audience as an artist. And if you are able–it’s, I think, what leads for me–I think it is best to do my part and then hand it over to those who are going to experience it because it’s a very personal thing watching a film and…

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: And it’s a creative act.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Exactly.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: It’s like what we were talking about before that watching a movie–I think it’s a more 20th century attitude that watching a movie is sort of–well, I’m an audience member and it’s a passive thing and I sit here and watch, but I think that watching a movie can be and ought to be a creative act to–you come up with what it means. And…

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Exactly.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: …what I would hate is if I told you what I wanted you to take and then you were having a conversation with someone later about the movie and they were like,

“You know, it meant XYZ to me,” and then you said, “Well, that’s not what it means because I heard this interview with the actor and he said it means this, so you’re wrong.” And that would kill the whole purpose of art. So, I hope you won’t mind if we just sort of…

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Let’s say, I hope–

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: …humbly decline to tell you what we want you to think it means.

Thank you, guys, very much. That’s it.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Thank you.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Thank you.

ZOOEY DESCHANEL: Yeah.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah.

Update: KSU Owl Radio has audio of the interview here.

Check out 500 Days of Summer when it hits theaters July 17th.