Joseph Gordon-Levitt's career has always involved work in both film and TV, but Mr. Corman represents his first major commitment to a show since 3rd Rock From the Sun. However, he's also bringing an auteur sensibility to the new Apple TV+ series premiering today, as not just the star but the creator, co-writer, and director of eight of the 10 episodes.

Mr. Corman features Gordon-Levitt as a teacher living in Los Angeles, struggling to cope with anxiety and other issues with the help of his roommate Victor (Arturo Castro) and mother Ruth (Debra Winger). It's an intimate character study set in contemporary times — so contemporary, in fact, that Season 1 was rewritten to accommodate the pandemic, which shut down the original production and shifted the story to some degree... though, as Gordon-Levitt revealed during a one-on-one interview, not as much as you might have expected.

In the transcript below and the video above, Gordon-Levitt explains how the pandemic altered the series, why it meant a lot to him to involve Debra Winger in the series, and why he looked to Aurora Guerrero (Queen Sugar, Little America) to direct the two episodes he didn't direct himself. But first, we get into the why of it all.

Collider: To start things off, what were the origins of this for you?

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT: So I was looking back at my first notes when I wrote down this idea. They were back in 2015. I became a dad that same year. And I think becoming a dad probably forced me to take stock in my life. And I feel just incredibly grateful for so many things in my life. I've found a partner that I love so much and we have our kids and I have two wonderful parents and I get to do work that's meaningful to me and I'm healthy and safe.

I have so much to be grateful for, but I'd also be lying if I told you I was just happy 100 percent of the time. I just don't know if that's human to be that way, or at least it's not for me. So I wanted to tell a story about a guy that's doing his best and does have a lot to be grateful for and he's happy sometimes, but he'd be lying if he tells you he's happy all the time. And he's trying to figure it out. And that's Mr. Corman. Not being happy can feel sad. It can feel anxiety-inducing. It can also be funny if you have, I don't know, a certain sense of humor, which I seem to have. So that's where the humor comes from.

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Image via Apple TV+

What about him being a teacher unlocked the idea for you?

GORDON-LEVITT: I've always admired teachers a great, great deal. If I could wave a magic wand, I would live in a world where teachers are the ones, more than entertainers, where teachers are the ones that are getting celebrated and valorized and who are making lots of money. And where all of us are talking all the time about this amazing teacher or that amazing teacher. I think that would be a healthier world. And I've had some incredible teachers in my life. I've always been drawn to that as profession. It's something I would still hope that I get to do at some point in my life. And so I really wanted to play a teacher.

That's fun. And you got to work with kids, which is a new experience I'm sure. Or not in super new, but in that context.

GORDON-LEVITT: Well, it's funny, because when I'm playing a fifth grade teacher who has students who are 10 and 11, I was acting when I was 10 and 11. So that was another reason why I was excited to play a teacher, was I was really excited to work with young actors like that. I remember being a young actor like that and there's some really great performances from these young actors in Mr. Corman.

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So I knew that production shifted during shutdown, but I wasn't expecting the story to change so much. And I'm curious what your original plan for the show was before the pandemic happened.

GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah, well, it's largely similar. So the first seven episodes of the show are the same that we wrote. And then the last three episodes are set during the pandemic. And there's only one whole new script that we wrote after the pandemic arrived, and that's Episode 8 where you see the pandemic arrive. And then Episode 9 and 10 are substantially similar to what we had written. They're just now set during the pandemic, which gives them an extra, I think, bit of intrigue. But yeah, there was just one script that it was actually mostly set at school that we just couldn't shoot because we couldn't shoot at the school anymore. And so that one had to go, unfortunately, and we replaced it with what's now Episode 8, which is yeah, now this work of historical fiction about this thing that we all just went through.

I mean, that is an eerie part of this whole experience, just knowing that the stuff that we've been making and watching for the last year is going to be this real time document of what it's been like.

GORDON-LEVITT: It's funny. I feel like for a lot of shows you can ignore the pandemic and I totally get and respect that. Our show is sort of, at its core, trying to feel real about real life in today's real world. It's not so much about escapism. And so it didn't feel right to just try to avoid or ignore the pandemic. I think three episodes is good. Just the last three episodes.

I feel like that's probably enough, for sure.

GORDON-LEVITT: Yeah, that's enough.

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Image via Apple TV+

You have a really great collection of guest stars across the season. Were there people that you just knew automatically, if I ever make something like this, I just want to have them involved? Or were there people you wrote specifically for?

GORDON-LEVITT: When I told my mom that Debra Winger was going to play my mom, she was, I'm not exaggerating, she was moved. Because Debra Winger is a meaningful artist. You know what I mean? Let's face it, the history of Hollywood's portrayal of female characters is not great. And Debra Winger decades ago was already saying, "I'm not going to be reduced to a plot device or a pretty thing. I'm going to play a full human being." And she does it so brilliantly. And I just think she's such a wonderful artist and I'm honored and delighted that she played my mom in Mr. Corman.

She was definitely the face of the documentary Searching for Debra Winger, and so it's great to see her back on screen.

GORDON-LEVITT: I'm not familiar with that documentary. I'll have to look for it.

Yeah. It's about ageism in Hollywood.

GORDON-LEVITT: Oh, wow. That's exactly what I was just talking about, geez. I have to watch this documentary.

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Image via Apple TV+

So normally, I would ask about why you directed certain episodes, but I want to get your answer why you don't direct every episode of this season?

GORDON-LEVITT: Well, there was a wonderful director who directed a couple of the episodes. Like you said, I directed eight and she directed two. Aurora Guerrero is her name. So she directed the second episode, which is... This character suffers through a certain amount of anxiety. And I wanted someone else to be directing me for that. When you're directing, you have to keep your eye on so many things. And I knew that for that episode, I wanted to be able to kind of lose myself and just go wholeheartedly into the emotions the character is feeling. And Aurora was such a wonderful guide and director doing that. And, yeah, she's just a wonderful collaborator in general.

To wrap up, I know you have a long-standing relationship with Rian Johnson. Have you figured out a way to sneak into Knives Out 2 yet?

GORDON-LEVITT: We'll see. I hope so.

The first episode of Mr. Corman is streaming now on Apple TV+. New episodes premiere weekly.

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