Joseph Gordon Levitt Talks The Walk and Snowden

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt Talks ‘The Walk,’ Learning to Wire Walk, ‘Snowden’ and More

By Perri Nemiroff

Published Oct 6, 2015

Find out Philippe Petit's first rule of wire walking.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt had his work cut out for him while working on Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk. Not only did he have to nail a french accent and portray a real person with a big personality, but he also had to learn how to wire walk as well. Gordon-Levitt leads the film as Philippe Petit, the high-wire artist who placed his wire in between the towers of the World Trade Center and then walked from one to the other and back again. The Walk chronicles everything from when Petit first fell for the art of wire walking to his discovery of the Twin Towers, all the way up to the day when he’d attempt this “coup.” It’s an incredible story in and of itself, but Zemeckis takes it to another level by turning it into an especially immersive cinematic experience. You can check out my full review of the film right here.

With The Walk currently in select theaters and due for a wide expansion on October 9th, I got the opportunity to talk to Gordon-Levitt about what makes Zemeckis a standout director, what it was like training with Philippe Petit himself and the status of Oliver Stone’s Snowden. You can catch it all in the video interview below.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt:

On working with Robert Zemeckis; his humility.
Learning to wire walk with the real Philippe Petit.
An update on Oliver Stone’s Snowden.

Here’s the official synopsis of The Walk:

Twelve people have walked on the moon, but only one man has ever, or will ever, walk in the immense void between the World Trade Center towers. Guided by his real-life mentor, Papa Rudy (Ben Kingsley), and aided by an unlikely band of international recruits, Petit and his gang overcome long odds, betrayals, dissension and countless close calls to conceive and execute their mad plan. Robert Zemeckis, the director of such marvels as Forrest Gump, Cast Away, Back to the Future, Polar Express and Flight, again uses cutting edge technology in the service of an emotional, character-driven story. With innovative photorealistic techniques and IMAX 3D wizardry, The Walk is true big-screen cinema, a chance for moviegoers to viscerally experience the feeling of reaching the clouds. The film is a love letter to Paris and New York City in the 1970s, but most of all, to the Towers of the World Trade Center.