Actors didn't use to be celebrities. A hundred years ago, they put the theaters next to the brothels.
Hollywood has the idea that movies have to be dumb. But especially movies for or about teenagers have to be really dumb!
I was just watching baby videos of me and I was obviously an exhibitionist.
I was such a big Dustin Hoffman fan when I was young.
If you're going to put yourself above everybody else, you might end up alone.
Most scripts are bad. I read a lot of them.
Ummm... well, the only thing I want to do is stuff with people who care about what they're doing, which sounds obvious, but it's really not.
When I was a teenager I loved acting, but I really just loved it for myself. I didn't like the fact that anyone else saw the work I was doing.
The whole concept of celebrity pisses me off. While I'm not a celebrity, it's such a weird concept that society has cooked up for us. Astronauts and teachers are much more amazing than actors.
Most scripts are bad. I read a lot of them. "Brick" was a good script just to read. It was like, 'Oh my God, these words feel so good in my mouth.' A lot of movies try to set up a world with cool sets, costumes, camera work. In "Brick," the world is born from the words.
To me, a sex scene in a movie generally means a gratuitous scene that doesn't serve the story but gives a kind of excuse; we've got these two actors, we want to see them naked, so let's bring in the music and the soft light.
Actors didn't use to be celebrities. A hundred years ago, they put the theaters next to the brothels. Actors were poor. Celebrities used to be kings and queens. Then the United States abolished monarchy, and now there's this coming together of show business and celebrity. I don't think it's healthy. I don't want to sound self-important, but all these celebrity shows and magazines - it comes from us, from Hollywood, from our country. We're the ones creating it. And I think it works in close step with a lot of other bad things that are happening in the world. It promotes greed, it promotes being selfish and it promotes this ladder, where you're a better person if you have more money. It's not at all about the work itself. Don't get me wrong. I love movies. But this myth of celebrity has nothing to do with movies.
At the heart of the movie, to me, is there's these two characters that can have one horrible, traumatic experience but react to it in opposite ways and it shows how different people see things differently. Well, today, there's a president in my country that doesn't understand that and he thinks that if you don't see it exactly his way, you're wrong and evil. And that's not the way the world works. There can be one event but everybody who sees it sees it a little different or sees it a lot different and that's what the movies about and that's what damn "Dubya" needs to understand. Or let him not understand it and go about his ways and go back to his ranch and never bother us again. (about Mysterious Skin)
My dad never blew anything up, but he probably had friends who did. He and my mom have always preached that the pen is mightier than a Molotov cocktail." [on his parents' activist youths.
I don't blame the people for the fact that so many movies are bad. I think there's a corrupt, perverted, lazy and sloppy attitude that's pervasive in the movie business. The whole entertainment business is kind of crumbling around us.
Attended Columbia University [2000]
Chosen as one of Teen People Magazine's "21 Hottest Stars Under 21" [1999]
Plays the guitar.
Auditioned for the role of "Elder Aaron Davis" in Latter Days (2003) before winning the role of "Elder Paul Ryder."
His maternal grandfather was Michael Gordon, who directed such films as Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) and Pillow Talk (1959). Gordon's career was crippled when he was blacklisted during the Red Scare of the mid-Twentieth Century.
Attended, but did not graduate from, Columbia University in New York, where he studied French. Columbia was the only school to which he applied.
His parents are Jane Gordon and Dennis Levitt, who met as activists in California. Gordon ran for Congress in 1970.
Among his favorite actors are Gena Rowlands and Warren Oates.
Appeared in a preschool production of "Wizard of Oz".
Among his favorite movies are Dumbo (1941) and Vérités et mensonges (1974).
Grandson of Michael Gordon.
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