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Joseph Gordon-Levitt is staying creative while stuck at home

Aaron Mamiit
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Actor, filmmaker, and co-founder of HitRecord, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, isn’t letting the coronavirus pandemic to drain his creative juices — and he’s grateful to be in a position to stay at home.

“I’m feeling very lucky to have a place to be and that I’m able to work from home, certainly a lot of people are not so lucky on either of those fronts,” Gordon-Levitt told Digital Trends Live. 

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Gordon-Levitt has been working from his “rec room” with drums and “much more recording equipment than I really need” on a new HitRecord show devoted to exploring artistic collaboration from people sheltering-in-place.

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“This is like my teenage self’s dream room,” Gordon-Levitt said of his work office. “It’s sort of my office and my playroom.”

One of his current projects is Create Together, a six-episode miniseries for YouTube Originals that features people from around the world who are coping with coronavirus-induced isolation through creativity and collaboration.

The 10-minute episodes will feature short films, documentaries, music videos, artwork, and other forms of art that were collaboratively created on HitRecord.

Amid the struggles caused by the coronavirus, Gordon-Levitt said that seeing people coming together to make art has been really uplifting, inspiring him to create a show out of what was happening.

“I’m just going to commit to doing something creative every day,” he said, a goal made possible by HitRecord’s community that fosters collaborative creativity. Create Together was fast-tracked to respond to the crisis, with the first episode to roll out in less than a month.

Create Together will not just focus on the most ambitious projects, but more on how creativity is fitting into people’s lives in general and the connections brought about by collaboration. Gordon-Levitt and the show’s producers are looking for diversity in content, ranging from beginner artists to experts in their craft.

Gordon-Levitt also heaped praise on public health workers dealing with the coronavirus on the frontlines, saying he has “a lot of respect for the people out there that are doing the work that needs to be done and braving these difficult times.”

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