Huffington Post — Joseph Gordon-Levitt loves how Hayao Miyazki’s “The Wind Rises” celebrates the magic of normal, everyday life

Jim Hill

11 years ago

He's helped Batman battle Bane in "The Dark Knight
Rises
." Not to mention going toe-to-toe with the G.I. Joes in "The
Rise of Cobra
." He's even braved multiple levels of the human subconscious
in "Inception
."

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the last man standing in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi thriller,
"Inception." Copyright 2010 Warner Bros. All rights reserved

So given that Joseph Gordon-Levitt has gotten so good at
doing the action-hero thing in these big budget blockbusters, one might wonder
why he'd then be so eager to voice a desk-bound aeronautical engineer in
"The Wind Rises." But Joseph has a two word answer to that question:
Hayao Miyazaki.

"Ever since I first discovered his films back in the
late 1990s, I've been a huge fan of Hayao Miyazaki," Gordon-Levitt said
during a recent phone interview. "So when Frank Marshall reached out in
the Fall of 2013 and then asked me if I'd like to come voice the central
character in what was supposed to be this Japanese animation master's very last
full-length animated feature, I immediately jumped at the chance."

And given that Joseph had done animation voicework
previously (He voiced the Jim Hawkins character in Walt Disney Animation
Studios' 2002 release, "Treasure Planet
." Not to mention voicing
Cobra Commander for the "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" video game
),
Gordon-Levitt thought that he knew what he was getting into when he signed up
to do "The Wind Rises." But when this 33 year-old stepped into the
recording booth, he then found himself facing a whole new set of technical
challenges.

"When you're recording the English-language version of
a Japanese movie, getting things to sync up properly with the already finished animation
can sometimes be tricky. First and foremost, you always want to make sure that
you're getting the underlying emotion of each scene across," Joseph
explained. "But at the same time, you also have to make sure that the
dialogue that's been written for the English translation of this film actually
matches up with the animation up there on screen. Which can often be quite
challenging. But I find that — when you insert a technical challenge like this
into the creative process — you often inspire unexpected creative choices
which can then be quite cool."

So how did Gordon-Levitt prepare for this project? Did he do
any research on Jirō Horikoshi, the aircraft engineer who helped design the
Mitsubishi A6M Reisen "Zero", the aircraft that many Japanese pilots flew in
World War II? Surprisingly, no.

"Look, the audience isn't coming to this movie to hear
me or to find out what sort of clever spin I put on Jirō's voice. They're
coming to this movie because — just like me — they're Hayao Miyazaki
fans," Joseph stated. "So taking that into account … Well, I felt
that my main job on this movie was to just honor & support it. Do whatever
I had to in order to help make this masterful piece of animation that much more
accessible to English-speaking audiences."

Mind you, before Gordon-Levitt agreed to take part in the
English-language version of "The Wind Rises," he watched the original
Japanese version of this Miyazaki
film. Which Joseph says " … without exaggeration, is one of the most
beautiful films I've ever seen."

"There's just so much detail in the visuals. You can
look at every single frame in this film and there's just so much to
discover," he enthused. "You can focus in on some character in the
background who's just walking down the street. And Miyazaki's
such a masterful animator that — if you watch that background character — you
can see that they have their own whole other story going on. There's a million
little details like that in 'The Wind Rises.' And if you had to read subtitles
in order to be able to follow this film's story rather than just watching it
and then being sucked into Miyazaki's world, you'd miss a lot of those great
subtle nuances. Which is one of the main reasons that I agreed to take part in
the creation of an English-language version of this movie."

Which is why — in early December of last year —
Gordon-Levitt found himself in a recording booth. Where — working with Gary
Rydstrom, the director of the English-language version of "The Wind
Rises" — he then spent five days behind the mic, painstakingly going
through this Miyazaki movie, doing whatever he could to make the character of
Jirō more accessible to English-speaking audiences.

"And what's great about working on a movie like this,
literally going over the same scene again & again until you get the sync
& the emotion just right, is that you then get to view it at a whole
'nother level. And while 'The Wind Rises' has a lot of the same elements as
Miyazaki's earlier movies — the flying sequences, his obvious love of nature,
those weird little magical touches — it also seems strikingly grounded and
human," Joseph said. "I absolutely love that aspect of 'The Wind
Rises.' How it's historically based and has the sort of texture that can only
comes from real life."

"And the cool thing is — even though this film is
grounded in a rather realistic story, relative to the other magical, bizarre
worlds that Miyazaki has created — 'The Wind Rises' still gives you that same
sort of magical feeling," Gordon-Levitt continued. "That why I really
enjoyed voicing the character of Jirō Miyazaki
took the way that this engineer felt about his work, how magical &
fantastic & excited Jirō got as he was designing airplanes and then used
that to show how that magical Miyazaki
kind of feeling can exist even within the normal life of an engineer."

That — to Joseph's way of thinking — is the big take-away from
"The Wind Rise." That Hayao Miyazaki is actually able to take his
audiences into that head space. Help them appreciate the real beauty & true
excitement that can be found in everyday life.

"I think — often times — that the movies transport
you to another place and then say 'This other place that we took you is really
exciting.' And then you get finished watching that movie and you're like 'But
my life really isn't as exciting as that other place that this movie took me
to,' " Gordon-Levitt concluded. "But with 'The Wind Rises' … It doesn't really take you to anywhere
that doesn't already really exist. It's kind of just the normal life of a
normal guy. Jirō 's an extraordinary and talented engineer but he's not like
some wizard or superhero or anything. But 'The Wind Rises' is as beautiful and
as sweeping & majestic as any story about a magician or a superhero. And I
just love that. That this movie shows the beauty that's already there in
normal, everyday life."

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures is releasing this Studio
Ghibli film in North America through its Touchstone
Pictures arm. "The Wind Rises" opens wide in theaters this Friday.