Joseph Gordon-Levitt discusses "Don Jon" | Interviews

"Then, in the second act, once he is getting involved with the sort of traditional romance, the cameras are on dollies a lot. There is a lot of sweet, gentle movement. The cutting is very traditional Hollywood cutting, Frank Capra/Steven Spielberg-style classic Hollywood editing style. And the music is classic Hollywood orchestra. And then, in the third act, when he is broken down and starts to get more curious and break out of his mold, the camera is almost all handheld, there is a lot less cutting, and the music gets really sparse and it is just played on a few guitars. So that was the idea to have the filmmaking move along with the evolution of the character."

The title is a reference to the literary character Don Juan, an elegant, sophisticated man famous for seducing many women. But Jon lives in suburban New Jersey. "I don't think it's singular to any particular place or culture. He is Don Juan. Don Juan is an old classic literary figure. I did want to make it just a normal guy. I'm from the suburbs of LA and New Jersey is the suburbs of New York. I didn't want to set it in like a cosmopolitan affluent setting where a lot of romantic comedies are set in Manhattan and London. I wanted it to be like normal, middle-income, suburban America because I think everybody knows people like this. We all are to a degree people like this."

Gordon-Levitt cast his 1994 "Angels in the Outfield" co-star Tony Danza as Jon's father. "That was a blast. Tony is such a good-natured, sweetheart of a guy which was funny having him play this character because Jon's dad, Jon senior, has a short temper. He doesn't listen to anything his family says and he is sort of a lecherous dude. It doesn't come naturally to Tony because on screen, his instinct is to be likeable because that's just how he naturally is. So I kept having to tell him like, 'No man, I like you too much, you have to be willing to be a little less likeable'…. But if the dad character was just a demon, it would be off-putting. I think he still has to have that charm and that's important."