Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s grandfather Michael Gordon directed one of the great romantic comedies of the 50s, Pillow Talk, so it’s fitting that the 32-year-old’s debut as a writer-director is a contribution to that genre. In Don Jon, out this month, he casts himself against type in the title role, a porn-addicted bridge-and-tunnel muscle boy (more Jersey Shore than Don Giovanni), whom he describes as “that kind of tough guy who makes Don Juan’s machismo his persona and is an archetype as iconic as the cowboy used to be.” Gordon-Levitt says that his days attending Columbia University, along with his San Fernando Valley upbringing, helped him capture the outer-boroughness of the role. He talks—and walks—flawless “guido” in the film; very few are the scenes in which his costume includes sleeves, and he put on 12 pounds of muscle to prepare. He says Don Jon is a critical look at the various screens we gaze at from dawn to dusk. “The crux of the story is how people objectify each other and don’t connect and engage as individuals. My character projects his perceived notions of what women are supposed to be. I grew up as an actor, so I have always paid attention to the impact media has on people. It plays a big part in our being cut off from one another.” In making the film, he says, he was influenced by Hal Ashby’s Shampoo (1975). “Warren Beatty’s character has a lot of parallels with Don Jon—a guy who is despicable but is trying to do better.”