Joseph Gordon-Levitt was "embarrassed" about his role in '90s teen romcom 10 Things I Hate About You for a long time.
In the 1999 classic, the Inception actor played new student Cameron, who gets Heath Ledger's bad boy Patrick to date the stubborn Kat, played by Julia Stiles, so that he could go out with her sister Bianca, who he is completely smitten with.
In a career retrospective video for Vanity Fair, Joseph discussed his work in indies Mysterious Skin and Brick, which were released in the mid-2000s, and revealed he was a "little embarrassed" by his career up until that point, particularly because of the teen movie.
"I know this sounds weird to say or it sounds like I'm not grateful, but I was always a little embarrassed I think before then. I was mostly embarrassed of 10 Things I Hate About You, to be honest," he admitted. "When I got to do these Sundance movies, I felt like I was doing what I wanted to do. It felt like a reflection of me and the art that I liked. When I look back now, I'm kind of equally proud of all those things, but subjectively at that time (Brick) was really meaningful to me."
The 39-year-old also admitted he was reluctant to do 10 Things I Hate About You but eventually auditioned for the parts of Cameron as well as his friend Michael, which was the role he really wanted.
"When I first read the script, I was like, 'I don't want to do one of these high school romantic comedies, I want to do serious movies!' That's all I wanted to do when I was that age," he recalled. "And a bunch of people in my life... were like, 'Are you sure? Just consider this. This is a pretty good one of these and it'll probably be a good thing.'"
"I did the part, I almost didn't, but luckily I did, and all of us had so much fun. I'm so glad I did that movie, not only because it's a movie that audiences still love..., the experience is what I love the most about that whole thing."
