Courtesy Paramount Pictures

Over the blanket of white noise on the telephone, Joseph Gordon-Lewitt (“The Lookout,” “Brick”) said, “I apologize to everyone on the phone right now. I’m not going to do this again.” The conference call started off slow and Gordon-Levitt became irritated with the journalists who were speaking during their questions and his answers.

It was a struggle to get the conference going. But, once it did, Gordon-Levitt was open about his beliefs on the ideas of celebrity, acting, the military and working with Kimberly Peirce (“Boy’s Don’t Cry”) on her new movie “Stop-Loss.”

“Stop-Loss” will be released nationwide March 28. Gordon-Levitt plays Tommy Burgess, who returns home from Iraq and struggles with reinserting himself into society. The movie also stars Ryan Phillippe (“Flags of Our Father,” “Crash”) and Rob Brown (“Finding Forrester,” “Coach Carter”.) It is Peirce’s first script and direction since her Academy Award winning “Boy’s Don’t Cry.”

Q: What was your experience working with Kimberly Peirce?

A: She (Pierce, director of “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Brick”) is just about the smartest, sharpest observer of humanity that I’ve ever met. With a few quick questions, in just a few minutes, she was able to get to know me frighteningly well, and help me create the character that I played and figure out how I was going to go about finding the emotional truth in it.

Q: So how did you end up getting in touch with the director and the writer of this movie and what made you decide to take this role?

A: I got in touch with them the same way that I find any project. I read a lot of scripts. Most of them are not very good, unfortunately, which is I guess why most of the movies that come out nowadays suck. But this was a really good script. And then I met Kim who directed the movie. She’s so brilliant, so creative, so smart. And I knew her work from “Boys Don’t Cry.”

Q: Well you’ve got to tell me then, describe your character in this movie. Is he anything like what you’ve played before?

A: No. I mean every character’s different of course. But no, I’ve never played a soldier before and in my life have never considered what being a solider would be like. We never really hear what it’s like to actually be a human being over there [in Iraq]. We’re told of soldiers in terms of numbers and in terms of politics. And the fact is that the guys over there, men and women over there, they’re not just numbers and they’re not just policies. They’re human beings. And that’s what “Stop-Loss” is all about, it’s trying to get people to consider it from the point of view of the human beings that are in the midst of this.

Q: When you’re working with the script and it finally comes to production, how much do you prefer to stick to the script and read the lines like verbatim? Or do you prefer to do improv or somewhere in-between?

A: That’s a really good question. Yes, it depends on the project. I did one project called “Brick,” which was so precisely written and so kind of stylistically written, that I did my very best to stay strictly to the script and be as verbatim as possible. “Stop-Loss” wasn’t that way because “Stop-Loss” is not stylized. It’s very realistic. And Kimberly Peirce, the director, was all about us trying to try different things, just be in the moment and be real and get to know our characters to the point where it’s not a contrivance but as close to authentic as possible. And so we did all sorts of things. We did a lot of improvisations especially in rehearsals with Kim. And then, once you get shooting, there are certain technical reasons of making a movie, how cameras work, how the lights work, where you have to stick to a script to a certain degree depending on how they’re shooting it.

Q: How would you prepare for this kind of movie because you said you’ve never been a soldier before in a movie. Did you speak with any soldiers before filming?

A: Yes, I got really close with a bunch of guys that had been over there and been through it. And the first thing we did actually was, when we got to Texas, was the simulated boot camp.

We went out into the sticks in Texas for a week. There were five of us actors and four real soldiers making up a squad of nine. There were three drill sergeants all of whom were veterans that had been in the military for decades. I stayed close with those guys. In fact, I’m still friends with some of the guys that I knew. There were soldiers around us all the time.

Q: How do you go about getting into character?

A: Well, that all depends. I mean, one way to do it is like what I did for “Stop-Loss.” I got to know a bunch of people and made friends and got close to a bunch of people that, you know, would bear a similarity to the character I was playing. I got to know a bunch of soldiers that had been to Iraq.

One thing I always do for every part that I play is come up with a bunch of music that I can listen to that will put me in the right mood.

Q: What was it like to be on set with a retired sergeant major around all the time?

A: It made you respect the uniform. I never put my hands in my pockets, I will tell you that. Because Sgt. Maj. (Jim Beaver) would tell me not to do it. And he only had to tell me once. You know, it was a huge part of the entire experience of doing “Stop Loss.”

I felt a great sense of responsibility to properly represent in an honorable and a respectful way, what a United States soldier is. It made all the difference in the world, the fact that we had a bunch of real United States soldiers on the set all the time.

Q: What are your personal feelings towards the U.S. military?

A: My personal feelings towards the U.S. military? That’s an interesting question because, you know, it can mean a lot of different things.

Often times when you think of the U.S. military, you think of it as this entire force that’s being run by a few powerful old men in Washington. When I think about it that way, I’m pretty dissatisfied. I think they’re messing up. I think, you know, they’re messing up at best. If you give them the benefit of the doubt, they’re making a mistake. And if you don’t give them the benefit of the doubt, then they’re doing some evil deeds.

It’s funny. The politicians like to make an alliance between themselves and the troops. They like to say “Well, if you don’t support my political cause then you are not supporting the troops,” which is nonsense, of course.

The soldiers are like, “I am just over there. I am trying to make sure my buddy survives, and make sure that I survive. We are just trying to get home safe. The politics has nothing to do with me. I am just doing my job and trying to stay alive.”

I admire that so much. I admire the fact that they are every day well, maybe not every day, but all the time, risking their lives for the safety of their friends. I think it’s just about the greatest thing any human being can do, and I respect it greatly.

Q: I hear that you’re not keen on the term “celebrity,” that it’s just kind of a swear word. How do you avoid all the traffic as a celebrity and try to keep integrity as an artist?

A: My focus is on the art and the craft itself, that’s what interests me. There’s a weird confluence in our culture nowadays between that, you know, that celebrity thing, that kind of being rich and famous and being an actor.

The history of being an actor is not glamorous, rich, or famous at all, but I think because the United States has abolished the monarchy and loyalty, the role had to be filled somehow. It landed on actors and singers and stuff. There’s really no fundamental link between being an actor and being rich and famous. It’s just kind of been created in the last 100 years or so. Anytime anybody says to me, “well you’re an actor so you have to expect to be a celebrity,” I refuse to accept it. I don’t think it’s true. I think
, you know, the art and craft of acting and telling stories is older than Hollywood. It’s older than the English language. It goes back to what makes humans human.

Kevin Koczwara can be reached at [email protected]