Joseph Gordon-Levitt tackles anxiety, stress and fear in new Apple TV+ comedy-drama Mr. Corman
- Gordon-Levitt, who was also creator, writer and director, stars in a series that focuses on isolation, despair and missed opportunities
- But surreal flights of fancy, such as a musical number with Debra Winger, mean the premise is not nearly as grim as it sounds
“My biggest fear is that humanity will destroy itself soon.” Welcome to the apocalypse, as envisaged by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
It’s a waking nightmare the Hollywood leading man navigates alongside his alter ego, Josh Corman – except that in the latter’s case, annihilation appears only moments away each time he pictures a raging fireball steaming towards Earth. Which, in a comedy-drama series about anxiety, stress and the fear of amounting to nothing very much in life, is a potent image.
Mr. Corman constituted a passion project for its star, who was also series creator, writer and director. But musing on further themes of isolation, despair and missed opportunities, during a video call from Wellington, New Zealand – to where production decamped when Covid-19 closed down Los Angeles – Gordon-Levitt is still, just about, hopeful.
“I remain optimistic,” he says. “I think we can pull together and figure this out, but there are really concerning signals in the news every day and we need to make some important corrections. Fear manifests itself in Josh in the form of the meteor coming to destroy us. The odds of that happening are slim, but there are other ways humanity can destroy itself.”
That repeated vision of imminent catastrophe isn’t the only flight of fancy to which Corman, a mild-mannered, unfulfilled teacher at a Californian junior school, is given. Other surreal moments in his underwhelming life include his flying sideways through a starry night, becoming an avatar in a street-fighting video game and crooning through a pastel-hued song-and-dance routine with Debra Winger. Undeniably bizarre, such stylised scenes are also among the series’ most revealing.