Project Power poses a simple, intriguing question: "If there was a pill that could give you five minutes of pure power, would you take it?"
Such a pill exists in the newly released Netflix film, and everyone in New Orleans is slowly getting word of the phenomenon that somehow unlocks superpowers unique to each person who takes it. But as demand for the mysterious pill known as "Power" increases, so do crime levels.
This is where Joseph Gordon-Levitt—a local cop who teams up with his co-stars Jamie Foxx and Dominique Fishback to trace the pill's origins—comes in. The actor spoke to E! News ahead of Project Power's release, revealing what it was like to shoot the action-packed thriller and more in the above video.
Gordon-Levitt didn't hold back, either! He spoke in detail about a scene in which he's shot at, but as it turns out, the whole thing was, for the most part, real.
"The crazy thing about that shot is there's no makeup, there's no prosthetics and there's hardly any visual effects on it, actually," Gordon-Levitt revealed. "It's just a slow motion shot. They just had the really crazy idea to take this really powerful air gun and shoot a strong blast of air at my face and shoot it in slow motion."
A gun and a bullet were later edited in, "but really, my face was moving like that," he said. "It actually made it pretty easy to act scared...I was trying my best not to flinch but it was hard. They were pointing a powerful thing in my face! And it went off!"
Interestingly enough, bulletproof skin is one of the superpowers that can be obtained by taking Power in the film. However, Gordon-Levitt isn't interested in developing that, obtaining super strength or even invisibility.
Instead, he'd choose "the power of empathy."
"And what I mean by that is, being able to actually see through somebody else's eyes and hear through someone else's ears and see and touch, taste, smell someone else's senses," Gordon-Levitt explained.
He continued, "This is kind of what I'm always trying to do as an actor—put yourself in someone else's shoes and understand what it's like to be them—but I feel like if I could take it to the extreme as a superpower and really, really experience somebody else's life, that would just be so illuminating. That would be the most fascinating thing for me."
Unfortunately for Gordon-Levitt, he doesn't have superhuman abilities, and as of late, he's just been stuck inside like the rest of us amid the coronavirus pandemic. But he's certainly keeping a positive attitude!
"Of course I'm sick of it like everybody else, but I mostly just feel grateful," the star told E! News. "I feel grateful that I have a place that I can be safe and I'm able to work from home and everybody's healthy. Just trying to keep thanks!"
Project Power is out now on Netflix. Watch Joseph Gordon-Levitt's complete interview in the above clip!