Don Jon is losing his “addiction,” even though that may not be exactly what happens on screen.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has released a statement explaining that his Sundance drama Don Jon’s Addiction -- which is about to premiere at the South By Southwest Film Festival – is dropping the word "Addiction" from its title and will now only be known as Don Jon. In explaining the trim, Gordon-Levitt (who wrote, directed and stars in the relationship dramedy) said:
"I decided to change it, first of all, because DON JON is just so short and simple, and if you know me, you know I'm a fan of brevity. Second of all, it felt to me like the old title, Don Jon's Addiction was throwing some people off a bit from the point of the movie. People were assuming it was a film about porn addiction and sex addiction, which really isn't true. That'd be sort of like saying The Maltese Falcon is a movie about a statue of a falcon. Don Jon is a comedy about how men and women treat each other, and how the media we consume can create unrealistic expectations that we put on one another. That's why the story centers around a relationship between a young man (played by me) who watches too much pornography and a young woman (played by Scarlett Johansson) who watches too many romantic Hollywood movies. It's a topic I personally find fascinating and hilarious.”
This actually isn’t the first change that Gordon-Levitt has made for the film. He admitted earlier that he will have to trim out some of the more explicit on-screen sex to land an R-rating before the movie hits theaters - whenever that may be. We’ll continue to cover Don Jon as it works through the festival circuit, but above is a new still with JGL in character and his on-screen father, played by Tony Danza.
For more of our SXSW 2013 coverage, click HERE.
