Joseph Gordon-Levitt REVEALS why he included the COVID-19 pandemic as a storyline arc in Mr. Corman

Mr. Corman, an Apple TV+ series starring Joseph Gordon Levitt, sees the talented actor also don the mad hat of creator, director and writer, respectively. With the first two episodes out last week, viewers got an introspective look into the chaotic mind of Josh Corman (Levitt-Gordon) while he navigates through life as a fifth-grade teacher who couldn't find success as a musician alongside a complex family dynamic and a broken (-hearted) engagement in tow.

What makes Mr. Corman even more interesting is that towards the later episodes, Josh's increasing anxiety is tested beyond its limit with the COVID-19 pandemic as the backdrop. You're immediately curious to find out how a mentally confined Josh would fare in a physically enclosed environment. Hence, we quizzed Joseph about the same during a roundtable interview at Mr. Corman's Global Virtual Press Day, which Pinkvilla was a part of. On what compelled him to include the global pandemic, which continues to wreak havoc across the globe in 2021, as a storyline arc in Mr. Corman, Gordon-Levitt began, "We had already written all of our scripts and we were three weeks into shooting when the pandemic arrived and we had to shut down, of course, like everybody did."

...our protagonist Mr. Corman is someone who catastrophizes, meaning he interprets everything as a catastrophe. Maybe not everything but too many things. And so it makes sense that in the back half of the story, you would introduce a real global catastrophe and see how a character like that can respond, and hopefully, it can become a reason for him to grow.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

For some further context, the shooting of Mr. Corman was shifted from Van Nuys in Los Angeles, California to New Zealand amid the pandemic. "And we knew that we'd probably have to rewrite because this is a show that is about real life and the real world and a real person. And while some shows, I think, can kind of ignore the pandemic because they're maybe more escapist or maybe they're set in a different time and place, it didn't make sense for us to just ignore it. It didn't feel real. But we also didn't want the whole show to be about that," the 40-year-old actor explained.

"So we decided on just the last three episodes, having the pandemic arrive in episode 8. And that's even really the only episode where it's really in the foreground. Then, episode 9 and 10 are fairly similar to what we had already written but now they're set with the pandemic as sort of in the background. And it actually also made sense because our protagonist Mr. Corman is someone who catastrophizes, meaning he interprets everything as a catastrophe. Maybe not everything but too many things," the 500 Days of Summer star elaborated.

"And so it makes sense that in the back half of the story, you would introduce a real global catastrophe and see how a character like that can respond, and hopefully, it can become a reason for him to grow," Joseph concluded.

We're definitely intrigued to see how Mr. Corman tackles the COVID-19 pandemic as a story arc and how things culminate by the final episode!

How are you liking Mr. Corman so far, especially Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance? Share your honest, personal thoughts with Pinkvilla in the comments section below.

Meanwhile, Mr. Corman Ep 3 drops on August 13.

ALSO READ: Mr. Corman Review: Joseph Gordon-Levitt's 'existential crisis' series is quite worth the slow burn