Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Julianne Moore talk about modern porn

If movie stars had baseball nicknames, Joseph Gordon-Levitt would be Mr. Sundance. The guy has wowed everyone at the festival with the likes of Manic, Brick, (500) Days of Summer, and last year's Beatles cover (seriously, watch it). In 2013, JGL and Julianne Moore are in Park City, Utah for Don Jon's Addiction.

Gordon-Levitt wrote, directed, and stars in the film, in which he plays a Jersey juice head who's addiction to porn jeopardizes his chances with his dream girl, Scarlett Johansson. Moore also stars, along with Anne Hathaway, Channing Tatum and Tony Danza. The film's, ahem, adult subject matter has everyone asking JGL about modern pornagraphy. He and Moore sat down with The Daily Beast to dish on the issue.

JGL on his motivation for creating the film:

Well, I wanted to make a movie about love and what I've noticed is what often gets in the way of love is how people objectify each other; they put expectations on each other and they've learned these expectations from various places, whether it's their parents, friends, church, or different forms of media. So I thought making a love story about a guy who watches too much porn and a girl [Johansson] who watches too many romantic movies would be really funny and get at this theme.

Moore on modern pornography:

They're certainly lacking in the story department!

Gordon-Levitt's take on porn (and rom-coms):

I do think most of [porn] is pretty hateful. I don't use that word lightly. It's a bummer that people get off on belittling women, but I think it's also a bummer that certain romantic Hollywood movies do the same thing and are equally narrow-minded.

The rest of the Q&A delves a little deeper into the subject, the inspiration for the angle Gordon-Levitt settled on, how he almost ended up in Django Unchained, and includes an anecdote from Moore's time filming The Big Lebowski. Ya know, just for good measure.