2 l August
1 - 7, 2021
Northeast Oregon TV Weekly
BY GEORGE DICKIE
‘Mr. Corman’ fights disillusionment
and himself in Apple TV+ comedy
Josh Corman is a man underwhelmed by life and himself.
As played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“Third Rock From
the Sun,” “Lincoln”) in the Apple TV+ comedy series “Mr.
Corman,” which begins streaming Friday, Aug. 6, he’s a
30-something born and raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles
whose life hasn’t turned out as he envisioned.
An artist at heart, his music career didn’t amount to much
and so he pays the bills by teaching fifth graders at a public
school while sharing an apartment with his best friend
Victor (Arturo Castro, “Broad City”). His relationship with
his fiancee also has gone south and he struggles with feelings
of anxiety, loneliness and depression, which he confides to
his mother Ruth (Debra Winger, “Terms of Endearment”).
On top of that, he also suspects he’s not that great a person.
It’s a lot for one young man to bear and Gordon-Levitt,
who created the series, conceived of the character as an
unlucky version of himself.
“It was sort of thinking about: What if just a couple of
things were different?” the actor and San Fernando Valley
native explains. “Like what if I hadn’t found my partner
yet? ... Or what if the art that I do hadn’t panned out into
a career? ... Or what if I had one good, healthy parent and
one parent who was less healthy or problematic or causing
chaos?
“And so sort of making some of these changes like that
formed this character, who is in many ways just like me,”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
stars in “Mr. Corman,”
premiering Friday
on Apple TV+.
he continues. “He walks like me and talks like me. He grew
up where I grew up. He went to high school where I went
to high school. He had many of the same thoughts and
opinions and tastes that I do. But these certain things are
different.”
But, Gordon-Levitt explains, Josh does have things in his
life to be thankful for but he just doesn’t appreciate them.
He has a good job in a noble profession for which he seems
to have a flair, he has friends who care about him and his
mother is always there to lend a sympathetic ear.
Toward that end, the interplay between Josh and Ruth
comes across as very natural mother/son dialog and
Gordon-Levitt credits Winger for being a brilliant actress
and fitting right in.
“She looks like my mom and my mom’s sister, my mom’s
cousins,” he reports. “Like the Gordon women, she has a
very similar essence to her. And she also grew up in L.A. the
way I grew up in the Valley, in the suburbs of L.A., the way
that I did.
“And yeah, she’s just the perfect person for this,” he
continues, “and if anybody out there hasn’t seen ‘Terms of
Endearment,’ it’s really some of the best acting that’s ever
been done in a movie and she won the Oscar for it and
with good reason. And it’s been such a delight to do this
together with her.”
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