Joseph Gordon-Levitt's InStyle Awards Speech for Shailene Woodley Will Melt Your Heart
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There's something about Joseph Gordon-Levitt's almost caricature-like half-smile that makes us want to rush him down the aisle. Could he possibly get any cuter? The answer is a resounding yes.
On Monday night inside L.A.'s Getty Center, the 35-year-old actor arrived at the 2016 InStyle Awards looking as dapper as ever and dutifully took the stage to present his Snowden co-star Shailene Woodley with the Advocate award for her work in uplifting others and championing those in need. Although one may think any Hollywood speech is bound to be good, Gordon-Levitt's introduction proved to be a cherry on top of a star-studded night.
To start things off, he explained how Woodley ended up in Snowden. Instead of asking director Oliver Stone for a part, she wrote him a note of thanks for telling a story that "needs to be told."
"I don't know another actress or actor, young or old, who puts the content of the story and its place in history before their own sort of creative interests or their own career interests as an actor," Gordon-Levitt raved in his speech. "I was really, really impressed with that."
The actor went on to gush about how hard the actress works outside of Tinseltown, the reason for her award. "I emailed her, I think it was just like last week or the week before and she got back to me a few days later, and she's like, 'Sorry, it took me a little while to get back to you, and it's been kind of crazy,'" he told the crowd, and explained that in the silent period she was actually arrested in North Dakota while protesting the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline.
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He moved on to express how much he values the organization she co-founded, Up to Us, and dish on her personality. "Not only does she have fantastic style, but she's setting this example of what she really cares about—putting her priorities where they are. I just think it's such a luminous example to set for all of the people that admire her—young, old, male, and female," he said. "And I'm grateful to be here, to introduce her."
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Woodley took the stage shortly after to thank the actor and explain why the award means so much. "That fact that tonight we're at an award show for InStyle, a fashion magazine, and there's an award for advocacy. That's major," she said. "We all have a powerful voice, and I'm grateful to have this platform to still be able to use mine."
"But more importantly, I'm just grateful to be a human being who gets to stand up and say these things are not working and I'm done with the suffering," she added. "And I want to have a baby, and I want to make sure that there's clean water for my baby to have in the future, and I want to make sure that my child can go to events like this and celebrate. "
Talk about inspiring.
—With reporting by Brianna King