LOS ANGELES: Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt says he used to be "embarrassed" about starring in the acclaimed teen comedy "10 Things I Hate About You".
A modern take on the Shakespearean comedy "The Taming of the Shrew", the movie was the actor's earliest lead roles.
He would go on to star in diverse films including "Inception", "500 Days of Summer" and "The Dark Knight Rises".
Directed by Gil Junger, "10 Things I Hate About You" also launched the careers of Hollywood stars Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles.
As someone who was inclined towards watching arthouse films like Billy Bob Thorton's "Sling Blade" and Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs", Gordon-Levitt said he was initially "not sold" on the 1999 movie.
"I was going to arthouse cinemas and watching movies coming from Sundance (Film Festival) and watching 'Sling Blade' and 'Reservoir Dogs' and Soderbergh and Tarantino, and that's what I wanted to do.
"I know this sounds weird to say or it sounds like I'm not grateful, (but) I was always a little embarrassed before then. I was mostly embarrassed about '10 Things I Hate About You', to be honest.
I was," the actor told Vanity Fair magazine. Gordon-Levitt, 39, said when he got an opportunity to work on Sundance films "Brick" and "Mysterious Skin", he felt he was doing "what I wanted to do".
"They felt like a reflection of me and the art that I liked. When I look back now, I'm kind of equally proud of all those things, but subjectively at that time it was really meaningful to me," he said.
The actor, however, added that shooting for "10 Things I Hate About You" was an "incredible" experience.
Gordon-Levitt's latest release is the Netflix film "Project Power", which also stars Jamie Foxx, Dominique Fishback, and Rodrigo Santoro.