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"  As Joseph Gordon-Levitt&amp;#039;s eye-rolling sister of very few words in the actor&amp;#039;s directorial debut, Don Jon, out October 18, Brie Larson\u2014whom you may recognize from her role as Toni Collette&amp;#039;s pot-smoking daughter on The United States of Tara\u2014relied on facial expressions and body language to bring Monica to life. &amp;quot;Brie created a whole character who makes the audience laugh, but who also feels like a real human being,&amp;quot; says Gordon-Levitt. &amp;quot;And she did it without saying anything. That takes a truly skilled actress.&amp;quot; Here, the 23-year-old Larson, who also appears in The Spectacular Now (in theaters now), breaks down the art of silent protest: ELLE: What was it like to be a supporting character with only one speaking line? Brie Larson: I got to be the true observer the entire time. I worked on Don Jon for two weeks, but except for that one scene, I didn&amp;#039;t say anything! The best part of my job is getting to listen. I love that. I love getting to fall into what other people are saying and just react. In a way my character is like the audience: She&amp;#039;s in on the joke. When the audience is going, &amp;#039;You gotta be kidding me,&amp;#039; she&amp;#039;s making the same face. ELLE: Sounds like a pretty good gig! BL: I kept having nightmares that I wasn&amp;#039;t prepared for the scene I had to do, but in reality I was just looking at a phone the whole time. It was so weird. ELLE: Did you work with Gordon-Levitt to develop the role? BL: We spent some time talking about the character. The fun part is always creating the character\u2014even if it&amp;#039;s the stuff that doesn&amp;#039;t make it on screen. The fun part is using your imagination to build castles. ELLE: What kind of castles did you guys build for Monica? BL: We had a meal together and talked about what her day-to-day is like, what her reaction to each family member would be. Personally, I feel like she&amp;#039;s the type of person who is so indifferent to everything around her that she doesn&amp;#039;t even like food. So I purposefully pushed my food around my plate during the dinner scenes. ELLE: How did you make the audience see the humor in those subtle details? BL: The funny thing is that I didn&amp;#039;t think anything I was doing was all that funny. I thought I was being serious the whole time\u2014especially when I delivered my single line. I thought I was delivering it honestly! You know what they say, It&amp;#039;s funny because it&amp;#039;s true. ELLE: So, what&amp;#039;s the audition process like for a silent role? Pantomime? The old slip-on-a-banana gag? BL: Ha! The thing is, you can read for a character written with rich adjectives and descriptives, but ultimately she&amp;#039;s the product of someone else&amp;#039;s imagination. It&amp;#039;s impossible for two people to wholly communicate the character through telepathy. So I went through the audition thinking, &amp;#039;I just have to text on my phone?&amp;#039; Afterward, my agent was like, &amp;#039;How did it go?&amp;#039; And I was like, &amp;#039;Good, I guess.&amp;#039; How do you gauge that? I mean, I spelled all of my texts correctly? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/interviews/a13832/brie-larson-interview-on-joseph-gordon-levitt/?src=global_footer>