Gordon-Levitt, Blunt head up 'The Wind Rises' U.S. cast

Brian Truitt | USA TODAY

The Wind Rises looks to be Hayao Miyazaki's final film, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt wanted to be a part of the famed Japanese director's 50-year legacy in animation.

Gordon-Levitt headlines a top-notch voice cast for the American release next year of The Wind Rises, which has already garnered a Golden Globe nomination for best foreign film and could be in line for a nod in the Oscar category of best animated feature.

"What I love about acting is becoming somebody else, and when you're just doing the voice and the animation is providing the visuals, you can really become someone else," says Gordon-Levitt, a fan of Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke (1997) and the Oscar-winning Spirited Away (2001).

The Wind Rises, which had an Oscar-qualifying run in Los Angeles last month and was named the 2013 best animated film by the National Board of Review, will be released in theaters Feb. 21.

The historical fantasy casts Gordon-Levitt as Jiro Horikoshi, a young Japanese boy in the early 20th century who dreams of flying with the birds and meeting Italian plane designer Giovanni Caproni (Stanley Tucci). Jiro can't become a pilot due to his poor vision, but as he grows up he becomes an aeronautical engineer who designs the fighter planes that the Japanese would ultimately use during World War II — and has to deal with the emotional consequences of his role in the destruction.

For producer Frank Marshall, it's a "remarkable" ensemble cast that also includes Emily Blunt, John Krasinski and Mandy Patinkin. "We credit the beauty and magic of Mr. Miyazaki's final film for bringing together this phenomenal group of performers."

The Wind Rises is a family affair for Blunt, who plays Nahoko, Jiro's dying love interest afflicted with tuberculosis. She commuted to the recording studio with her husband Krasinski, who plays aircraft designer Honyo, and Tucci is married to Blunt's sister.

The actress calls the movie Miyazaki's most complex work to date. "It's that dreamlike idea of thinking for one's self," she says. "My character represents that idea, that purity of dreaming for a better world, and that's partly because she knows she hasn't got long in this world."

Gordon-Levitt feels The Wind Rises is "clearly the work of someone who's a master at their craft" but also strikes a different balance between fantasy and reality than the 72-year-old Miyazaki's other films.

Instead of imaginary creatures and worlds, "this one is more grounded in human beings and a historical moment in time," Gordon-Levitt says. However, "there's still a flavor of magic in it as you go inside the mind of this aeronautics engineer and you see him walking on the wings of airplanes in his dream."

If Miyazaki does stay true to his word that he's retiring from filmmaking, The Wind Rises makes for a nice farewell, according to Blunt.

"We must live" is a line audiences will hear in the movie, she says, "and it's through our losses and our accomplishments, as if we're emboldened by our dreams, that we must live. That's a really deep message for a lot of people."

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE CAST FOR THE WIND RISES

Joseph Gordon-Levitt — main character Jiro Horikoshi

Emily Blunt — love interest Nahoko Satomi

John Krasinski — Honjo, Jiro's college pal and fellow aviation engineer

Martin Short — Kurokawa, Jiro's grumpy boss

Stanley Tucci — Caproni, Italian airplane creator

Mandy Patinkin — Hattori, senior designer at Mitsubishi

William H. Macy — Satomi, Nahoko's father

Werner Herzog — the mysterious Castorp

Mae Whitman — Kayo, Jiro's younger sister, as well as Kinu, Nahoko's caretaker

Jennifer Grey — Mrs. Kurokawa

Darren Criss — Katayama, one of Jiro's engineering colleagues

Elijah Wood — Sone, another of Jiro's colleagues

Ronan Farrow — Mitsubishi employee