Becoming Travis Kalanick: To Play the Pugnacious Ex-Uber Boss, a Star Taps Into His Animal Nature

“Dude, it’s so fun.”

Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt is on the phone from Los Angeles, describing what it was like to play against type as the notoriously volatile Uber founder Travis Kalanick in Showtime’s upcoming “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber.” Though channeling that kind of character was fun for Gordon-Levitt, it wasn’t always comfortable.

“On a nearly daily basis I would be playing these scenes—especially later in the series—where I’d be like, ‘Oh, god,’” he said. “I would reassure the other actors, ‘You know I’m not this person, right?’”

Kalanick’s explosive rise and humbling fall became an instant classic among tech-world cautionary tales. It’s been five years since Uber’s onetime CEO resigned amid claims that he’d fostered a toxic work environment and ignored complaints of sexual harassment, and yet for many, Kalanick is still the poster child for a certain breed of perpetually amped-up Silicon Valley startup founder: the quintessential tech bro.