Joseph Gordon-Levitt knows that sometimes a card just won’t do. Which is why the Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F star and music lover took a moment during his visit to The Tonight Show on Wednesday night (June 19) to pull out an acoustic guitar and offer his absent wife a very special tribute.
“Today is actually my wife’s birthday,” the actor told Jimmy Fallon. “I’m so sad because she’s not here in New York with me. I’m here working and she’s back home. I feel so terrible. I texted Jimmy and I said, ‘Can I give her a special birthday present on the show?’” The host then obliged by pulling an instrument out from behind his desk.
“We’re here to make dreams come true,” Fallon said in granting Levitt’s wish to give a musical shout-out to wife Tasha McCauley. “This is a song by a singer-songwriter she really, really loves that you all might know,” Gordon-Levitt said, before adding, “Babe, you’re the most luminous soul I’ve ever met. I’m so grateful you were born and I’m coming home soon. Love you.”
Levitt then performed a sweet unplugged cover of Taylor Swift‘s “Lover,” with Fallon joining in on the chorus and drumming on his desk as JGL strummed his heart out with a giant smile on his face. Gordon-Levitt and McCauley were married in December 2014 and have two sons.
Gordon-Levitt, 43, of course, also talked about what a joy it is to appear in the new reboot of one of his most beloved childhood franchises, telling Fallon he has long made playlists for each of his movie characters to get into their headspace. For his latest, though, the only song on that list was, of course, Harold Faltermeyer’s iconic 1984 instrumental theme, “Axel F,” which the Roots played as Gordon-Levitt’s entrance music and reprised later in the interview as the star jumped up to dance to the synth classic.
Watch Gordon-Levitt on the Tonight Show below.