Joseph Gordon-Levitt: '50/50 script is actually funny'

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has said that he was impressed by the humour in 50/50's script.

Gordon-Levitt explained that 50/50's story of a young man battling cancer feels authentic because of its comic moments.

"It's really rare to find a story that has characters that feel like human beings. In most scripts, the characters feel more like stereotypes or plot devices and this felt really earnest and real," the Los Angeles Times quotes him as saying.

"[50/50's script] was genuinely funny. It made me laugh and the hardest thing to find is writing that is actually funny."

Gordon-Levitt went on to say that he took a different approach to playing his 50/50 character than he has on any other film.

He explained: "Sometimes I'll really let myself go into a character - in this movie, I always kept a little life line, 'this isn't true, I don't have cancer'.

"Because I think this stuff is powerful and can be self-fulfilling sometimes, I consciously kept a little light on that this was all fiction."

Gordon-Levitt previously admitted that he was obsessed with death while filming 50/50.

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50/50 is now playing in the US and opens in the UK on November 25.

Watch the trailer for 50/50 below: