Joseph G-L and Willis' bonding time

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has revealed how much he enjoyed hanging out with Bruce Willis to get to know him for their new film Looper.

The pair play two versions of the same character in the sci-fi thriller from Brick director Rian Johnson, about a hitman hired to kill targets sent back in time in order to erase their future. Things go wrong when he is hired to kill himself.

Joseph revealed at a press conference at the Toronto Film Festival: "I studied his movies, and I would take the audio from some of his movies and put them on my iPod. And Bruce actually recorded himself doing some of my monologues and sent me the tape so I could listen to that.

"And that was all really useful, but I think the most important thing for me was just getting to know him, hanging out, having dinner, talking to him. That was where I really learned what I wanted to do with the character."

Bruce revealed how impressed he had been with Joseph's efforts to be like him.

He said: "It seems like an impossible task to try to act with someone who is supposed to be you, supposed to be the younger you, and at some point you've got to let go of it and just believe that you're in the story, that we're part of the story.

"Science fiction films especially are like magic tricks and it kind of fools you. And when I saw the film I was so surprised that the magic trick we were trying to do works."