Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a family man through and through, and that helped him understand his character Nick Bali in upcoming film Killer Heat.

In Killer Heat, Gordon-Levitt plays a private detective tasked with solving a murder mystery around a young and rich man. Throughout the movie, his own estranged relationship with his wife and kids is also explored.

"I am lucky enough to have a family of my own that I'm so grateful for. And imagining what it would be like to be without them just makes me hurt," he told People.

The 500 Days of Summer star has been married to tech industry entrepreneur Tasha McCauley since 2014 and shares two sons and a daughter with her.

He continued: "Even though that hurt is imaginary, well, if you take that imaginary hurt and you start diving deeper into it and adding more complexity to the scenario, that's what it is to play a character like this. I don't know if I would have been able to - I don't know that I would have been able to resonate with it so strongly if I didn't have a family of my own."

Killer Heat, which stars Shailene Woodley and Richard Madden alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt will hit Prime Video on September 26.