Joseph Gordon-Levitt clarifies his character in ‘(500) Days of Summer’ was not a victim

Even after more than a decade since its release, (500) Days of Summer remains one of the most loved romantic films of all time.

Looking back at Marc Webb’s indie romantic comedy, many movie buffs had perceived the film’s lead character of Tom [played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt] as a victim of Summer [played by Zooey Deschanel] and her heartlessness.

And while this was the widespread belief, Gordon-Levitt cleared the air himself in an interview with Playboy and lifted the veil off his character’s selfishness that many were unable to detect.

"The (500) Days of Summer attitude of 'He wants you so bad' seems attractive to some women and men, especially younger ones. But I would encourage anyone who has a crush on my character to watch it again and examine how selfish he is," he told the magazine back in 2012.

"He develops a mildly delusional obsession over a girl onto whom he projects all these fantasies. He thinks she'll give his life meaning because he doesn't care about much else going on in his life,” he continued.

“A lot of boys and girls think their lives will have meaning if they find a partner who wants nothing else in life but them. That's not healthy. That's falling in love with the idea of a person, not the actual person,” he went on to say.

Deschanel was also of the same opinion as she told her costar while re-watching the film for EW in 2019: "I'm just so surprised when women will be like, 'I hated your character in that movie!' I'm like, really? She said everything from the beginning!"

"But I think it's also a testament to how, like, adorable you are in the movie. Everyone's like, 'What?! Why would you turn him down? He's so cute!'” the New Girl actor stated.