The film, titled Snowden, dramatises the events and aftermath surrounding Snowden’s leaking of top-secret intelligence documents to the Guardian and Washington Post in 2013, starting a worldwide debate on the balance between mass surveillance and privacy.
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The two met for four hours and though the actor wanted to tape record the meeting, it was advised that he did not.
“He was in good spirits, [but] certainly there was that note, that he would very much like to come home”, he said.
Gordon-Levitt went on to compare Snowden to another of his upcoming roles: Philippe Petit, the famed World Trade Center wire-walker who Gordon-Levitt will play in Robert Zemeckis’ “The Walk“. Snowden was planned for a release this fall but has been postponed for next year. Edward was given temporary asylum in Russian Federation and now , lives in an undisclosed location. Amidst the controversy, views about Snowden’s actions have been mixed. Joseph Gordon-Levitt has his own views on Snowden.
Along with Gordon-Levitt, the film stars Shailene Woodley as Lindsay Mills, Snowden’s girlfriend, Zachary Quinto as Glenn Greenwald, and Melissa Leo as Laura Poitras. Meeting Snowden, Gordon-Levitt described him as “someone warm, kind, thoughtful”.
“I left knowing without a doubt that what [Snowden] did, he did because he believed it was the right thing to do, that he believed it would help the country he loves”, Gordon-Levitt told the Guardian. Following his beliefs on Edward, the actor does not want to preach that his beliefs about him are correct, but he wants to encourage people to decide for themselves if the whistleblower was right or not.
“I don’t think that’s my place”, Gordon-Levitt added. There will also be appearances by Timothy Olyphant, Scott Eastwood, and Nicholas Cage, as Business Insider reports.
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A former contractor with the US National Security Agency, Edward Snowden garnered worldwide attention when he exposed the extent of the USA government’s domestic spying apparatus in 2013.
