Joseph Gordon-Levitt Talks Meeting Edward Snowden: "He Believed it Was the Right Thing to Do"

The actor describes the NSA leaker, whom he spoke to as part of his research for Oliver Stone's 'Snowden,' as "warm, kind and thoughtful."

Oliver Stone’s Edward Snowden biopic may have been pushed back to next year and subsequently out of this year's Oscar race but that hasn’t stopped star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays Snowden, from talking about meeting the whistleblower.

"[Snowden] was in good spirits," the actor told The Guardian, describing him as "warm, kind and thoughtful."

"Certainly there was that note, that he very much would like to come home," Gordon-Levitt adds. "He doesn’t want to live in Russia at all."

Gordon-Levitt, who's also starring in Robert Zemeckis' The Walk, had a four-hour long conversation with the former government contractor for his research, a conversation that Snowden’s lawyers didn’t at first want the actor to admit had taken place. He was even advised not to record the meeting.

"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 tells The Guardian.

"Now, as he would say, it’s not for him to say whether it was right or wrong. That’s really for people to decide on their own, and I would encourage anybody to decide that on their own," the actor adds. "I don’t want to be the actor guy who’s like, 'You should listen to me! What he did was right!' I don’t think that’s my place. Even though that is what I believe — that what he did was right."