Published in the December 2014 issue.

In October, Tom Junod was talking to Edward Snowden by phone for "The Age of Exuberance" and the Esquire Register, when Seth Rogen called in for his interview. Juggling them on separate lines, Junod asked if they would be interested in talking to each other. Of course, they said. Are you kidding?

EDWARD SNOWDEN: Hey, Seth, can you hear me? This is Ed Snowden.

SETH ROGEN: Yeah, can you hear me?

ES: Yeah, yeah. I can hear you. How are you doing?

SR: I'm good, man. People have told me that we sound alike before. I kinda hear it.

ES [laughs]: Yeah, I've seen that on the Internet, too.

ESQ: Holy shit! You have the same laugh. Snowden has the Rogen laugh!

ES: Aw, man. Now this is gonna be all over Twitter. [Laughs.] Yeah, I just wanted to say hi.

SR: Yeah, no, I'm a big fan of what you've done. I was literally just asking, "What's his day-to-day like? What's he doing right now?"

ES: Well, a lot of people have been asking me, you know, what my day-to-day is like, and they think it's, I don't know, like this big spy game or really interesting. It's actually really, really nerdy. Like, I spend a lot of time talking to cryptographers and computer scientists and engineers, because I'm trying to work with people to create solutions to the problems. A lot of people would figure this would be a really tough, really terrible situation, but what we're finding more and more, I think, is that exile, right, as an idea doesn't really work anymore! Because of the Internet, because of technology.

SR: Wow. Well, that's good! I'm glad you sound like you're doing good, man! The reason I was talking about you is my friend [Joseph Gordon-Levitt] is playing you. I hope that doesn't make you mad! I can give him some pointers if you want. [Laughs.]

ES: Nah, I don't mind. Everybody's got different opinions on it. It's a big issue; there's a lot going on. I just love that people talk about the issues, you know? I don't like when people focus on me, or this guy or that guy, or even politicians, because it's not a U. S.-only problem. It's not an Edward Snowden problem. It's not an NSA problem. These are global issues that affect everybody, and we've really gotta figure out what kind of world we want to live in.

ESQ: So, what are you doin', Rogen?

SR [laughs]: I'm smoking weed at my desk, bro.

ES: I gotta tell you, you know, the FBI is probably monitoring this call, so you might want to hide that under the desk. You've got like five minutes before they show up.

SR: Well, nice talking to you. Nice meeting you, man. I mean truly not how I expected this phone call to end, but again, I'm a big fan of what you've done. I'm a giant supporter of everything you've brought to light. It's a fuckin' amazing thing you did.

ES: Well, hey, thank you so much. All the support that everybody's given to me that I've been lucky to have, I'm just going to try to keep working to try to deserve it.

ESQ: But will you watch Seth's movies?

ES [laughs]: I'm not gonna get on all that with the FBI on the call, because God knows where they're gonna take this.

SR: Look out for our next movie. It's about North Korea. I think you'll think it's funny.

ES: That'll be awesome. I'm looking forward to it.

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