Joseph Gordon-Levitt secretly talked to Edward Snowden to prepare for a movie
Gordon-Levitt said his motivation behind the meeting was to "understand this person that I was going to play, observing both his strengths and weaknesses," he said.
The two met for four hours and though the actor wanted to tape record the meeting, it was advised that he did not.
In fact, according to The Independent piece, Snowden's lawyers didn't want Gordon-Levitt to admit the meeting had taken place.
"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," said Gordon-Levitt.
"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. 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."
"Snowden" is based on Luke Hardin's book "The Snowden Files" and Anatoly Kucherena's "Time of the Octopus."
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. Greenwald was the journalist and Poitras the filmmaker Snowden leaked the classified documents to.
Nicolas Cage, Scott Eastwood, and Timothy Elephant also star.
Gordon-Levitt will next been seen in the Robert Zemeckis film "The Walk," in which he'll be playing another real-life figure, Philippe Petit. The film recounts Petit's infamous tight-rope walk across New York City's World Trade Towers in 1974.