Speaking audience, mostly journalists, Edward Snowden says on Thursday at San Diego Comic Con that Oliver Stone’s dramatization of his story is a “pretty accurate portrayal.” Snowden, who lives in Moscow, also appears in the film as himself at the very end. He answer audience questions via Google Hangouts after the first public screening of “Snowden.”
Director Oliver Stone said every major movie studio turned down film about Snowden because of censorship from within the corporates. “We did nine takes from several angles, ” Stone said, half laughing. “We got there eventually but it was a painful day.”
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Actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zachary Quinto and Shailene Woodley, launched the movie the same evening. “This is the audience that should be most concerned about this issue of online privacy and surveillance and these are the people who are on the forefront of, you know, the technological consumer movement. So I feel like it’s actually the perfect place to bring this film, ” said actor Zachary Quinto about why the film was launched at the Comic Con event.
The movie is scheduled for release in North America on September 16.
The film follows Snowden, a computer professional who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) to The Guardian in 2013, while also dealing with his relationship with girlfriend Lindsay Mills.
Actress Shailene Woodley said: “She actually had her boyfriend become the most wanted man in the world, for doing something that he felt was going to empower people, to at least have knowledge about what our government was doing. And whether you agree with him or not, doesn’t matter, to me it’s the bravery and the courage again and the selflessness that both of them had to endure and that both of them have to continue to portray is really, I’m just moved, I guess I’m just really moved, ”
Snowden said there wasn’t a lot of fictionalization in the film. Snowden said “I’m not an actor. I don’t think anyone in politics is really charismatic enough to connect with people on issues that are so abstract. But (actors) can reach new audiences in new ways and get people talking about things that they don’t have time to read (or) to look for in the academic setting. By watching the lived experiences … and tying it back in that magic Oliver Stone moment, it was something that made me really nervous but I think it worked.”
Gordon-Levitt said “I think it’s made me pay more attention to what I do online, what I do with the internet, what I do with a computer and a phone and honestly only partially in relation to the government.
“Yes, there’s the NSA and that’s what, you know, Snowden was talking about, but what about what’s going on with Google? What about what’s going on with Facebook?
“On the panel we just had, someone asked Oliver Stone a question about Pokemon Go and Oliver had a really pertinent thing to say, he’s like, that program is tracking you everywhere you go and that information doesn’t just disappearing into the ether, that information is catalogued and then sold, ” said actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Shared this new trailer yesterday morning in Hall H. Thank you for warm welcome @comic_con had a good time https://t.co/HjiIfKoI9x#Snowden
— Oliver Stone (@TheOliverStone) July 22, 2016
