snowden

Oliver Stone Had Secret Meetings With the Real Edward Snowden While Researching Snowden

Snowden (L); Joseph Gordon-Snowden (R). Photo: Getty Images, Open Road

It turns out that Oliver Stone’s long-delayed Edward Snowden biopic, Snowden, which was moved from last fall to a release later this year, was just as hard to make as you might have expected a movie about an international fugitive to be. Shooting for the film, which stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley, moved to Germany because “we did not feel comfortable in the U.S.,” Stone said in a recent talk at the Sun Valley Film Festival about the project, and several companies with ties to the U.S. refused to collaborate on the project. Still, Oliver Stone’s the kind of guy who commits, and the director decided to double down on the cause and travel to Moscow, where Snowden has been living in exile, for several clandestine meetings over the past year. What did Stone learn from Snowden during those meetings? (You know, aside from all the secrets) “He’s a night owl, and he’s always in touch [with the outside world], and he’s working on some kind of constitution for the internet with other people,” Stone said. “So he’s very busy. And he stays in that 70-percent-computer world. He’s on another planet that way. His sense of humor has gotten bigger, his tolerance.” You didn’t need to travel to Russia for the humor part, Oliver, you could have easily found a sample of Snowden’s searing wit on Twitter.

Oliver Stone Met With the Snowden for Snowden