Los Angeles: "500 Days of Summer" star Joseph Gordon-Levitt says he secretly met Edward Snowden, the former government contractor, who leaked classified information, before taking on the role in Oliver Stone's "Snowden".


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Gordon-Levitt, 34, who plays the titular character in the biographical political thriller, said he went to Russia, "wanting to understand this person that I was going to play, observing both his strengths and his weaknesses," reported Entertainment Weekly. The actor had a four-hour conversation with Snowden, which he was discouraged from recording.


Gordon-Levitt said he wanted people to decide for themeselves whether Snowden is a national hero or a traitor.


"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. 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," he said. The movie has been pushed from its original Christmas release date to 2016.