Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Meeting With the Real Edward Snowden

— -- Joseph-Gordon Levitt may appear to many to be an obvious choice to play the role of National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden. He sure looks the part.

But Gordon-Levitt says he didn’t know much about Snowden when he was first approached to take the role. He told ABC News he "felt lucky" to get the offer from director Oliver Stone.

The film, “Snowden,” focuses on the former CIA employee who copied and leaked classified NSA documents without authorization.

Gordon-Levitt said his first thoughts were, “What exactly did he do? And why? I realized I didn’t know. You get so much news nowadays without ever getting into depth about it. I didn’t know any of the specifics. I didn’t even know if I really could say that I had a good reason to support him or not support him. So I had to look into it for myself.”

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What he learned through his research struck a chord with Gordon, and he signed on for the role. It wasn't long before he decided to fly to Russia to personally meet Snowden.

“It was a few months before shooting,” Gordon-Levitt, 35, told Peter Travers. “And by that point, I had looked into it and sort of decided, alright I’m going to play this guy and I personally support what he did. I think while he obviously broke the law, the NSA was also breaking the law millions of times a day. And I think that overall it’s a net positive that the American people know about what’s going on. But I would also say that’s my opinion. That’s what I took from it from looking into it. I would encourage anybody to look into it for themselves.”

Gordon-Levitt said when he arrived in Russia his first encounter with Snowden was a pleasant one.

“I’ll tell you what his first question to me was; I was very flattered ... He said, ‘Lindsay and I are having a dispute.’ Lindsay is his longtime girlfriend played in the movie by Shailene Woodley,” Gordon-Levitt explained. “In fact when I met him, I sat with him and Lindsay. He said, ‘You can maybe settle this dispute between me and Lindsay. Is it HitRecord or hit record?’ That’s the first thing he asked me!” Gordon-Levitt joked. The phrase is a play on the name of a production company founded and owned by Gordon-Levitt. Clearly Snowden had been researching Gordon-Levitt as well.

As a result of that meeting, Snowden found a new supporter in Gordon-Levitt.

“I met a guy who’s actually really warm and sort of gentlemanly to be honest, kind of in an old-fashioned way,” Gordon-Levitt said. “Not what you’d expect from someone super good at computers. But I guess it just goes to show a lot of prejudices are wrong.”

Be sure to watch the full interview with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Peter Travers for much more. “Snowden” hits theaters everywhere today.