“Snowden” director Oliver Stone took to Reddit Friday for an “ask me anything” session before the film premieres tonight.
The movie from Open Road Films stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as former NSA employee Edward Snowden, who exposed major government surveillance programs while working with journalists Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto in the film) and Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo). It tells the story of Snowden’s initial leaks to the journalists in a Hong Kong hotel room and the fallout that resulted in his involuntary exile in Russia.
In his answers, Stone waxed on everything from Wall Street — the movie and the industry — to the benefits of encrypted communication to his marijuana use, but here are five big takeaways from his AMA:
Snowden told him the secret codes used by intelligence analysts
Stone was asked about what fascinated him the most during his research for the film, to which he replied:
“Getting to know the texture of this secret world, the way they talk to each other. The codes they use. Mr. Snowden described for us the sets, the design, as close to realistic detail as he could. And also the knowledge of Lindsay Mills’ importance in his life.”
He believes a Hillary Clinton presidency will result in “wreckage”
Stone, who directed the 2008 biopic “W.,” about former President George W. Bush, had this to say when asked if he planned on making a Clinton film:
“As it relates to the Clintons – I’m interested in seeing with what wreckage this ends.”
He said making “JFK” caused him to question the official story — which he hadn’t done up to that point
“W.” wasn’t Stone’s first film about a president — he also directed the 1991 thriller “JFK,” about an alleged conspiracy and coverup relating to John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. Stone said he accepted the party line on the president’s shooting death in Dallas until he started investigating on his own:
“I was a person who didn’t question the Warren Commission in those years, until I read Jim Garrison’s second book and started meeting with many people who had studied this. There was an entire community of first and second generation researchers, who tore apart the Warren Commission.”
He believes in a secret government
When asked who he’d most like to interview, Stone responded thusly:
“I think I’d like to interview about two dozen people inside our secret government, and find out what’s really going on.”