Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays Edward Snowden in the newly released Oliver Stone biopic has called for the whistleblower to to be pardoned.
Before filming began Gordon-Levitt met Snowden in Russia where he found asylum after he leaked classified information about the NSA's surveillance activities.
The actor said he knows Snowden would love to return home to the US and has asked President Obama to intervene before he leaves office next month.
"I would love it if he would get pardoned, I would think that was the right thing to do and I would hope that Barack Obama, as someone who has generally really stood up for what the constitution says, I would hope he would pardon Snowden," he said.
"I know Ed would like to come home, I know his family would like him to come home. I think he cares less about his personal life and his personal comfort than he does about these issues though, he made that clear."
The movie recounts the story of the hacker, from his first contact with the NSA to the meetings he had with journalists in a Hong Kong hotel room.
Gordon-Levitt, who struck up a friendship with the former NSA contractor during their meetings in Moscow, said he hopes the film starts a conversation about privacy and surveillance.
"Meeting him really humanised him, which is the idea of this movie. The funny thing is he's always trying to take the attention off himself personally and put the attention on the causes he's fighting for.
But I'm an actor playing him in a movie, so I was paying attention to personal details - how does he sit, how does he talk or walk, how does he shake my hand, because ultimately the point of this movie is to be an entertaining drama, to be a fun night at the cinema."
The actor also revealed that he's very much open to the idea of a reboot of 1990s sitcom 3rd Rock From The Sun, the show that gave him his big break.
"It could be Edward Snowden and Winston Churchill because John Lithgow is playing Winston Churchill right now. [in the Netflix series The Crown] I would love to. I love all those folks and would love to see them. I do see them but would love to be making comedy with them."
Snowden is on release from today, December 9.
