Highlights from the Snowden San Diego Comic Con Panel w/ Shailene Woodley

Shailene Woodley attended the Snowden panel at San Diego Comic Con today, July 21. Shailene was joined on the panel by her costars, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zachary Quinto and director, Oliver Stone.

Snowden centers on NSA employee Edward Snowden, who leaked thousands of classified documents to the press. Joesph stars as Snowden, Shailene stars as his girlfriend, Lindsay and Zachary stars as Glenn Greenwald, a journalist for The Guardian.

During the panel, Stone talked about the film, getting investors to invest in it, how Shailene’s character, Lindsay was a must for the film because without her the audience would not get to know Snowden on a personal level and so much more.

The cast also spoke briefly on if they had met their characters and, if they had, did they use their meetings to help create their characters. Shailene revealed that she based Lindsay on what she learned via real life Lindsay’s social media posts and presence during the information release. However, when Shailene was filming in Washington, D.C. she finally got the chance to meet Lindsay and wished she had met her before the start of filming because then she could of added more of Lindsay’s mannerisms to her portrayal.

In regards to creating Snowden, Joseph revealed that he flew to Moscow to meet with Snowden. The two, and Lindsay, shared a meal together and it was those couple of hours together that helped him create his Snowden. Before filming, Joseph only knew the political side of Snowden, but through the meal and a number of video chat sessions, he began to learn about his personal side.

When it came to Zachary’s character, Glen, Zachary said that most of his basis came from the things Glen had written during the time of the reveal. He also spoke a little on director, Oliver Stone saying that working with him in a filmaker environment was great and having the chance to explore something politically charging and resonant with him was amazing.

Snowden hits theaters this September!

Photos: BeautifulBallad