Joseph Gordon-Levitt posted a picture on Facebook Tuesday from his first day on the set of “Snowden,” in which the actor stars as the prolific leaker and whistle-blower.
The first image from director Oliver Stone’s biopic shows the actor portraying Snowden in U.S. Army basic training in 2003 at age 19, before Snowden broke his legs and took his first step into the intelligence community as a security guard for the NSA.
“He wanted to go fight in Iraq, but during basic training at Fort Benning, he broke both of his legs and received an administrative discharge,” Gordon-Levitt wrote. “After that, he was still determined to serve his country (love him or hate him, you gotta admit the guy’s strong-willed).”
The actor said that the scenes he shot Tuesday were tough, but added it was “nowhere near as hard as real basic training.”
“I’m just honored and excited to be doing a soldier sequence with Oliver,” he wrote. “I keep saying to myself: ‘fuck, this guy directed Platoon!'”