Shailene Woodley Calls Edward Snowden a ‘Hero’

In keeping with her character in the upcoming biopic Snowden, Shailene Woodley has said that she considers notorious leaker Edward Snowden “a hero.”

The Insurgent actress told E! Online that if she could talk to Snowden herself, she would say, “You are the epitome of the word selfless … So I would like [to] say thank you.”

Woodley plays Lindsay Mills in the Oliver Stone-directed film; she had to take pole-dancing classes for certain scenes as Snowden’s girlfriend. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who released a photo of himself in character last week on Facebook.

While Edward Snowden is staying in Moscow for the time being, the real Lindsay Mills attended the Academy Awards in Los Angeles last month and appeared onstage when Citizenfour won Best Documentary. Afterwards, host Neil Patrick Harris explained, “Edward Snowden couldn’t be here, for some treason.”