Director Oliver Stone opened up about his forthcoming Edward Snowden biopic Snowden in a recent interview, and called most Hollywood war movies “bullsh*t” — thanks to the CIA.
“What you’re seeing is bullsh*t. And a lot of the war pictures you see, you don’t get, you know, you get it after the Pentagon has sanitized it. And they lie. They lie. As long as it is pro-American, that’s all that matters,” the three-time Oscar-winner said during an August 26 interview at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film and Television.
Stone says “the Pentagon has taken over. CIA has taken over Hollywood in that sense.”
Naming what he calls popular “pro-American” TV shows like 24 and Homeland, Stone said “It’s all CIA. It’s just bullsh*t. I mean, honestly. America is fed bullsh*t and we buy it. No other alternative.”
Snowden stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the notorious former NSA analyst, who fled to Russia in 2013 and is currently facing espionage charges from the United States government.
Stone said he “assumed” the CIA was tapping his phone calls while he and his crew were filming Snowden in Germany. The director said in an interview earlier this year that he moved the film’s production from the United States to Germany to avoid interference from the NSA.
“But we proceeded on the basis of we’re making a movie,” the filmmaker said. “We went there on that basis.”
Stone lists “self-censorship of scared American corporations” as the biggest challenge he faced while shooting Snowden. He said he finds it “very hard to believe” there “wasn’t a political factor” for why every major film studio in Hollywood passed on financing the film.
Stone also said he encountered a “catalog of horrors” while making Snowden, including missing his own mother’s funeral because he couldn’t sacrifice the time flying from Germany back to the U.S.
During the Q&A, Stone also praised GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, who filmed scenes for the director’s 1987 classic Wall Street that were ultimately cut out of the finished film.
“He was good,” Stone said of the real estate magnate. “I have no complaint. . . I talked to him, and he’s a charming man in person. As an actor, he was stunning.”
Last month, Breitbart News reported that Edward Snowden plans to appear live in U.S. theaters via satellite alongside Stone for a special one-night event ahead of the highly anticipated biopic premiere.
Snowden hits theaters on September 16, and also stars Shailene Woodley, Zachary Quinto, Scott Eastwood and Nicolas Cage. The film makes its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @jeromeehudson
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