Toronto: Oliver Stone Unhappy with Obama and Says Surveillance “In the Hands of the Wrong President, It’s Very Dangerous”

Oliver Stone warned against the dangers of global surveillance in a sit-down with The Hollywood Reporter at the Toronto Film Festival.

The Snowden director, in discussing his biopic of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, spoke about the current state of the country’s surveillance system, which he says has intensified under the Obama Administration.

“I thought Obama, like everyone else, was going to be a reformer. He had criticized the surveillance prior,” Stone told THR. “Since 2013, I have to tell you, it’s gotten a lot more serious because they’ve expanded the surveillance. It’s gotten better.”

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He continued, “Obama has managed to put together the most intensive surveillance state in the history of the world. This is pretty frightening when you think about the implications. In the hands of the wrong president, it’s very dangerous what we’re doing.”

Despite Snowden’s real-life ties with the U.S. government and NSA, the director clarified that the biopic wasn’t made for a “political purpose,” but rather to simply “tell the story.”

“How do you keep a technical story like this — which was complicated — and keep it thrilling?” Stone asked. “There are no car chases, there’s no James Bond moment, there’s no violence. So, if it works as a thriller, the people who saw Bourne will go to this movie. Yes, I think so.”