Today, Joseph Gordon-Levitt posted the very first photo of him as NSA leaker Edward Snowden in Oliver Stone’s upcoming film Snowden.

Filming has just begun on the project.

“I was surprised when I first learned this about Snowden–that he enlisted in the US Army in 2004. 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. After that, he was still determined to serve his country (love him or hate him, you gotta admit the guy’s strong-willed) and so he ended up getting a job at the CIA, which is where his career in Intelligence began,” said Gordon-Levitt.

“Today’s scenes felt like a really good way to start this shoot. It was hard, but of course, nowhere near as hard as real basic training. And me, I’m just honored and excited to be doing a soldier sequence with Oliver. I keep saying to myself: ‘fuck, this guy directed Platoon!'”

Gordon-Levitt leads a star-studded cast, including Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Rhys Ifans, Timothy Olyphant, and last but certainly not least, Nicolas Cage. The movie is based on two different books, to which Stone acquired the rights – The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man, by journalist Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus, by Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena.

Open Road Films just announced the film’s release date last week – Christmas, 2015.