Zachary Quinto has revealed playing Glenn Greenwald in a film about whistleblower Edward Snowden has been “challenging” but “important”.

The Star Trek actor portrays the US journalist and lawyer in Oliver Stone’s political drama Snowden, which tells the true story of National Security Agency (NSA) leak Snowden, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Edward Snowden (Open Road Films)

“To be part of a story that I consider so politically and socially important was really a great honour and to work with Oliver Stone was awesome, and also with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Melissa Leo and Tom Wilkinson,” he said.

“To play somebody who is really trying to make a difference in this world and to effect change and to stand up and hold people accountable, and doing it with real intelligence and a real sense of how to articulate his thoughts was a great challenge.”

Glenn Greenwald
Glenn Greenwald (Silvia Izquierdo/AP)

Zachary admitted he has yet to come face to face with Glenn himself.

“I never got to meet Glenn yet unfortunately – he had set up his book at Sony and I think there was a bit of project competition there for a minute, which resolved itself, but I look forward to connecting with him,” the actor continued.

“I was glad to read and watch so much of what he’s written and spoken about.”

Zachary – who next stars in Hitman: Agent 47 opposite Rupert Friend – is enjoying playing “good” characters after portraying villains such as serial killer Sylar in Heroes and appearing in American Horror Story: Murder House and Asylum.

Zachary Quinto, Hayden Panettiere and Masi Oka
Heroes stars Zachary Quinto, Hayden Panettiere and Masi Oka (Phil McCarten/AP)

“On one hand, the thing I became most widely known for initially was Heroes. That was such an archetypal villain that I think it generated other opportunities consequently,” the 38-year-old star explained.

“Sometimes I found those opportunities compelling to engage – it wasn’t because they were villainous characters, it was because they were interesting characters.

“I do feel, a little bit now, and with this movie [Hitman: Agent 47] in particular, it’s been a nice full circle and this feels like a book end of some sort for me to go and explore entirely different territory almost exclusively for a bit.”

He added: “Not to say I’ll never play an antagonist again but that maybe I just want to colour with some different crayons for a while.”

Hitman: Agent 47 is in cinemas now.