Earlier this month it was reported that WikiLeaks founder and inspiration for the upcoming film "The Fifth Estate" Julian Assange released a full letter that he wrote to actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who will be playing him in the film, back in January.
Assange has several issues with the way in which he is being portrayed in the film as he views his role in the real-life situation as the moral hero, while the film depicts him as amoral and slightly power hungry.
"The bond that develops between an actor and a living subject is significant." He said, according to USA Today. "I believe you are a good person, but I do not believe that this film is a good film. I do not believe it is going to be positive for me or the people I care about. I believe that it is going to be overwhelmingly negative for me and the people I care about. It is based on a deceitful book by someone who has a vendetta against me and my organization."
The actor went on to explain to Cumberbatch what he believed was happening to him as a result of taking the role.
"You will be used, as a hired gun, to assume the appearance of the truth in order to assassinate it. To present me as someone morally compromised and to place me in a falsified history. To create a work, not of fiction, but of debased truth. Not because you want to, of course you don't, but because, in the end, you are a jobbing actor who gets paid to follow the script, no matter how debauched."
"I just wrote back with equal focus and intention and tried to persuade him that it wouldn't be as damaging to him or his enterprise as he feared," the actor told USA TODAY. "That I wasn't into it to make him either a villain or a saint. In my opinion it should be about presenting the rich complexity of him as a whole." Assange thanked him, but still refused to meet. "It was really hard to hear that from the man himself, even though I'd resigned myself to doing the job. I wasn't expecting a blessing either, of course I wasn't. I do think the results do speak for themselves. It is a balance."
During a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) Cumberbatch spoke out a bit more about Assange's letter. He mostly expressed his annoyance at being called a "hired gun."
"Not only do I NOT operate in a moral vacuum but this was not a pay day for me at all. I've worked far less hard for more financial reward. This project was important to me because of the integrity I wanted to bring to provocative difficult but ultimately timely and a truly important figure of our modern times."
The Fifth Estate hits theaters on Oct. 18.
