Joseph Gordon-Levitt played Edward Snowden in the 2016 Oliver Stone film Snowden. During his recent guest appearance on The Graham Norton Show Mr. Gordon-Levitt spoke about meeting Snowden's parents at the premier. Gordon-Levitt's voice cracked as he choked up a bit - and as can be expected there was a multitude of great body language examples contained in this encounter. Several strategic nonverbal reactions of fellow guests, Tom Hanks and Gemma Arterton are highlighted in this post.
Beginning at 1:50, Graham Norton asks, "And isn't there some hope that Obama ahhh, might, one of the last things he does, might be to pardon him?"
Gordon-Levitt says, "I, I mean yeah, there's, there's a lot of ah, important, and, and influential human rights groups like Amnesty International and the ACLU that, that have appealed to President Obama to, to pardon Edward Snowden because, you know, ultimately what he did was, was a great service to the country and the World. Um, you know ..."
The image above was captured at 2:10 just after Gordon-Levitt says "country" within the sentence, "... ultimately what he did was, was a great service to the country ..."
Gordon-Levitt's body configuration of his feet flat on the floor, his legs moderately spread apart, his left hand pointed-in and palm down on his thigh, his right hand palm-down on his knee and his jacket unbuttoned - an example of an alpha-beta hybrid cluster (not too alpha, and not too beta) however a bit more toward the alpha end of the spectrum. This shows high confidence and sincere conviction to his statement regarding Edward Snowden.
Look at Tom Hanks' however - his face is consistent with that of disgust as well as a bit of a "WTF?" expression.
It's also profoundly telling that both Tom Hanks and Gemma Arterton are both not-so-subtly leaning away from Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Moreover, if you look at Tom Hanks' hands - they are displaying a variation of what is termed a "Pistol Steeple". This body language is a metaphor for a firearm - and signals a high level of critical evaluation of either Gordon-Levitt's opinion regarding Edward Snowden, Snowden himself - or both. It's helpful to think of this as Hanks "shooting down" Gordon-Levitt's statement.
As Gordon-Levitt says, "... and to the World ..." Gemma Arterton tilts her head and neck back as she continues to look at him speaking. This is also indicative of critical evaluation and is very demonstrative of the old idiom, "Looking down your nose at him".
Summary: Although Tom Hanks and Gemma Arterton may very well like Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a person or actor - their nonverbal displays show very clearly that neither are fans of Edward Snowden.
It's noteworthy to point out as well, that despite the fact that Arterton and Hanks are both very accomplished actors, they are only human. Thus not only do their true feelings "leak" out all the time during such interviews (despite what they may say verbally) - but also their body language when they're acting on camera is not always accurate.
See also:
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3765: Conjoined twins Jadon and Anias McDonald - See each other directly for the first time
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3763: Matt Smith, Claire Foy and Where NOT to be stung by a Wasp - Body Language, Emotional Intelligence and Predicting Empathy
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3761: Mitt Romney meets with Donald Trump
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3759: Nicole Kidman's and Jimmy Fallon's Almost Date Redux
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3739: Hillary Clinton's Statement regarding FBI Probe
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3709: Kate Middleton - The face you make when you’re married to a prince but you meet Justin Trudeau
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3563: Ariana Grande, Lip Stick, Microexpressions and Body Language
Nonverbal Communication Analysis No. 3525: Kristen Bell Slaps a Reporter On "The Boss" Red Carpet (This was a PR Stunt)
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