CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Monday night, HBO Films will debut the movie that follows the FBI interrogation of former NSA contractor Reality Winner after she leaked classified information to the press. The film will air on HBO at 10 p.m. ET, and will also be available to stream on its rebranded service Max.
Winner, a Kingsville native and former NSA contractor, received the longest sentence ever in 2018 for the unauthorized release of a classified document to the media.
The document, which she released while living and working in Georgia as a military intelligence contractor, contained information related to Russian interference in the 2016 election. Winner pleaded guilty to espionage charges and spent four of her five year sentence in prison. She was released in June 2021 and has since been on home-confinement in Kingsville.
The film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2023 and was picked up by HBO a couple of weeks later.
Winner's mother, Billie Winner-Davis, went to Berlin to see the premiere of the film.
“People are going to want to see this film, and when they see the film, they're going to want to know more about Reality, and they're going to want to know more about who she is, what she did, what she did for our country, what she did to secure our elections," Davis told 3NEWS when she returned from the screening.
Davis said it is a fair portrayal of exactly what happened.
“It’s 100 percent accurate, because they used the transcript and they didn't alter it or change it in any way," she said. "So you get to hear every word, every cough, every sound, every dog bark. They went line by line of the transcript of the interrogation."
Sydney Sweeney, most known for playing Cassie in HBO's 'Euphoria' and Olivia in the first season of 'The White Lotus,' portrays Winner in the film simply titled 'Reality.'
"Reality is such a complex character, so being able to dive into someone who has so many contradicting ideas of who she is and what's going on is really interesting as an actress," Sweeney told the Associated Press. "I zoomed with her, I texted with her throughout the process and it's really cool as an actor being able to have communication with the person you're playing, because you get a different look into what actually happens."
The film is directed by Tina Satter and is based off of her play, “Is This A Room,” which premiered on Broadway in 2021.
Winner spoke with 3NEWS in February and said she takes full responsibility for her actions.
"I don’t justify what I did, and even the best of intent can’t mask the fact that I did commit a serious crime,” Winner said.
She said she was moved to act out of a sense of duty, but also acknowledges there are things she might have done differently, in hindsight.
“If I felt that strongly about it in my conscience and was that troubled by the information I had seen, I would have found official ways within my agency to address it," she said. "However, I also would have spent some time in therapy working through the emotional issues and the pressures that were building up within me as a troubled citizen, as opposed to doing something rash and illegal.”
She said she does not plan to watch any movies about her actions.
You can watch that full interview in the video below.