ITV News Entertainment Reporter Rishi Davda sits down with Steven Spielberg and Josh O’Connor ahead of the UK launch of sci-fi thriller Disclosure Day
Steven Spielberg knows how to make a movie. He’s got the Oscars, BAFTAs and Golden Globes to prove it. The filmmaker’s trophy case also boasts Emmys, a Tony and a Grammy.
The 79-year-old is part of the elite EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winners community. I do sometimes wonder if they have a group chat?
He’s masterminded so many iconic films, including Jurassic Park, E.T., the Indiana Jones franchise, Jaws, Saving Private Ryan and my own personal favourite The Terminal. The full list is way way longer.
Spielberg’s newest film is Disclosure Day, which details the race to reveal the truth about the existence of aliens.
The director was inspired to make the film almost a decade ago, when media outlets in the US started to report on the Pentagon’s secretive attempts to secure testimony from pilots and other US military personnel who claimed to have seen peculiar objects flying in the sky.
Spielberg told me that “when the mainstream media started taking this seriously, it rekindled in 2017, my interest, which was reflected in ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, and then ‘E.T.’ and ‘War of the Worlds’.”
“I suddenly started to look at this in a more realistic way, not as science fiction, but as something that was possibly starting to disclose itself.”
Sat alongside Spielberg is British actor Josh O’Connor. Perhaps best-known for his Emmy award-winning performance as Prince Charles in The Crown, plus starring alongside Zendaya in the pop culture-penetrating hit Challengers.
When asked if working alongside Spielberg on Disclosure Day had changed his perception of the potential of extraterrestrial life, O’Connor says he was “always open to” the idea of other lifeforms.
“If you look up at the sky at night, it’s very east to imagine that we’re probably not alone….the information is out there. I’m just kind of curious to have more of it released.”
Should the time eventually come that the existence of aliens is officially confirmed, Spielberg believes there would be a “variety of responses”.
“Some people will say ‘I knew all along and I’ve been preparing myself all along, and it doesn’t disturb me’.
“Other people will feel an ontological shock of social dislocation, that this is turning what I consider to be a fundamental reality upside down and would not handle it well. Everybody would have a unique reaction.”
O’Connor was drawn to Disclosure Day for two reasons, firstly there’s the Spielberg element.
“I don’t think you can take out the Stephen factor. A director who has a clear vision is always very attractive and helpful.”
The 36-year-old is also keen that his filmography mirrors that of his idols.
“I think the actors that I aspire to, people like Tom Hanks, Robin Williams, Gene Wilder, people who have had diverse careers where they can do comedy and then they can do tragedy, they can do action.”
“I think about the young version of me at drama school and why I was so drawn to Shakespeare. You have that diversity of character across Shakespeare’s works or in the theatre.”
Theatre is very much a traditional art form that has stood the test of time. As movies evolve and embrace new technology, Spielberg is still on the side of traditional tricks.
In Disclosure Day, Emily Blunt briefly delivers dialogue in an entirely made up alien language.
“I would never have made that choice,” Steven reveals. “Even if Emily was unable to produce the sounds that she did produce organically, I would never have used AI (artificial intelligence).”
“I would have probably gone the old-fashioned way. You get a dolphin or you get an elephant and you slow it down, or you speed it up or you play it backwards.”
Spielberg has been churning out flicks since the 60s, pretty much all of which would have been accompanied by a trailer.
There’s a skill to the perfect 2-minute teaser, that in recent years seems to have been watered down to basically give away the whole plot.
“I don’t believe in that”, he laughs. “The sign for me of a good trailer basically is less is more. It’s just kind of priming the engine of public interest.”
“Some audiences like to see the whole film in two and a half minutes…but the element of surprise is missing. The element of surprise is the whole reason I got into movies to begin with.”
He’s still a purist when it comes to the movie business, which he holds so dear. While streamers favour small screens, Spielberg likes them large.
“The idea of sending little cassettes, little DVDs to individuals to watch a movie, if I did that, I would be happy to work for Netflix and make a movie for Netflix.”
“I’d know it’s only going to be seen by millions of people on their home screens. But, I’m a movie maker and I believe in big motion pictures, 70 millimetre theatrical releases.”
Disclosure Day is in cinemas from Wednesday June 10.
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