- 2 days ago
In this special conversation, Steven Spielberg sits down with his Disclosure Day stars Emily Blunt, Colman Domingo, and Josh O'Connor for an intimate discussion about filmmaking, collaboration, and the stories that have shaped his career. From the making of some of his most iconic films to the creative process behind Disclosure Day, Spielberg reflects on decades of storytelling while answering questions from the cast.
DISCLOSURE DAY is only in theaters June 12, 2026. http://disclosuredaymovie.com/
DISCLOSURE DAY is only in theaters June 12, 2026. http://disclosuredaymovie.com/
Category
đ ïž
LifestyleTranscript
00:00And I noticed that Hitchcock made a gesture with his hand and an assistant director came running
00:04over and Hitchcock went like this and whispered something to the AD and the AD turned and looked
00:10right at me. Oh my god. And walked right over and said uh you have to leave. Oh my god.
00:18And we were
00:18thrown off the set. Wow. So we are all about to bombard Mr. Steven Spielberg with a series of
00:31incredibly highbrow and lowbrow questions. Well if I was ever an authority figure that's over.
00:44When you're working with an actor like Josh and you're not getting a performance you like
00:54when you're working with an actor not Josh or Coleman or me and you're not getting a performance
01:00you like what's your tactic? I've learned a lot from my predecessors from all the movie giants
01:06director giants I've learned so much from and I know that Alfred Hitchcock and William Wyler had a
01:12technique and something I don't do as you know but that's 20, 30, 40, 50 takes. Not how you roll.
01:18I don't roll that way but but in but there are directors from the past like Wyler and Hitchcock
01:24that did that did dozens and dozens of takes because what they were doing is they were waiting
01:29for the actors to get so bored with the way they were doing it they would to relieve the monotony
01:35the actor would change up to try to please Hitch or to try to please Willie. For me it's really
01:42not about discussion because if you start you can't be a director therapist yeah that's not you know I
01:48don't do it that way but there is something about asking enough questions so the actor that isn't quite
01:56getting when I'm I'm trying to lead the witness you know and if the actor isn't quite getting it just
02:01by
02:01asking questions it's about to Josh Josh is going to have Josh will have the epiphany I'm only using you
02:13as an example because you're wearing one of my favorite science fiction movie shirts uh the day
02:18of the earth still that Josh is going to have his own private epiphany and say okay let me do
02:23it right
02:24now something actually I really noticed with you is that and it I in my limited experiences the best
02:30thing a director does is make you feel as though you have discovered something I know really Stephen
02:37discovered it months before and he's just gifting me that discovery but it's actually really important
02:42if you have that ownership over yeah discovery yeah you're more likely to commit to it yeah I think
02:48that's true well I'm gonna I'm gonna go off script great my question is is uh alien related if they
02:57have visited us which we all believe that they have many times why wouldn't we share that with the world
03:03why haven't we heard about this before yeah all I can tell you is that I think that there is
03:10a lot of
03:12profit in keeping this a secret because we don't know how any off-world civilization can get here
03:22because the universe is so vast you know there's a lot of reasons because there's such exotic technology
03:28we even have a piece of exotic technology in our movie called the device and because there has been
03:34reportedly so much exotic technology recovered the reverse engineering of that technology is going to be
03:41for profit and for power contract companies that can keep a secret more than that than elected
03:48officials can uh uh they're not really going to want a disclosure day to actually happen would there
03:54be a shared knowledge between let's just say like oh yeah our government knows something would
03:59it be shared between other governments around the world as well or do you think people just hold on
04:03to it well yeah because the superpowers are not going to share with the other no share where it's here
04:08yeah you know it's very very hard to see keep a secret yeah inside government but but tech industries
04:14you don't hear who knew that the iphone was being invented by steve jobs that never got out i mean
04:20there's all so many tech companies are completely airtight locked down
04:27if you could sit down for dinner with any filmmaker from the past who would it be oh that's a
04:32great
04:33question oh my god dead or alive let's say dead yeah yeah let's kill them there's more dead directors
04:40i'd like to sit down with yeah you also are friends with all the alive i'm friends with all the
04:46alive
04:46people and i respect all of them because they all do different things and often they all do different
04:51things that i cannot do but you are so celebratory of other fellow directors work i never hear you
04:58trashing no movies or someone's effort you know oh no no no it's too hard to make a movie exactly
05:04once you've been there you know how hard it is i have to say i think it would be alfred
05:07hitchcock
05:07really yeah i think it would be hitchcock i tried to meet hitchcock several times he wouldn't meet me
05:12and then after jaws came out i thought i had a little more chance to meet hitchcock because it became
05:16a big hit that summer and he was shooting i'm not sure what the movie was it might have been
05:20family
05:20plot but he was shooting a movie right around the time in 1975 when jaws came out
05:25and i had a reporter from washington post doing a profile on me and he was hanging out with me
05:29so i said let's go see if we can both meet alfred hitchcock and i walked on to the hitchcock
05:33stage
05:34and there was hitchcock with his back to me in a director's chair and the cameras were on both
05:39sides and one camera and all the lights and they were shooting something in this direction and there
05:43was no way for him to know i was there and i noticed that hitchcock made a gesture with his
05:48hand
05:48and an assistant director came running over and hitchcock went like this and whispered something to the ad
05:54and the ad turned and looked right at me oh my god and walked right over and said uh you
06:01have to
06:01leave oh whoa my god and whether hitchcock maybe there was a mirror in the set maybe he saw a
06:08reflection
06:09but we were thrown off the set what yeah so i never still want to have dinner with yes i
06:15know why no not
06:16about that he's a genius i want to ask him i had nothing but questions for him wow yeah i
06:21have a nerdy
06:22question did he inspire that iconic shot in jaws when brody's on the beach and the little boy is
06:29eaten in the yellow lilo like can you tell me about that shot where it goes like that i think
06:34about that
06:35i get so much credit for that shot it's called the zoom dolly yeah you have a very long focal
06:40length
06:40lens a zoom lens and then as you quickly dolly the camera in on dolly track you have to pull
06:47you have to
06:47zoom out as you're dollying it's called called the zoom dolly and that came directly from vertigo wow
06:55so don't give me credit for it it's alfred hitchcock did that this is why he needs to have dinner
06:59with
07:03what's a movie that you've seen that you're jealous you didn't make i wouldn't say jealous i've never used
07:09the word jealous i would i would basically say that i were i regret i didn't have the opportunity
07:15to make in my time and i did have the opportunity to make it i wasn't less than jealous of
07:21it at all
07:21i thought it was a great film but i developed it as the director and i had to step off
07:26to do a favor
07:27for a friend it was a movie called rain man wow that i was in pre-production on with tom
07:33cruise
07:33and with dustin hoffman and i had worked on the script and i worked on it while i was making
07:39empire of the sun in spain and in china and i came back and then something in my personal life
07:44happened
07:45and i couldn't make it and i had to walk away which broke my heart oh man and of course
07:49it came out
07:50was a big hit and won all the oscars yeah i have oh i i don't have a question but
07:57i have a prop okay it's
07:59not a problem it's something that raul and i found in joshua tree and we wanted to gift you
08:03this to start a press tour oh my god beautiful come on in vivo it's in vivo isn't it in
08:10vivo i
08:11really thought that's in vivo 17. we literally were just wandering around joshua tree stumbled into
08:17this place and pioneer town you found this in joshua tree yeah exactly how did it get from area 51
08:23to
08:23how did this teleport and if you push the eyes you transport to another right don't touch the
08:30yeah then here's my question my follow-up what do you think is the most overlooked but important
08:35role on a film set i basically think the most overlooked role on a film set is the camera
08:41operator i was just oh wow yeah yeah why is that because in the old days before there was video
08:47assist or we had video village and everybody could walk under a into a tent and watch all the cameras
08:54on
08:54all the monitors before all of that the the most important person on every movie set from the time
08:59movies started getting made was the camera operator the camera operator had the final say about whether
09:06the director who's happy with the performances can say print let's move on or has to do it again
09:12everybody turned to the operator every eye turned to the camera to know we've got it yeah it's a little
09:17less that way now because we all can look at the monitors and i can see directly whether i want
09:22to make a
09:23change or not by watching the monitor but it still is an essentially important job especially
09:27if you're working with a steadicam operator or if you're working with a handheld operator it needs
09:32to be celebrated by the industry even more than it than it has been absolutely and they realize what
09:39you've been fever dreaming about these shots that you dream up and that's right what you want to
09:44convey emotionally with the camera is so essential and i think when you have an operator who is just
09:49at one with you yes and how you see it it's just extraordinary and then you never got a chance
09:55to
09:55meet him because he didn't do disclosure day but mitch dubin had done 16 of my movies in a row
10:00mitch camera operator and he's brilliant and mitch did all the handheld camera work on saving private
10:06oh my god and that in itself confirms the importance of a camera operator
10:14they're all smiling look at these cam operators
10:19for someone who's just getting into cinema what steven spielberg movie would you recommend that
10:24they watch now when you say getting into cinema do we mean into the profession or into into directing
10:30directing oh yeah i i would actually uh look at my television shows yeah yeah because i was just
10:37learning and i make it i made a lot of mistakes and there's some really pockets of really good stuff
10:42and there's a lot of junk all around it and i think it's important that people know my movies they
10:47go back and they watch some of the early you know episodic shows i made just to see the learning
10:53curve
10:53just to see how you stumble you fall you get up you do something that that people like and then
10:59you start stumbling and falling again yeah i think you're first breaking into the business you need to
11:04know that failing is the only way you learn yeah it's the only way you really are able to uh
11:09advance
11:10your knowledge about about how to make a movie you've been making movies through decades of technological
11:17advancement in the craft what new tools have most impressed you and what old techniques are still
11:23crucial i think that in terms of new techniques i think i'm really really impressed with
11:31the drone camera replacing the crane the drone not being used as a drone not being used to impress
11:40the audience but if you fold it into the shot so you you're not trying to impress anybody you're
11:48trying to tell the story and get the camera in places that before that technology was available
11:54you could never get the camera that that interests me and the old technique that never gets old
12:01and you all love this is the power of the close-up yeah and there's nothing more powerful than that
12:08yeah that's been around since the very first movie it was ever made
12:14yeah are you all happy with disclosure day yes that's an easy one yes elated sky high happy yeah
12:22what's something you felt unique about working with this cast well the unique okay
12:30as a director i also get to be a fan in a sense
12:34i cast this movie because i'm also fans of the people i cast in my movie but by the way
12:38if you watch this entire interview whatever you use of it you will see what was unique about working
12:43with this and you will see how even in some of our more serious moments a lot of serious drama
12:48and
12:49disclosure day you will see how behind the scenes we got along so famously and how much we adored
12:55each other just basically cutting the rug yeah i think there's a lot of cutting up of the rug on
13:02this
13:02it feels rare on a film that has a lot of comedy in disclosure day not we call comedy but
13:07just
13:07life humor real real when you're when you're scared and and and there's crisis and this crisis
13:12happens and and you're not reaching for the joke but things happen to just happen to be funny when
13:17josh lost it emily would lose it and then when you would lose it it's got to be levity you
13:24know and i
13:24had to wonder sometimes when i see a great movie like silence of the lambs wondering were there a lot
13:31of
13:31laughs behind the scenes uh with tony hopkins i mean i wonder if the first time
13:37he went she laughed well he did that to me oh was it chilling no i i sent him a
13:43script called
13:44amistad i wanted him to play the former president john quincy adams he was shooting a movie in mexico
13:49so i could only reach him by phone and he had read the script and had committed on the phone
13:55to play
13:55the part and just before we hung up i had the chutzpah to say can you do a little bit
14:00of hannibal
14:00lecture for me and he did the entire fava bean speech for me on the telephone from mexico that's a
14:09life
14:09moment
Comments