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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
I gave my brother a New York Times subscription. We exchange articles. And so having read the same article, we can discuss it. She sent me a year-long subscription so I have access to all the games.
The New York Times contributes to our quality time together. It enriches our relationship. It was such a cool and thoughtful gift. We're reading the same stuff. We're making the same food. We're on the same page. Learn more about giving a New York Times subscription as a gift at nytimes.com slash gift.
Do you want to check any shots? Do you want to check your shots? If you, Steven Spielberg, want to take a look, I... Let's see your shot. Oh, there. Okay, so what do you think of that? It's a good shot. I mean, it's like a nice framing. Does it convey seriousness, like serious journalists? Yes, I like seeing all of this. Oh, you don't have meat like that, do you ever? Push back.
What was that great line in Tootsie? You know, how far back do you have to go to make it look good? What about Cleveland? From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily on Sunday. Steven Spielberg. The name is synonymous with big Hollywood blockbusters. Just to rattle off a few of them, Jaws. You're going to need a bigger boat. E.T. E.T. phone home. Indiana Jones.
That belongs in a museum. Jurassic Park.
Oh.
This week, he's got a new movie out, his 35th. It's called Disclosure Day. And it returns to questions that Steven Spielberg has picked at throughout his entire career. Do aliens exist? And if they do, how will we react to them?
What are you going to do? Full disclosure, to the whole world, all at once.
Steven Spielberg is here with me today to talk about Disclosure Day, his fascination with aliens, and what he is watching on Instagram. It's Sunday, June 14th. Steven Spielberg, welcome to The Daily. Thank you so much for joining us.
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Chapter 2: What inspired Steven Spielberg to create 'Disclosure Day'?
Yes. And now you're at the point where you, it sounds like you very much believe that this exists. What would the younger Spielberg have thought, listening to you now as such a believer that this is what actually exists in the universe? Well, the younger me wouldn't have been exposed to the incredible plethora of visual documentation of what's been going on, seeing is believing.
And until I see something myself and why I have not seen a UFO, I don't understand why they haven't come to me yet. I mean, I feel like their agent. So I have not had any sightings whatsoever. However, having said that, so much of the believers, I now believe the believers.
You know, it's interesting that you frame it that way because Disclosure Day, one of the big themes, if I may say so, is about faith. Does God love us?
I don't mean does he love us. I know he does.
Does he love only us? And it's not just about believers, but it's also about faith in something higher than yourself. It's about faith in humanity and the ability of other people to deal with difficult circumstances.
Because Genesis says that we're his supreme creation, but do you think it's possible that... On Earth. What? Genesis. It says we are God's supreme creation on Earth.
You could have just made a movie about aliens. You could have made a fun summer blockbuster. And I wonder why you chose to engage with that theme specifically. I just feel, I felt that this was an opportunity to talk about, you know, the loss of community and therefore the loss of human connection. This film is more about humanity. Mm-hmm.
and the things that divide us and what could be occurring that possibly could bring us a little closer together. Such as aliens being real. Well, such as realizing that the thing that we need to preserve in our society more than anything else, which is something which I believe is as fragile as democracy, is empathy.
And that our two characters, Joshua O'Connor plays Daniel Kellner and Emily Blunt plays Margaret Fairchild, there is a very large emphasis put on their superpowers.
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Chapter 3: How has Spielberg's view on aliens evolved over the years?
It's crazy. And I just have seen this draining out of us, and I thought that I wanted to do a story about how to bring humanity together again. You know, I understand that you're commenting on the divided political time that we live in. It's not even a political time. It's a divided social time. Divided social time. Has that affected you personally? Have you lost relationships?
Are you making this in any way reflective of what you personally have struggled with as we have become more divided? It's not that I've lost relationships. I just... I believe in people, and I believe in people who I don't agree with.
If we took two soccer teams, or they take it very seriously, you could have nothing but rivalry, and you could be hooligans against each other in loss or in victory. But there are certain things you agree on. The lager in the pub you drink after a game where you can bury your disagreements and just celebrate the fact that you're alive on the planet.
I mean, that is something that I'm missing today. And arguably, I think I've heard you talk about movies this way. Movies are something that obviously bring people together.
And so I wonder if that's sort of like if you're thinking not just about the themes of faith in your film and the importance of faith in terms of bringing people together, but the actual going to see a movie and losing yourself and forgetting what's going on in the outside world. I feel like I see a bit of a through line here. Yeah.
Well, I've been saying like a broken record that movies build community. So does theater. So do concerts, you know. Community is when we all come together. We don't know each other. But what we do know is we are having a similar reaction to what is being shown to us, what is being unspooled, what is being presented, performed for us.
And it absolutely is one of the greatest uniters of any culture on the face of the planet. We'll be right back.
And I'm Amy Lawrence. I cover football for The Athletic.
Whatever you call it, the biggest competition in the sport is happening right now.
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Chapter 4: What role does faith play in Spielberg's new film?
It was basically the biorhythm of the movie that I sat down to write. I wrote it that way because I felt like we had been awaiting answers.
about where's the truth where has the truth been about you know uh communication or the government hiding the fact that there is uh interaction between species and it's maybe we've been interacting for 80 or longer years and so and and that to me felt like it was already on a fast track it was already moving for eight decades very very quickly and now it was coming to a head
That was dictating how fast I started Disclosure Day, not trying to appeal to a generation that has a need for speed. My colleague Wesley Morris recently did quite a masterful, I thought, profile of you. It was amazing. Yeah, yeah. He is incredible. And he wrote about in this profile not just how the audience has changed in terms of attention span.
And I understand your answer that you can only make the movie that you know how to make, right? Yeah. Wesley also wrote about how you two spent a lot of time together. You went to see a play. Yes. And he wrote about your deep appreciation for the audience reactions to this play. Right.
And it made me wonder how you would describe the different experience of seeing a movie alone, as, of course, so many of us now do when we watch it on our TVs or, dare I say it, our iPhones, perhaps. What do you...
I have a case to make for the iPhone, by the way, but I'll get to it in a minute.
It's okay when the movie's been out for a year. Or older, right? Or older. But go ahead. So what do you lose when you don't watch a movie surrounded by other people? Well, it's not what I lose because I can watch a movie alone. In a sense, when I watched Dr. Strangelove, it was a full house when I was 18 years old.
but I felt like I was alone watching it because it had affected me and it excluded everybody in the theater and I was all by myself. That's how deeply the film had grabbed up all of my attention.
But then when I, at the end of the movie, when I realized that people were having similar reactions all around me, I suddenly had strangers who were allies in my experience of what that film, how that film affected us. And what did that mean to you to be surrounded by people that agreed with you in some way? It felt great. The agreement isn't done verbally. You don't get into conversation.
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Chapter 5: How does Spielberg believe empathy is essential in storytelling?
Something on YouTube, something on one of these new ways that people are consuming content. I love watching food on Instagram. Yeah? Can you explain more? What do you mean by that? I love watching food stuff. Food stuff. I'm a foodie. Okay. So I'd like nine different ways you can make a taco. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Yes. I get a little bit down. That's the rabbit hole that pulls me down.
The headline here is that Steven Spielberg likes ASMR food videos. I do. What is it about them? Is it the craft that pulls you in or do you just want to know how to make tacos? No, it's the imagination it takes to do something I've never seen before. And now I've made some of this stuff. You've made which stuff? The good videos, the short videos?
Well, I've watched and tried to replicate it and replicate it. And some of it is not as good as it looks. Yes, as all of us have experienced, yes. I mean, my wife right now is into something about dribbling a hot fudge over potato chips and making an open-faced sandwich out of it.
I'm not ready for that yet, but she's been threatening to make it for the last week.
Stephen, thank you so much for all of this. We, if I may call you Stephen, I should have asked you at the beginning of this. Why not? Please call me Stephen. We had envisioned in just the last remaining moments that we would do a little lightning round of questions. Okay. Okay. So if you'll indulge us. Okay. What are the best and worst Steven Spielberg movies according to your children?
I don't think my kids have ever had a worse. I mean, my kids like my movies.
They do like your movies.
But they haven't seen them all. And they'll tell me. This is not what I expected you to say because everybody's children, no matter how accomplished they are, they think, oh, it's just what dad does. Well, I'll tell you what my kids do. When my kids were six, eight, ten years old, and I'd bring them to the sets because my whole family, Kate would bring the whole family to the sets.
Anywhere I was shooting, the family would live there. And my kids were so bored by my job. They come on the set and the first thing they'd say is, when do we get to leave? You're kidding. No, I'm not kidding because one of my kids said to me, they said, because we just waited an hour. And then when you said action, it only lasted two minutes.
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