Steven Spielberg: I Was Turned Down for Bond
episodePreviously titled “Steven Spielberg on Aliens, Young Directors and Being Turned Down for Bond” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The rest is entertainment is presented by Octopus Energy. Now, fan mail is one of entertainment's strangest bargains. You send total devotion one way and the understanding that nothing may come back.
Certainly in our day, you would write to a film star or a singer. I wrote to Howard Jones. And maybe three months later, a sort of signed photo comes back that's clearly pro forma, you know, that you know Howard's never really looked at.
Steve Martin used to have the performer sort of thing, which would just leave blanks, like insert, like small details to make a joke about how completely impersonal his personal reply to you was. It was just like a standard thing.
Impersonal is interesting. That's why we're talking about this, because with Octopus Energy, you always can reply to their emails. And not only can you reply to them, they will go to the same small group of people who always deal with you. That's like unbelievable.
It's almost unprecedented that a company you're giving your money to will actually respond to you.
Are contactable in some way.
Hello and welcome to this episode of The Rest Is Entertainment, questions and answers edition. I'm Marina Hine.
And I'm Richard Osman. Now, bad news, we are not answering your questions this week. Good news...
Mr. Steven Spielberg is answering them. This is a big honour.
Isn't it, Jess? We're quite nervous. We are waiting for him to come in.
Quite excited.
Apparently he's going to be on time, which is almost unheard of. We've got loads of questions. Thank you so much for all of those, some brilliant ones. Apologies we can't use all of them, but I think we've got stuff that will go across his career. But also we're talking about Disclosure Day, which is his new movie, which I think is absolutely terrific. Can I also tell you a little secret? Yeah. I have an absolutely mental question I want to ask him. Oh, that's good. Which I hopefully will drop in about halfway through.
I'm sure it'll just be very cool and we won't even notice.
Yeah, you might do. Yeah. You might do. Listen, shall we do it?
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Stephen Spielberg.
Steven Spielberg, how lovely to see you. Hi, Richard. Good to see you again. Last time I saw Steven, he was taking off in a helicopter.
I was on set with Richard. Exactly.
On Thursday Murder Club. Now, but we are here to talk about all sorts of things. But first, I want to talk about Disclosure Day because, as I've just told you, I thought it was magnificent. I was trying to work out which of our listener questions would lead us into it best. There's lots to talk about. So we're going to go very, very route one from Dan Young. And Dan says, do you believe in aliens?
I do believe that we are not alone in the cosmos, in the universe. As far as do I believe that aliens are here and have been here, 50 years ago to make Close Encounters, I would have said, seeing is believing, and I haven't seen one. I've not even seen the UFO. But today... I'm more inclined to say with all the smartphones that are out there and all the things that I've seen and all the people who I believe, I believe the believers, I am absolutely ready to say that I do believe that we are not alone here on this planet.
Is that one of the things that prompted you? I don't know how much you want to give away about the plot to Disclosure Day, but is that one of the things that prompted you to make it?
Well, one of the problems for me to make it was just that whistleblowers were now coming from higher levels of authority. They were coming from the United States Air Force. They were coming from Navy pilots. They were coming from our intelligence community in Washington. People were blowing the whistle and saying that the government has been hiding for decades the truth that we are not alone. And I started believing those believers, not just the people, the rank and file people who have had close encounters of all kinds. throughout all of these years that we've all been reading about. Documentaries have been made about them. The aerial school in Zimbabwe where those 60 kids had that phenomenal encounter with beings from off world.
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