Last summer, I spent some time in the countryside with Josh O'Connor for a GQ cover story. We had some tea and went wild swimming; it was a lovely time. He had recently finished filming on Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg's extremely fun (and extremely silly) alien blockbuster, which has just arrived in cinemas. When he spoke about making it, he had the wide-eyed excitement of a kid watching a Spielberg film for the first time ("He is the architect of our childhood," he said of the director, and he's not wrong). Though O'Connor has been involved in big projects before, this was a different beast altogether - a proper, old-school, capital-M movie, with him as the leading man (opposite the excellent Emily Blunt).
As we sat at his kitchen table, he told me an anecdote that made me cackle. "This is the kind of thing I should be saving for a talk show," he said, "but fuck it."
I can only try to do it justice. Here goes: one night, O'Connor was worried about cracking a particularly emotional scene, which they'd be shooting the following day. He texted Spielberg to pick his brain. "He's really good at giving advice on things, and loves to have your opinion. It was a really good exchange," O'Connor says. "And then, sometimes, he will say something that's mind-blowing and poetic and incredible." They texted back and forth, and O'Connor felt the matter somewhat resolved. But then, a little while later, another text came through. It read, "The door is ajar, just push."
This made perfect sense to O'Connor. "Because it was about emotion," he says. "And I was like, 'The door is ajar, just push'? You know when you're choking up and you're holding it in, holding it in, and then something just makes you go pffft." He gestures as if dissolving into a pool of his own tears. That little phrase totally unlocked the scene. He already knew he was working with a genius, but this cemented it.
The next day, when he saw Spielberg on set, O'Connor repeated the words back to him: "'The door is ajar, just push.' And he was like, 'What?!'"
As it turned out, the text was intended for Spielberg's wife, who was coming in late that night and had forgotten her key. O'Connor was mortified. "But I was right to investigate it, because it is the kind of thing he would write," he says. "And it fucking worked!"
GQ stories you might have missed:
Is Scorsese actually making a Goodfellas-esque crime movie with The Rock?
Alice and Steve's Jemaine Clement on age gaps, Gen Z and Flight of the Conchords reunion plans
It's Brad Pitt and his dog vs the Alaskan wilderness in David Ayer's Heart of the Beast
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NETFLIX
GRAN TORINO
To mark Big Clint's retirement, I'll be rewatching his best late-career movie, in which he plays a grizzled and grumpy Korean war vet who develops an unlikely bond with a Hmong American teen.
BBC IPLAYER
THE DAMNED UNITED
A rare football film that's actually good. Michael Sheen plays Brian Clough as he tries to take Leeds United to glory in the 1970s.
DISNEY+
FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE
A funny and brilliantly written drama about a divorced man in New York who tries to restart his life after his ex-wife (played by the wonderful Claire Danes, when she eventually turns up) goes missing.
HBO MAX
SPIELBERG
Seeing as it's Spielberg week... Like last year's Mr Scorsese, this is a fascinating deep dive into the legend's filmography, enhanced by extensive interviews with the director himself. |
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Idris Elba (that's Sir Idris Elba to you) is one of our summer cover stars. In a wide-ranging interview with writer Hayley Campbell, Elba had some interesting thoughts on the James Bond rumours that have followed him for more than 15 years. "It was never legit. It was always just a rumour," he said. "I've always felt that it's not a realistic thing. James Bond was written how he was written for a reason. But I was complimented by it. And also, I think, in realistic terms, some markets just don't go for that. Bond is big all over the world. And [audiences] won't [all] go for a Black male, an African male, playing Bond. That's not what they like in their culture. Period." He also believes that changing Bond isn't really necessary. "Bond is so unrealistic, so a hint of reality is good, but let's not try and make it woke. I think you've got to be pure to what it is: escapism. Don't try and answer the world's taste. Just be Bond." |
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JEMAINE CLEMENT IS OBSESSED WITH... SCAVENGER'S REIGN |
"It's animated sci-fi, and because it's animated, they can show a lot of wild sci-fi ideas. I hope there's a second season." |
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