Happy Sad Confused - Steven Spielberg, Emily Blunt, & Josh O'Connor

Episode Date: June 11, 2026

A historic episode of Happy Sad Confused as Josh welcomes the true GOAT, Steven Spielberg! And he's brought friends as Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor join to chat about DISCLOSURE DAY and some of the most iconic films of Spielberg's career -- from E.T. and the INDIANA JONES films to CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. This one is a movie lover's dream. Watch on Spotify. If you’re subscribed to Spotify Premium, you don’t get any Spotify ads on my video. SUPPORT THE SHOW BY SUPPORTING OUR SPONSORS! Rula -- Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.rula.com/happy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ #rulapod Quince -- Go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quince.com/HAPPYSAD ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠for free shipping and 365-day returns. Limited Time Offer–Get Huel today with my exclusive offer of 15% OFF online with my code happy15 at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://huel.com/happy15.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ New Customers Only. Thank you to Huel for partnering and supporting our show! UPCOMING EVENTS! 6/16 -- Matt Smith in NY -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tickets here⁠⁠⁠ 6/22 -- Millie Bobby Brown -- ⁠⁠Tickets here⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did Harrison Ford turn down playing Alan Grant in Jurassic Park? Yes, he did. He may not remember that, but I sure do. But you cross with him? I wasn't crossed. I was crushed. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now.

Hey, guys, it's Josh. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Say I Confused. I say another edition. It's not just another show. Let's be real, guys. We have Josh O'Connor. We have Emily Blunt. And we have the goat himself.

Steven Spielberg is unhappy, say I confused guys. Welcome to the show. Can you tell I'm excited? I'm still riding high off of this one. Taped earlier today, uh, I spent about 45, 50 minutes chatting, movies, sci-fi, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, Close Encounters, Disclosure Day with Steven Stilberg and two of the greatest actors working today. So yeah, it was a special day and this is a very, very, very special episode. So I'm going to speak maybe more than I usually would on the intro.

Don't complain, guys. You can just pass forward. Get past my face. Go right to Stephen if you want. This is all free. But I do want to give some context because this is a really, really special one. And look, I think sometimes I'm guilty of this. We're all guilty of being hyperbolic.

Podcasters out there saying, this is the greatest, this is the biggest, this is whatever. This might be the most meaningful. happy, say, confused episode thus far in our 12 plus year history. There is no filmmaker that means more to me than Steven Spielberg. I am not unique in that and saying that sentence. So many of us can say that, whether we are fans, professionals, if we're actors, filmmakers, podcasters. He is, I would venture to say, and I don't think it's much of a venture, the greatest

of all time, the most influential filmmaker of all time, full stop, not just like art time. Look at the history of film, the body of work, the variety of work, the impact on culture. This is not a controversial statement. So he's hugely meaningful for me. I've never really spent any significant time talking to Stephen Sele River prior to this conversation. This was long in the making. My thanks to my friends at Universal, you know who you are, for helping make this happen. I didn't want to jinx it and tell many people until it actually happened because you never know about these things. And it went really well. I'm really happy with this conversation. It's challenging. I'll be honest. Again, it's kind of like pulling the curtain

back. Group conversations can be challenging. And, you know, if you have somebody one-on-one, and certainly someone like Spielberg where you want to like dive in and some, there's some great other podcasts out there where people got him one-on-one. And, you know, I'll mention like my friends like Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. Obviously, the big picture did great stuff with him. And mine is a little different. It involves, I mean, luckily, it involves two great actors that you want to hear from anyway. But it has Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor, the stars of Disclosure Day. They're both excellent on the film.

Of course, they are. So I was a little worried about how I was going to navigate this because I wanted to ask all the burning questions I wanted to ask Spielberg all my life. But I also wanted to pay respect to these, of course, amazing actors. So that's the dance that I did for this conversation. I think we did an okay job. I think everybody said nice things afterwards. Everybody seemed to have a good time. I'm happy with it.

Did I get to 3% of the things I would want to ask Dean Stilberg? No. But it felt like a real conversation. We hit a lot of really interesting points about. We did cover, you know, we obviously talk a lot about Disclosure Day, which is his latest film, which is out in theaters on Friday. It is, of course, his latest science fiction film dealing with aliens. I mean, this guy obviously has.

kind of encounter has encountered that there's my Freudian slip he's dealt with the subject before and the likes of close encounters of the third kind and ete and war of the worlds to respect um and this he says is kind of the culmination of those stories in some way um so we talk about those films sci-fi a lot about et a lot about jaws we talk a little indiana jones uh some what-if questions of kind of films that he almost did um and yeah there's a lot in here we jammed a lot into about 45, 50 minutes, I think. And I don't know if this will ever happen again, but I'm happy it happened this one time and I'm satisfied enough with how it went. So I think you guys are going to enjoy this. If you love movies and of course you do because you're a listener

and subscriber to Happy Say I Confused, then this is really something that I think you'll get a kick out of. Before we get to the conversation, quick reminder, Patreon.com slash happy, say I confused. I say it every episode. I'll continue to say it until I lose breath because honestly, every single subscriber over there helps us make more. It helps us hire a crew to shoot this ourselves and make it feel special. It's really important. So Patreon.com slash happy, say it confused. And you're not just contributing, just for the sake of contributing, you're getting early access and discount codes and bonus materials and merch and autograph, posters, and all sorts of fun stuff. access to our live events. We have two great ones coming up in New York City. I'm so excited about

June 16th with Matt Smith, June 24th with Millie Bobby Brown. I mean, I'm a lucky guy. Think about those guests. It's amazing. It's really remarkable. So check out our Patreon, support us if you can. And yeah, without any further ado, let's get to it. Check out Disclosure Day in theaters this Friday. And enjoy my conversation with Josh O'Connor. with Emily Blunt, and yes, with the great Stephen Spielberg. Shall we do this guy? Yes. Yeah, we'd love to.

It's good to see you all. For the next 45 minutes, I'm going to pretend this is totally normal. Okay, guys, Emily, welcome back to the podcast. Thank you. Great to see you. Josh, welcome to Happy Say I Confused, finally, big fan. And I'm just going to say this through the record, Steven Spielberg, welcome to Happy Say I Confused.

I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe I'm sitting here. Please. Go on. Between these two extroverts. Yeah. Which of us is confused. I'm not sad, so I've got to be happy.

Just three happiest? Three happy. We're going to be three happy. I've kind of been prepping for this interview for like 45 years. So let me first just ask the question that six-year-old Josh would have asked Stephen Spielberg. Why did you make E.T. go away at the end? Why did you go away? Yeah.

Because you know, you know why? Because we have to get on with our lives with all the equipment that we've been given by our parents and our teachers. teachers and E.T. was a short-term fix but was not a life-term fix. Okay, acceptable. I'll take it. Congratulations on the film guys. I've seen it twice. I was at the premiere last night. Is it still like an exhale? You've all been doing this for a minute. You've had great successes, but like to feel that collective moment in an audience where you can feel it in the room. Is that always a relief? Yeah, it's beautiful. It hits you like a wave because I mean I'd only

I've seen the movie once with Joshy over here and once with John. And so to see it with an audience was wild. And that was the, that's the completion of the whole moment for me, because it's so overwhelming when you watch it the first time. I was very happy to watch it with Josh, because he and I spent the whole movie from the inside looking out. And to see that overwhelming feat come at you was a lot, I was beside myself.

And then I took it in more with John, and then I got to see it in the way. with that palpable energy around you, and that was amazing. Yeah, once again, it just goes to show you that there's nothing better to sing a movie with a live audience. Nothing better. And you've been proving that for 50 years, sir. So I'm not usually a prop comic, but I have some gifts for you guys, in keeping with the occasion, okay? Let's start with...

You're a prop comic. Yeah, I'm like the carrot top of interviewers. They always say that. Have you read this book, Emily? Oh, she's a big... she's our number one fan. Yeah. This is... I know you're a big jaw... I mean, we all are Jawspeel.

I was going to say... have you read the book and then I looked at the cover and there's a John Krasinski quote on the cover. What? That's amazing. So this is the Jaws Loggle which is of course written by the co-writer of Jaws, Carl Goply. This is without a doubt one of the greatest books about making movies. John Crosinski's star of the author. I love that.

I love that. I love that. The star of the office. It was in the office. It was in the office. I didn't know anyone else in that there. It was just Jock. As far as I remember.

That's incredible. It's a great read. That's for you. Merci. For you, Josh. This is not an actual from 82. I'm sure I had a version. You made him so happy.

He's going to be dining out on that for a long time. You can be out in your garden with that, Josh. That is actually the best person I've received in years. That's very sweet. There's nothing to look at that. Oh, that is. Look at the inside. Look at the inside of that.

That is so fabulous. That is so beautiful. Thank you very much. I remember that lunchbox. Are you on genuinely thrilled? Oh, no, I don't know. This is a perfect point. Do you remember this, though?

Yes, that's the K-BAR. This is the actual one for any too much. My wife still has this. We have this at home. Does this spark any memories for you, Stephen? Just all of the memories of the controversy when airplanes, like huge jumbo jets that was all cargo, were landing at Kennedy and LAX, and these little ET dolls,

We're pouring out from the rear of the airplanes. I would give this to you, but my wife might kill me. So I'm not going to give this to you, Steve. And I love the rouge blossom on the chest. That's the lovely thing. I know. And the last thing, this is more of a show in Tell thing. I was going through my photo archives.

For proof that this was destined to happen, this is me at six years old. Oh, you're in Wyoming. Look at that. Visiting Devil's Tower, Steve. That's very cool. That is a very cool shot. Wow.

Very cool. That's a great. Except you're on the wrong side of the tower. You missed all the, all the, you missed. To light show. I know. The light show is on the other side of the tower. I need the VIP card from Stephen Spielberg.

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Patrick Pickle Bottom Everyday Mysteries is perfect for kids and is just as entertaining for grownups who love a good mystery. The whole family can listen now wherever you get your podcasts. Congratulations again on this, guys. Talk to me a little bit about, I mean, I mentioned close encounter. This is not a sequel to close encounters, but this is, it's a companion piece. It does like speak in conversation, I feel like, to close encounters. Do you see those links yourself?

This was intentionally the summary of Close Encounters, E.T. and Now Disclosure Day. This was meant to be the summation of this kind of trilogy that really was not interrelated except for the juxtaposition of an otherworldly species or a, or a. highly advanced civilization coming here for the first time. Yeah. I do see like when I was, again, I've seen it a couple times. In your two respective characters, there are elements of Roy Neary kind of in both. There's like the obsession that your character has and there's this inner, I don't know,

this inner secret, this like drive, this unknowable thing within. And those were both encompassed in Roy in a way. And E.T. as well, in Elliot, because Elliot could feel E.T.'s feelings. Yeah. So if Elliot pops a beer can, you know, unknowingly at Elliot's house where Elliot's at school, Elliot's going to burp after E.T. drinks it, and then Elliot is going to, you know, kind of pass out when E.T. does. So it's all kind of interwoven interrelational. Again, to clarify, there's no actual link to close encounters.

That being said, like looking, and I don't want to reveal too much about the film, at some footage in the film, I would not have been surprised to see some footage from close encounters at a certain point, like Roy Neary pop-up. Was it ever discussed who were you and David? No, I didn't even think about that because that would have been breaking down the fourth wall. Yeah. And I was less interested in this being an incredible movie

than I was just being a very credible film on this topic. Yeah. Well, it is a very, I mean, it sounds crazy to say like an alien movie, two degrees, a grounded movie. It owes as much to Chase movie, conspiracy theory, movie. One of my all-time favorite movies outside of yours is North by Northwest. Yes, thank you for that.

is one of my favorite Hitchcock films. And also three days of the Condor. Of course. Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Right. For you guys. These are extraordinary people who are made very ordinary in this movie.

By really good writing and direct. It always helps. So are you guys good at, like, you've worked with some of the greats. You know, your muff, Stephen, you are the greatest. No, he just vaporizes when we start saying these things to him. vaporizing.

No, I just, I just teleport to Tahiti. That's a nice trick. I learned a few things by making these movies. You haven't shared that with the rest of us. Go ahead. I won't be here when you're talking about. Do you, at what point on set do you ask the questions like I'm asking today? Like, say like, what was it really like on the set of Chaws?

What was like, I mean, do you like quiet that in a day? I did him the first time I met him. I was walking in there and I had a real talking with myself in the car. I was like, do not barrage him with Jaws questions. Keep it in the present. But then he did start telling me a few things about him. But it's thrilling. It's thrilling to be around the man who conceived all of this.

And we do pepper you with questions. And you love talking about movie stories, which is great. I do. I do. They're like war stories. And you remember them so viscerally. Yeah, I remember the really hard movies. Better than the music. For you, Josh.

were you able to quiet the energy? The press store is a whole other opportunity to kind of get all the stuff out there too. It's endless, but as Emily said, we're lucky. Stephen likes, I think, or at least she's pretending where you are. Greg's talking about them, yeah. He's talking about them, and I think, you know,

we have a shared appreciation for these incredible movies that have fully shaped us. And so it just every day we were talking about. I mean, I think my second day on set, I was just going all in on Jurassic Park. And he told me one of the most incredible stories about the storm. Yes, she had a hurricane, the hurricane. Hurricane, Hurricane, I want to know.

Yeah. No, we were hit by Category 5 hurricane. It made landfall. Were you in Hawaii? Yeah, we were in Kauai and Niki made landfall at our hotel. Not like four miles up the beach from our hotel or the other direction. We were landfall. Oh, my.

I've never been through anything like it before. All of us, the whole cast and the whole crew. We were all huddled in a conference room, 18 feet below sea level. And the only thing that saved that hotel has saved all the people who were in these conference rooms was the fact that there was a 18-foot breakwater. These are rocks piled up here. We're on the side.

So the sea just in front so the sea couldn't basically get completely into where we were. That's the only thing that... So the terror on Sandius' face in that movie is actually drawing upon the hurricane that was approaching. Oh, yeah. That's crazy. You are, like, I mean, I think especially earlier career, you were kind of like known as like

for your style as opposed to like working with actors. And then over the years it kind of like dawned on people. This is an actor's director as much as he is a visual master. What makes, what makes Steven an actor's director, would you say? I think it's the tenderness at which he comes and kind of laser beams right through to the heart of what he wants you to kind of orient yourself towards. And the quietness, the intimacy

that he comes and just whispers it to you. It's so private. And he also knows when you've got it. So some directors, they keep talking, but he will just see when the notes dropped in on you and you'll go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and then he'll just walk away. And he just gives you a few

because I think Stephen understands you can kind of self-correct in the first three. You kind of feel it when you're like, oh, I wasn't quite how I wanted to do it. And I think it's what gives his films and the performances in his films this wonderful aliveness, this very naturalistic style. He loves improv. He loves anything you, if you want to chuck the kitchen, sink at it. He loves that you can, he can always pull it back. There's no straight jacketing.

Well, that's the miracle of, like, again, acting as if you're not in the room. But what he does is like, I mean, I know some films you haven't storyboarded as much, but there are some that demanded, like this one. And to be, to have that plan, but also to be able to be fluid in the moment and embrace the collaborative nature of art. Also, the thing that really was like a pleasant surprise for me is that Stephen is with you in the scene.

Like the first time you kind of put a scene on its feet, Stephen's in the room with you and you feel that he's right there with you. And then the times where I'd be on set and not in a scene, witnessing how Stephen is at the monitor. Like he's breathing and living every line. And one of my core memories from making this movie was, and this happened a couple times, once with Emily,

once with Eve. But Stephen would have an idea of what he wanted, you know, and had this conversation with Eve and I. And then just before we're about to go, Steve would say, just go and give Eve a hug. And I gave her this hug, and it was like, it unlocked. It was extraordinary. And it was just a couple.

So it's just a really clear understanding of what we need and how to support us and make us feel. Because it's a vulnerable space performing full stop. It doesn't matter whether it's comedy, if it's drama, if it's kind of low stakes, high stakes. It doesn't matter how long you've been doing it. Right. How long have you been doing it? You really get that. Well, you know, performing is really having to give yourself over to complete trust in yourself, not in your ability.

as an actor, but just in the purity of yourself, right? And if you can, and kids do it effortlessly. I've worked with so many child actors, and they do it effortlessly. But I've also worked with adult actors who are no longer the same as they were, but also are that trusting of themselves that they will actually go into a fugue state and allow the character to make all the choices for them. And these guys have this. Strip away all that cynicism, all those barriers.

Yeah, and then I feel like I'm back, you know, I'm back directing, you know, Drew Baramore or Henry Thomas or Dakota Fanning or Christian Bale, you know, and Empire of the Sun, when there is nothing but honesty because they haven't learned to lie about themselves yet yet. Exactly. Can we talk about just from a filmmaking standpoint on oneers for a second? I mean, I just love, like, I grew up with your films, with De Palma's films, De Palma loves a long oner, and you're not as necessary. People don't think of long oners for you.

Your oners tend to be like two or three minutes sometimes, and there's an amazing one here featuring Emily. That was Emily's idea. Is that right? Let's just do it all in one. Well, she didn't think I would really do it. What she said was she says, I know you have a lot of coverage on this, but it would really help me if you could just even if you don't have a camera on me can we just go

through it just all in one and and just let me like almost like a rehearsal if you want to shoot it great but I just need to do it from the time I come into KcxE you know Channel 4 in Kansas City to the time I start making producing these sounds I just need to see what it feels like and I and she told me this the day before it wasn't the day we were shooting the day before so I thought about that evening and the next morning I said guess what we're shooting this with no coverage It was really exciting. You were like, guess what?

We're going to do it as one. I was like, it was so thrilling for me, because you just get this, like the propulsion of it is it kind of carries you through. And I genuinely was completely out of breath and panicked by the end. Does it always happen in that way? I would imagine some are more preconceived,

because I think of things like, and that they're seemingly simple to look at me. The Jaws one on the ferry is more about blocking Marion's scene in Raiders of the Lost dark is very like almost simple just like changing perspective back and forth. It's, I'll tell you what it is, it's trusting the audience to be, to be, to substitute for the film editor. Right.

Because the audience gets a chance, the same. When we go to theater, theater is all a oneer. For two and a half hours, it's a oneer. But the audience is editing it. The audience is making a choice of who to focus on, who is the compelling driving force of the narrative, who is the one that isn't the background, but they're producing. an emotion that you suddenly discover yourself. So you give the audience a lot of credit in any performance art that is live. So for me, a wonder, I've never done a wonder to show off.

Yeah. I've never done a wonder just because I'm comparing my wonders to De Palma's Wonders. I've never done that before. The Wanner always has a reason, and usually it's flow and allowing the audience to make a lot of visual choices of who they want to watch. Right, connecting with the appropriate character at the right time. I'm giving that power the audience and makes them feel like they're part of the process. I do think it's where you are singularly extraordinary in that way that your shots and what you want to convey is not about a cool shot. It's about how can I make the audience feel the most. That's your prerogative, I think, all the time is like how can I fully pull you into the heart of this or this moment of this character?

It's not about an aesthetic. It's about a feeling. Right. in that sequence and we've all seen in the trailer, you make some very interesting noises. Yeah. That's just me on a Friday night. I was going to say that's what I want is I want the footage of you in your bathroom practicing alternate. No, I have the creepiest voice memos on my phone. 25 different versions. That's all I sent to Steve and for ages.

That was the only way we communicated was just creepy noises. And he would sort of go through all of them doing. I really like this. This is probably too scary. I'd sing like Barry White. I mean, it was like we did everything. We tried everything. And then there was something about the Bushman Click language that Emily produced herself. This is not advanced through our genius sound designer Gary Ritesstrom. Gary Ritestrom was just presented with a lot of options that Emily provided all of us with. It was so great. An orchestra of creepy sounds. John Williams isn't needed anymore. Emma is just going to provide you. Do you want to do the rest of the interview with those sounds?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I can translate. You can. That's right. That's your gift. Is there any point when you're in a Steven Spielberg film where you're like, oh wait, I'm doing Spielberg face. I'm in that shot. I'm in that famous push-in looking up moment.

What do you think, Josh? There was, I don't know if like, I never thought of it in that way. And that's the Spielberg face is actually something I've learned on the promotional tour. I didn't know what it was. They were like, yeah. Yeah, you get one of those Spielberg faces. I was like, why is that? Well, I think one of our first interviews on this promotion

to us, someone said, can you do the Spielberg face? And I was like, I guess. And I did a face, and they were like, that's not it. That's not the Spielberg. So I didn't know about that. But I will say that my first day shooting on the film, I had this extraordinary experience of, it was kind of a pretty straightforward scene.

It was just literally me walking through a door into the back lot of this wrestling venue. And there were three. blacked-out SUVs, a big beam of light, some mist in the air, and a dripping pipe. And I was like, oh, I'm going to spill them. And it was extraordinary. And it was almost like, yeah, it was just, you know, I've said before, but Stephen is the architect of my imagination as a child.

And so there is this kind of familiarity and yet like grandeur to it. and it felt epic. I was just in the parking lot. Can we categorically say maybe the all-time or the trio of Spielberg faces I think of is Jurassic Park? I mean, what Sam, Laura and Jeff are able to do. With all due respect, the CGI is amazing. The animatronics are amazing,

but that works because of how they're reacting. Yeah, because you want to believe the dinosaurs have come back and you want to believe the dinosaurs. And Singh is believing, so ILM, Dennis Myron, did an amazing job with the... very first, very first digital leading character. In the history of movie, this was the first time a leading character. The reason you went to see the film was done on a computer.

It had never happened before. But that would have meant nothing without us being able to, because if we're not going to identify with a brachiasar or a T-Rex, we are going to identify with people who are in danger of being either stomped to death or swallowed whole. And so you go to those characters and you suddenly have the experience through them. And that's the way it sort of has to be. Close encounters, it was very strange at close encounters because we put all the effects in later. Everything had to go in later.

So all there was for the 400 extras in the arrival zone, right, of close encounters, all they could do was look at numbers that were hanging from huge signs, 85 feet. It was the biggest interior space in America. It was a 1930s derogible hanger that used to make blimps in back in the 30s and 40s. But no center post, that's why we chose it. Nothing to keep. It was huge. Like two football fields, 90 feet to the top. And we put numbers for 400 extras.

And my job was to yell through a boardroom and call off the numbers. And their job was to respond and read the numbers as I was calling them out. And at the same time, they had to act like they were watching something that was. That no one has ever seen. That no one has ever seen before. And it's really interesting how despite how many times you call things out on numbers, there's always a dozen or so people that are about four numbers behind. And then he got to go and you got to do the whole thing over again.

We didn't have any video playback in those days. So you had to have everybody watching. Okay, that group was four numbers behind. I mean, it was crazy. And there's no awe. But it showed me that these extras from Mobile, Alabama, We're all pretty good actors because they supplied the kind of awe that was later joined with this incredible mothership effect that done trouble created. And it can obviously apply to ET as well.

I mean, what Henry and Drew do. Yeah, that's easier because these are kids. And the aesthetic distance between an experience and the person is like this. When you get older, the aesthetic distance gets why. For Drew, Drew might have thought that was an alien. It might have thought. She believed it. She used to talk to E.T. between takes.

When all the operators went off for lunch, and I would just hear talking and go around the corner. True is just standing there talking to E.T. who's inert, but just having a complete conversation and pausing long enough to hear the answer that only she can hear in her mind. Also, the fact that you shot it practically in sequence so that when he did leave, Drew was completely beside himself. They were all wrecked.

All the kids were wrecked because their last. four days of shooting was the last four, the last moments of the movie. This has a great ending, and it just reminds you, we're talking about E.T. Can we just say definitively, for my money, E.T. is the greatest ending in film history. What you did with that, and I don't know how much of that is in Melissa Matheson's script or you intuitively knew, there's so little dialogue, it's John William's score, it's their faces. It is like 10 or 15 minutes of just, like, pure raw emotion. I don't know what my question is except that, like, was that on the page or did you...

No, I know, that's on the page. That was just all on the shot planning, that result. And there were no storyboards for that. That all is the stuff you come to work in the morning. It's not even work. I come to an experience in the morning with these kids that were having a virtual experience. And they inspired me to figure out how to put the seam together. And they were also so fragile and so tender that we had to work really fast before it wore off, you know.

There's also an amazing train sequence in this film. Not to put you on the couch, Stephen, but trains come up a lot in your films. Yeah, I guess they do. The stableman's had a train, but it was only this big. But let's get back to close encounters. The railroad crossing, Last Crusade has the amazing opening sequence War of the Worlds, that flaming train coming across. I love trains.

What can I tell you? I love trains. I'm of the train generation. When I was a kid, we only traveled by car and mainly by trains. in Baltimore and Ohio, connecting where I was born in Cincinnati and my parents, their parents lived there, we'd always take trains up and down the East Coast. Oh, trains too. Yeah, yeah.

I love being on the train. You guys have, I mean, you especially have done some significant action in your career, but like being in a sequence like that, what are your memories of being inside of a Steven Sealberg set piece like that? I think it was just, I mean, for me, unlike Emily, I hadn't done anything like that. Josh, tell Josh what you caught me. Stuntie Blumpty. He actually just calls me Stunty.

I don't think he's called me Emily in many moves. Is that kind of like cockney rhyming slang? Yeah, I guess. Oh, yeah, it could be, yeah. Don't do that one. No, for me, it was like, I'd never done anything like that. And there was, there were just a lot of question. I kept asking Steven, so how do we, will it be moving?

Is there a chance I will. today. But it was really, there were sort of elements, you know, it was broken up obviously. But every element felt so thrilling. And it is a kind of testament again to, I mean, these things might be normal. Again, I don't know. But I think I imagine the way Stephen works is that it's about creating an environment that feels real so that you can respond in a naturalistic way.

And so everything felt vivid. Including the whiplash of getting rear-ended. We do a scene and it was like, and at some point you're gonna get rear-ended. And you're like, great. We're both gonna be in the car when it happened. Is it, I mean, you've done so many iconic chase sequences. And like you would think there is just like a certain number

in someone's brain. And somehow you keep, you iterate in a different way. I mean. Well, you know, this, because disclosure, day is a story about a heist of eight decades of the proof that UFOs exist and have existed. And so because the whole premise is about getting away with something, whistleblowers stealing the truth to try to unleash the truth on the world while the powers to be are marshaled against them and they go after them.

And so it is, there's velocity. But the movie is not just about that. the movie is more human than alien by far because the movie really is a statement about who we are as human beings and who we are to each other and who we have to be more of to each other. Well, all of the films you've dealt with, aliens are essentially, they're not about the aliens. They're about our, how we receive them, how we communicate with them, how we, and this is a movie that, yes, it is an alien movie, but I think people will see that it's really just how we, how would, how could the world react in different ways?

Yes. And also, what do we have to contribute? I mean, these two characters have tremendous gifts that they're not even aware they possess. And these gifts are traumatizing and shocking and unpleasant for them until especially the Margaret character realizes that she could put these gifts to good use. More happy, say, confused coming up.

Reality TV is messy. Pop culture is louder than ever. and the internet completely unhinged welcome to roxanne and chanteau the podcast where cousins roxanne and shantel break down reality tv celebrity drama and the stories everyone's texting about we recap the shows spill the headlines and sit down with the stars themselves no filter no boring takes just the tea new episodes every week if it's trending we're talking about it this is roxanne and chentel let's get into it Hi, listeners. We want to tell you about a podcast we love. It's called Rebel Girls,

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Listen to Rebel Girls wherever you get your podcasts. And find us on YouTube.com slash Rebel Girls. And whatever you do, stay Rebel. I know on the press door, you've been talking obviously a lot about belief, belief in aliens and the revelations, especially in recent years. Is that a conversation like on set too?

I would imagine like with just, the sheer number of hours, like, at what point does that conversation enter the picture? I mean, we, but I think because we all went down this collective rabbit hole of watching documentaries and congressional hearings, everything, I think we all just felt very similarly after it. I think everyone just felt there was just such truth to it and such authenticity to people's revelations and their belief systems. And it was so inarguable, I think, to all of us. I don't think we had all gone down the rabbit hole as intensely as we did when we all got this part in a Stephen Spielberg movie about aliens.

You kind of dive headfirst down there. I'd always believed. I mean, I've always thought it was, it would be insane to imagine that we had scratched the surface of the universe even. So why would we assume we're the only intelligent life forms? Well, because we are so, we are so as a species, a highly intelligent species, we are so self-possess. we are so self-possessed. And in certain circles, it doesn't leave room for the imagination to consider life out there. Right.

You've talked about how you sadly have not had contact. Is the ulterior motive of making this movie and this Crest Store to really, like, send out into the universe like, guys, I'm ready, here we go. I feel like with all the work I've done, here we go with my filmography, but between close encounters and ET and Men in Black, which I co-produced, and War the Worlds, and all the films, and suddenly, and finally arriving at disclosure date, I haven't even gotten what my agent's gotten out of me, which is 10% of a sighting. My agent gets more out of me than I have ever gotten out of them.

I keep waiting. And if they don't make an appearance after this movie, I'm not going to give up on them. But I'm telling you, I'm not going to be, when they really land, I'm not going to be in attendance. No, no, you guys had your shot. You've been pretty, outside of War of the Worlds, you've been pretty kind to aliens out there, I would say. Because I cannot believe that a super civilization from maybe millions of light years from here that have somehow found the secret between the space time, you know, continuum, the event horizon. Come all this is the way to be horrible. Where they can get here in minutes, not in light years.

I can't believe that they would make that journey to conquer. I think that is something that we project based on our own human history of power and conquering. Okay, we've got a bunch of Steven Spielberg fans here, to say the least. Here's a debate that's come up more in recent years, I feel like. Raiders on the Lost Dark or Last Crusade. Do we have a preference? Go leave me out of this one. Let's these guys answer that.

Well, I love them both. But interestingly, I don't know, Stephen knows this. I got on a phone call recently with a friend of mine. I have like a film club. And I got on the phone to a friend of mine, he's a big film buff. And somehow, talking about doing this promotional tour, we just found ourselves in a conversation about our favorite

and ranking and doing nonsense. Anyway, then suddenly two of our friends were on the FaceTime. It went on for an hour and a half with full arguments. And one of the arguments was this one. Raiders for me. OK. For the record, it could be back. I'm going to just be contrary to anything Josh says.

So I'm going to say, want to either it out. It's very difficult because Raiders was the first one I saw. And I have this very lasting memory in my childhood home of watching it with my dad and just being blown. My hair was like blown backwards by it. I thought it was so wonderful. I think I'm going to say Last Crusade, there's something about Sean Connery and Harrison and that together. That dynamic was just golden for me. And as much as we all, we find Stevens breathtaking set pieces so exciting, it's those humor moments, the reconciliation between them, the humor.

And we all recognize those dynamics with family members. You know, we've been there. We know those two. And it was just this different gaze on Harrison's character. So I just loved it. Another film about belief in a way. Yeah, it's about belief. The Holy Grail is the reconciliation between father and son.

That's the Holy Grail. It just was, I think probably Los Angeles said is the one I've seen the most. Oh, okay. I'm going to contribute to this conversation. Go. And it's not about my favorite of the three or the four. I wouldn't have the life that I'm living right now if I hadn't made Two Temple of Doom because that's where I met King Captcha.

And that's where my life began. I will say for the record, the opening sequence of Temple of Doom. I mean, opening Raiders, iconic, and all of them. Temple of Doom's opening is maybe my favorite. Oh, great. Thank you. Harrison Ford in a white tuxedo. What more do we need people?

With the red rose. That's right. I'm guessing, I mean, outside the indie films and Lost World, you've never been like a sequel guy, generally speaking. No, like, no. I mean, I've resisted a lot of big successful movies. to create franchises from them. And I'm lucky that Universal went along with it, you know,

because E.T. By popular demand, I just didn't want, I thought it was the perfect ending, and I didn't want to risk the reputation of the first film by making a good but inferior second film. Is that kind of a lesson on, I guess Jaws was out of your hands, obviously? I was not in control of Jaws,

but they offered me the whole franchise, and I said, I'm done. after that first foot I've done. But also I didn't think I kept saying, fellas, we blew the shark up. We're going to get another 26-foot people hardly bought into the fact that the shark

was as big as it was in Jaws, but they did buy into it. And it was not mythology. It was science. And it was a sea hunt movie. It was a big grand adventure of survival. We're going to get another 26-foot-long shark. And they said to me, well, we're going to build one. And I said, you got a credibility gap problem.

So I didn't get involved in that. In those ensuing years, because like virtually every one of your films could demand, like by Hollywood standards, a sequel, have you actively had to kind of protect like E.T. Jaws, Indiana Jones reboots? Like, I mean, are you in control of all those things? I am. I'm in control of Indiana Jones with George Lucas and I'm certainly in control of reboots of everything post-E-T. but not ET because I didn't have the clout to if you know versus one or two they could go ahead and make ET without me well that's showing them you a lot of respect that they have resisted it shows a lot of

respect that they're not doing that but they could if they wanted to so a lot of your films involve obsessive characters these two characters I would say are obsessive in their own way is in the best possible way would you call Stephen an obsessive yes in the best possible right and of course in a relentless pursuits to create something extraordinary. He's obsessive, but I think that that's what you want. I want someone who's leading us through us. You want your director to sweat the small stuff.

That's the thing, but for Steven, I've never known anything like it. He would be up all night. Like this- texting. And I would wake up sort of groggy at 6 a.m. And it would be like three. You see the time. It's 3 a.m. He was up like tasting around.

And then you feel like you're not working hard enough. I mean like, I should be doing this. I didn't sleep very much on this last minute. No, not at all. I mean, we alluded to this earlier, that that's remarkable and wonderful to me that you all are, you know, again, having accomplished what you've done,

like, it is ground zero in each one. It's starting from screens. Nothing is assumed. Yeah, you can maybe get people in the theater, but to keep them in the theater and engaged, you have to deliver the goods. Yeah, yeah. Do you feel relief after, at what point do you feel relief?

Is it like when you've cut the last day or? No, I feel sadness. And I start mourning the loss of my friends. I mean, I don't make friends on every movie. I make acquaintances, and some of them are very valuable to me, and I admire almost everyone I've ever worked with. But I don't come out of every movie with abiding friendships. And I came out of this film with deep friendships.

And I just, these guys and Coleman and Eve, Eve, and Colin and Wyatt. And it's just, and we are always texting each other. And we will continue to do that. We have a chain of six. Yeah. Don't we? And it kicks off. Like it gets really funny.

And there's 26 messages you've missed and you're like, oh my God, whatever we missed. And it starts off sincere. And within like an hour, it's chaos. We are abusing. Is it all on the thread? Oh, yeah. Colin gives back. He gives back.

He gives back. He does. He does occasionally. He's just, he's abused on this text chain. He really is. I mean, Stephen, how engaged are you like in, I mean, there are probably a billion memes from your films and just gifts and all that sort of stuff. And like, no one has contributed more to pop culture in a myriad of ways than your films. I would imagine it just all seeps in.

Like, you don't have to seek it out. It just kind of, like, comes to you. Here's what I feel in terms of all of that. If I retired and stopped making films and producing films and just went off to a Tahiti where I have actually. actually been six times when he started talking about me in this podcast. I started to heat. The last one was Bora Bora, which was even pretty. But if I should do that, that's when I think all of this stuff would seep in.

But I don't want to stop and I love what I do. I love raising my family and helping in the raising of my grandchildren. That's my primary work in this life right now. But the close second to that is being able to tell a good story. And until I stop telling stories, I can't even consider what it would be like for me to really take in the last 61 years or however long it's been. I don't think you ever will. You know, and I have a good filter system.

So it doesn't go to my head. Yeah. It looks like the shark. It keeps moving. You can't stop. A little bit like that. Also, I can't stop eating. So that's the phone call up.

Yeah, we're... An eating machine. machine. Since this is a rare opportunity, these are some of the questions I've always wanted to ask Stephen Seale, where you guys can weigh into. Some of these are appropriate for all. Stephen, did Elliot ever see E.T. again? No, never saw him again. But he did it for you about him. So there was the psychic link between the two of them. If you notice that E.T. touched Elliot right here and said, I'll be right here. It touched him there. And that, that is for the moment when you, right?

It's for the rest of Elliot's life. Yeah, thank you for you clocking that, Emily. Yeah, I know, right? Did that just happen? I think you just cried a little bit as you did that. Can we get a second class? I retire. Did Roy Neary ever come back?

Did Roy Neary ever come back? Yeah, because the exchange that took place at the beginning, when these characters come out of the mothership and they're all dressed in period garb from the 18th century from the 19th century. Even my dog comes flying down the my large ramp. That was my dog, Elmer. That was Elmer.

And then of course, Kerry Guffey comes back. Barry Giler, a little kid. Little kid. A little boy. Amazing little kid. He was like three and a half four when he made that movie. So, yes, he will come back. But he's not going to come back to his family. Right. Yeah. I watched close encounters yet again

the other day. And an emotional moment that hit me that was surprising, again, not a question here, but just to say it, is Francois Truffaut's moment where he's communicating via the hand signals to the aliens at the very end. And it's just, Francoe's performance at that always is remarkable to me. Well, he was a remarkable, look,

beside the fact, he's one of the most remarkable filmmakers we've ever had him, had the honor of experiencing his art was just moved mountains culturally. Frantzal was a very nice guy, and he was a really good actor. And when I saw Wild Child, I started thinking of him to be in this movie, but I didn't have the courage to call him. So I started casting other French actors or interviewing other actors to play Monsieur Lecombe.

Oh, yeah, I interviewed Trentonnier, I interviewed Depardieu, I interviewed a lot of big French actors. We were just starting out. Some of them were just starting some of them were already movie stars. And I was about to make an offer to an actor, Trenignal. And I said, I'm going to just try to get hold of Francois, just to see if he would at least read the script. And he, he, I didn't talk to him, but his agent agreed to give him the script. And then I got a telegraph. Remember those days, in 1976, I got a telegraph from Pantra Troop. And it simply said, Dear Mr. Spielberg, where do I report for wardrobe fittings? And that's how he told me he was going to do the movie.

That's as great a communication as ever. Okay, last few things, I promise for you. This is more rumor control that I've always heard over the years. Did Harrison Ford turn down playing Alan Grant in Jurassic Park? Yes, he did. He may not remember that, but I sure do. But you cross with him. I wasn't cross, I was crushed.

But then Sam Neal came available and... Unbelievable. And he's Alan Grant, but it now belongs to him. You can't imagine anyone else now. Of course. Belloc swallowing the fly in Raiders of the Lost Ark. I saw it in the editing room. I discovered in the editing room and we had no other takes. It was one take. I would have used another take because once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it.

The audience, too. You pitched yourself to direct James Bond at least twice? Twice. To Cubby Broccoli himself. Come close? No, he turned me down twice. What? Yeah. That cannot be true. It's true. He turned me down the telephone twice. I don't know. He just said, we have our own stable.

directors we go to and and I asked him after Jaws and I thought that the success of Jaws it didn't faze him then I asked him again after close encounters and he he said no and and that third time he called me and he said I'm making a film called Moon Raker in honor of your film Close Encounters who want to use the five notes that Johnny Williams did so when was take your life no I did sorry busy you know when when Bonn where someone presses a key lock you you know, they'll make those tones. And I said, I'll make you a deal.

I will give you the five notes if I can do the next Bond film. And he said, we don't need the notes that bad thing. But like even the notes anyway. The good news is, if you had done Bond, maybe there's no Indiana Jones, frankly. That's right. That's right.

Exactly. George Lucas asked you to direct Return the Jedi, but there was a T. No, he never did. Oh, no. No, never. No, never. No.

No. No. Never. Is it true you nearly directed Harry Potter and imagined it as an animated film? I developed it. I developed it with Steve Clovis. I developed the second draft with Steve trying to turn it into something that I was interested in directing. And I cast, at least I proposed, I had just worked with Maggie Smith on Hook. So I proposed Maggie Smith. I knew Richard Harris. He was a friend of mine a long time ago. I put him in the movie and Robbie Coltrane. So we can thank you for those. No, that was it. But then I got out of the movie for personal reasons. And no anger, no big controversy. I stepped out.

And then my protege, Chris Columbus, stepped in and made two great Harry Potter films. He really did. He really did. Amazing. All right, we're going to end with this. Emily, you've done this with me before. They happily say I confused profoundly random questions.

This is for all of you. Anybody can jump in. OK. OK, here we go. Dogs or cats? Dogs. Dogs. I'm allergic to cats.

We're all dog people, I believe, right? Dogs. Dogs. What does anybody here collect? What do you count as a collection? Go on Josh, yours is dorky, I can tell. What is it? Go ahead.

No, it's ceramics. I click ceramics. You're in a safe place. But you make beautiful ceramics. But I mostly collect. You would have been so impressed. My daughter brought home. She made a out of porcelain, a fenic fox, curled up, white porcelain.

I'm going to take a picture and send it to you. I was like, Violet, that is a triumph. It was so fabulous. Josh would be very impressed. I'm going to send you a picture. It was really amazing. Stunty, what are you call? What do you collect?

Stuntie you collect. I mean, it's really tragic. It's very boring. I have more sneakers than is humanly possible for a closet to hold. I'm obsessed with sneakers. I would imagine the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. That's your archive of everything. Well, I think between films, I collect dust.

Yeah. I don't have a big collection of anything. Favorite video archive? Favorite video game of all time? I mean, I only know how to play Mario Card. Mario color. I mean, you don't see anything I know how to do. Golden Eye? People always love Golden Rock. NCCC. Classic, yeah. Or

Red Dead Redemption 2. Can't you. Is that right? Yeah. For the fishing. For the fishing. Yeah. Coin-op space invaders. Classic. Can't go wrong. What's the wallpaper on anybody's phone? Anybody want to divulge? What's the background on their phone? My children. From when they were really little. I don't remember.

That's okay. Probably not range. I usually ask what's the worst note of director has ever given you. You guys are welcome to say that. That obviously doesn't apply to you. Is there a direction you've given that you've regretted over the years or what's the most common direction? I'm sure there's a number of direction. No.

But I don't remember any of them. I blocked them. What's the worst note of director's ever given you, Josh? I don't think I've really thought. I don't think I've had bad notes. It's mostly... Well, you're young. Okay.

Just getting started, man. All right, finally, in the spirit of happy, say I confused. An actor who makes you happy. You see them on screen, you're immediately in a better. Coleman Domingo? A hundred percent. Komenko makes me, Emma Stone makes me happy. For me, G. Wilder.

I just have to see G. Moines' face. I'm like. Danny Kay. Love it. Love it. A movie that makes you sad. Aw. B. T.

T. Aw. Oh, yeah, I need to. Okay. Stephen, what makes you say at a movie? The best years of our lives. And finally, for all of you. A food that makes you confused.

You don't get it. Why do people eat that? Mine's not a food, but nespresso pods. I can't get my head around them. Really? Do you not like the taste of the coffee or something? No, and I don't understand why we just don't make coffee. Right. We know how to do it, guys. We did it for ages. It's immediacy.

immediacy, which you don't like. You're a man of Paiso, realist. This is why you're happy in the gone. Thank you. Anybody else? Food? I'm a bit confused by Beech Rood. I'm not about them.

She says, looking by one. That's how you're working it out today. Tempe. Oh, yeah. What's the point? What is it? Tempe, what is it? Tempe, what is it?

Is it? It's manufactured food, isn't it? What is it? It's in health food restaurants, but why? Yeah. This is Stephen's next film is investigating What's off with Tempe guys? It's going to be, exactly.

It's going to be called Indiana Jones and Raiders of the last Tempe are something. This is for Tempe. I tried to suppress my energy. How did I do? I feel like it was too much. You did very well. It was great.

I felt you were actually very quiet. I was entertained. Normally you're kind of. I was so entertained by this. There's a bit more sweat. to you, Josh, but you were a bit humbled. No one has ever said swagger in the Josh Harrow was saying. Congratulations to all of you on Disclosure Day.

It's a remarkable piece of work. And Steven, honestly, on behalf of literally millions of people, thank you for contributing so much to my childhood, my career, my love of storytelling. Thank you, sir. Oh, thank you for saying that. Thank you, Josh. We did it.

Great in a geek. That was really fun. Was that okay? That was better. That is so good. Of course you can keep that. You get to take that. I can't.

Believe it. It's fantastic. Pretty much that whole interview I've been thinking about this. What do you think? Will you put sandwiches in all?

Yeah. And so ends another edition of happy, sad, confused. Remember to review, rate and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person.

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