“I’ve seen him in action”: the director who reminded Liam Neeson of Steven Spielberg
Since the mid-1970s, Steven Spielberg has been one of the most powerful filmmakers in Hollywood, and his name has become intrinsically associated with a certain kind of cinematic spectacle, inspiring many to follow in his footsteps.
Suppose a movie features at least one precocious child, a cast of young actors embarking on a dangerous coming-of-age adventure, or involves characters looking offscreen with a sense of amazement and awe at a creature, entity, or backdrop that fills them with wide-eyed wonder. If it does, the term ‘Spielbergian’ is entirely applicable.
Ron Howard and Robert Zemeckis have worked closely with Spielberg on a number of projects in various capacities, and they’ve checked those boxes more than once. Home Alone and Harry Potter‘s Chris Columbus, erstwhile protege Joe Johnston, animation powerhouse Brad Bird, M Night Shyamalan, and JJ Abrams are just some of the others, with the filmmaker’s reach spreading further and wider than most.
With the possible exception of Abrams, none of them have done it deliberately or intentionally, but it ended up being unintentionally prophetic for Liam Neeson to note the comparisons when he worked with a director who reminded him of Spielberg. The star gave a career-best performance in Schindler’s List, but watching JA Bayona on dark fantasy A Monster Calls reminded him of the icon.
And yet, thanks to the World War II drama and literary adaptation featuring child actors, Neeson saw something that reminded him of another Spielberg classic. “Steven has this magical relationship with children,” he told Pop Entertainment. “When you think of Drew Barrymore in ET, it’s an extraordinary performance he brings from this girl.”
Lewis MacDougall was the focal point of A Monster Calls, and Neeson was sufficiently impressed with the Spielbergian way Bayona treated the kid as his equal. “He’d bring him off and would quietly talk to him, which is very, very considerate,” he offered. “A lot of directors wouldn’t do that. I could see Lewis nodding his head. The two of them were like two kids, really sharing a confidence with each other. That’s part of his talent, too. It was magic.”
It would have been quite the sight to see Neeson on the set of A Monster Calls clad in his unflattering motion capture leotard, watching from a distance and finding himself captivated by the Spielbergian way Bayona was bringing the best out of MacDougall, and while the movie undeservedly flopped at the box office, his assumptions ended up becoming even more pronounced.
Picking up the baton Spielberg had previously handed to the aforementioned Johnston and Colin Trevorrow, it was Bayona’s background in the decidedly non-Spielbergian horror of The Orphanage that convinced the executive producer he was the perfect candidate to tread ground he knew very well, with the filmmaker drafted in to helm Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom to aid the comparisons even further.
