The actor who blew Steven Spielberg away: “He taught me patience”
Steven Spielberg has worked with an impressive roster of actors over the years, having asserted himself as one of Hollywood’s most significant directors following the incredible success of Jaws back in 1975.
Few could anticipate the significance that the film would take on as it literally kick-started the modern concept of the blockbuster. From there, blockbusters really have been Spielberg’s terrain, and he doesn’t do things by halves.
Every movie he makes is loaded with huge stars, epic in length, and injected with a large budget. No effect too complicated or idea too ambitious has stopped the filmmaker from making whatever project he has in mind, and with the backing of huge studios each time, Spielberg has conquered Hollywood like no one else. It’s incredibly impressive.
With the kind of influence he exerts over the industry, he really can cast whoever he wants. As a result, he’s had everyone from Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio to Harrison Ford and Meryl Streep appear in his films, but there’s one actor who uniquely impressed him, even though he often fails to receive the credit he truly deserves.
“You should have seen me on the set; he blew me away,” Spielberg told The Sydney Morning Herald, referring to Mark Rylance, who he forced into a hideous-looking (yet strangely endearing) motion-capture role as the big friendly giant in The BFG in 2016. As charming as the film is, and one of Roald Dahl’s sweeter offerings, it’s not exactly an enduring Spielberg classic like ET the Extra-Terrestrial or Jurassic Park.
The filmmaker thoroughly enjoyed working with Rylance, though, who was fresh off the back of collaborating with him on the 2015 film Bridge of Spies alongside Hanks. He just couldn’t seem to get enough of Rylance, which is something that extended into the editing process of The BFG, where he kept demanding more and more of his presence in the film. “Everyone quite quickly learned my mantra, ‘I want more Mark in the mix, I want more Mark in the mix,’ over and over again,” Spielberg explained.
Rylance isn’t exactly an unknown figure in Hollywood; he literally has various impressive awards under his belt, including an Oscar for Bridge of Spies, but he isn’t classed in the same leading man category as other Spielberg collaborators like Hanks or Tom Cruise. However, the director simply thinks he can’t compare.
“He is incredibly malleable to the character, and he’s game for any stretch of the imagination. He doesn’t give you a set of limitations, basically he doesn’t have any limits. He wants to stretch,” added Spielberg, “He taught me patience to allow the actor time to find their moment.”
Rylance and Spielberg will surely work together again in the future, because not only does the filmmaker appreciate his acting skill, but he feels as though the former has taught him some valuable skills about directing, too, noting, “Real directing is about creating an environment where actors feel safe to fail. If they can’t be allowed to fail publicly, there’s nothing to be dared”.
