Barack Obama left much of the ‘Disclosure Day’ cast flabbergasted when he visited the set of Steven Spielberg‘s newest film while it was in production. The visit, which marked the first time the former president had ever stepped onto a movie set, quickly became one of the most talked-about moments behind the scenes of the highly anticipated project.Spielberg, 79, first revealed Obama’s visit during a May appearance on Michelle Obama’s podcast ‘IMO’, joking that his friend and former president, 64, had threatened to watch the film on his phone vertically if he was not among the first to see it. “He said if he wasn’t among the first to see it he was going to watch it only on an iPhone,” Spielberg mentioned. “And he said he wouldn’t watch it horizontally, he would only watch it vertically.“
How the cast reacted to Obama’s arrival on set
Spielberg described the moment Obama walked onto set as something close to a revelation for the younger members of the cast. “Of course, for my cast, it was a bit of a religious experience because in walks this iconic president who comes onto our set,” he said. “To me, he’s a good friend, but on the set, the kids didn’t know Barack except from what he’s done for the world and who he represents. I have a very extraverted cast; you could hear a pin drop when he walked in. They didn’t know what to say.”Co-star Eve Hewson confirmed the impact of the visit when she spoke with The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s New York City premiere on Monday. “I just showed up to work nervous to do my scene, and then there was the Secret Service, and then Obama showed up,” the Irish actress recalled. “Imagine your scariest day at work, and then Obama comes to watch you. It was insane, but also probably the most extraordinary experience I’ll ever have in my life, and I will always cherish it.“
What is ‘Disclosure Day’ about
Hewson, 34, appears in ‘Disclosure Day’ alongside Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Wyatt Russell, Colman Domingo and Colin Firth. She plays Jane, the romantic partner of O’Connor’s character Daniel, who spends much of the film on the run as he attempts to publicly expose information regarding the existence of non-human intelligent life on Earth.
Barack Obama and the question of alien life
Obama is no stranger to questions about extraterrestrial life, having spent eight years in the White House between 2009 and 2017. He made headlines in February when he asserted that alien life is real during an interview with YouTuber and political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen, though he added, “But I haven’t seen them.”After his comments went viral, Obama clarified his position in an Instagram post on February 15. “Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there,” he wrote. “But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”‘Disclosure Day’ arrives in theatres on June 12.
