Spielberg Spills: the Only Two Actors He Believes Are 'Life-Changing'
During his long and distinguished career, Steven Spielberg has worked with the majority of A-list actors in Hollywood.
Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, Matt Damon, Liam Neeson, and many, many others. So, it is no wonder that he's an expert on nuances of acting.
As he once said in an interview with Irish Examiner: "I have worked with many fine, wonderful actors who all bring different values to their characters."
But out of those numerous stars, he placed two above all others, in terms how much their abilities impacted him:
"Everybody has a different technique and I quite frankly don't care how anybody gets to where they need to go. But I will say that I think [Daniel Day-Lewis] and Tom Hanks are the two actors who I have had life-changing experiences with as a director."
Spielberg has collaborated with Hanks on no less than seven films over decades, from The Post to The Money Pit, the most notable of those films being Saving Private Ryan, as well as on two TV series.
And he has the highest praise for Hanks' abilities.
"One of the happiest experiences I've ever had with Tom was on this last film, Bridge of Spies, and it's simply because Tom is an honest actor, which means that he doesn't have to act.
If he understands the character, he exists in clothing and in the persona of that character without having to work very hard," Spielberg said in an interview with the The Tech.
But Spielberg's compliments for Daniel Day-Lewis, who starred in Lincoln (2012) were, if anything, even stronger, despite the fact that Lincoln was the only film on which they've collaborated.
Not only Spieberg noted that Day-Lewis also could become the person he plays, like Hanks, he admitted that without Day-Lewis the film could not have been created.
"I would probably have turned the script over to HBO and done a mini-series," Spielberg said to Irish Examiner, "and I would have produced it."
And to think that Daniel Day-Lewis initially was not inclined to accept Spielberg's offer!
But ultimately he agreed, in part because another actor whom Spielberg for a time considered casting for the main role in this historical drama, Liam Neeson was a good friend of Day-Lewis, and talked him into it.
The film that we got as a result was a major critical and commercial success.