From stage to The BFG

It’s no coincidence that the movie of Roald Dahl’s The BFG has emerged in the author’s centenary year.

But it’s not necessarily something that was planned, orchestrated or cynically manipulated. As far as director Steven Spielberg is concerned, the book was parked somewhere in the deepest recesses of his mind. It took an actor to draw it out.

Dahl’s book was published in 1982. Sometime in the late 80s Spielberg joined millions of other parents in reading it to his son, Max.

“I was more familiar with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory than I was with The BFG,” recalls Spielberg, 69, “but it had a great illustration on the cover. So I read it out loud to my first child, and I started to understand why it had become so popular. I didn’t see it as a film back then. I saw it as a way to popularise myself with my own family.”

Flash forward 32 years and to the shooting of Bridge of Spies, Spielberg’s 30th feature as director but his first with revered English stage actor Mark Rylance.

In a glossy Hollywood story of espionage and friendship it was Rylance rather than leading man Tom Hanks who stood out, and who won the 2015 Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor.

Spielberg and Rylance have become something of a latter-day double-act.

In the early days of Spielberg’s career he bonded with Richard Dreyfuss on Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Then came Tom Hanks and a run of four films with Spielberg including Saving Private Ryan.

And there is clearly something special about 56-year-old Rylance. “The BFG entered my life when Steven asked me to read a script on the first or second day of Bridge of Spies,” he says. “I didn’t realise he wanted me to read it because he wanted me to be in it. I just thought he wanted my opinion. I was very moved by the script. Then I read the book after that.”

Something clicked for Spielberg. He’d first become aware of Rylance as a presence in the late Eighties when he was casting British actors for Empire of the Sun and Rylance turned down one of the roles. Spielberg had also seen him on stage and, by his own admission, was “a huge admirer”. But what was it that made him right for the role of the 24ft big-eared gentle giant?

“It’s very hard to deconstruct an intuitive tickle that I get sometimes when I see somebody. Time stops and I dare to imagine ‘I think I might have found them.’ You can’t deconstruct that. You can’t say, ‘Here’s why’.

“I know Mark’s like a liquid actor who can fill any shape vessel and can do practically anything. But the moment that I felt he would be right for The BFG quite surprised me.

“It happened on the first day of shooting on Bridge of Spies. I just had that intuition [that] there was nobody better in the world to really pull this off other than Mark, and I offered him the part that day.”

Rylance has come to films relatively late. There have been others, most notoriously 2001’s Intimacy with its explicit sex scenes. But he has resolutely ploughed his own unique furrow. Accepting the role of the friendly giant in The BFG was a no-brainer.

“Increasingly I hope that I can bring my joy in acting to a role – to not get tired or over-critical or too mental about things,” he says in his quiet way.

“Just to turn up is 99 per cent of it, then think ‘What does that mean to be there physically, thoughtfully, hopefully, soulfully?’ More and more what I hope when I take a part is that I’ll be able to bring my joy in making it.

“I get that a lot with Steven because he’s so well prepared that a lot happens in the room while we’re making it.

“He risks things and encourages one. He doesn’t feel frightened to make a mistake in the room. That’s very helpful.”

Spielberg has been a Hollywood mover and shaker for more than 40 years. He’s been a trailblazer and a champion of the great films and filmmakers of the past. But he’s also been at the forefront of the changes that have defined modern 
movies.

“Before the digital revolution you needed to use your imagination to be able to craft an illusion that the audience would accept as real.

“With the digital revolution today there is no limit to anyone’s imagination. You can literally put anything on the screen whereas it took a lot of imagination to figure out how to craft an illusion. So illusion is gone.

“I’m just really happy that I get to keep working. I’m in my 70th year [but] I don’t get tired. I’m proud that I’ve been able to stay interested in making movies all these years. I’ve met a lot of my heroes – John Ford, Frank Capra, David Lean, Kurosawa – as I came up through the ranks of being a director.

“The one thing that happens when directors get older is that they still have the passion and they still have the determination to tell stories but because of their age the people who do the hiring look at you as a relic from the past.

“One of the reasons I set up Dreamworks back in 1994 was that I said, ‘I am not going to be a relic of the past! If I have to hire myself, by God that’s exactly what I’m gonna do!’

“I love what I do, I love telling stories, making movies and working with great actors. I don’t look back. If I dwell too much on that it’s going to make me sit back on my tush. I’m not ready to do that.”

The BFG (PG) is on saturation release.