Many directors work with the same actors on several projects and rarely change their casts. It makes sense because a successful movie depends on the star and director working closely together. For this reason, filmmakers would choose to collaborate with people they know and trust. The renowned director, Steven Spielberg is no different.
Spielberg has collaborated with most of Hollywood’s A-list actors over the course of his illustrious and lengthy career. Liam Neeson, Matt Damon, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise, Will Smith, and countless others. It makes sense that he is familiar with the finer points of acting.
Given his experience working with the best that the industry has to offer, it is a great honor to be called “life-changing” by the 76-year-old director. And despite popular belief, Spielberg does not view Tom Cruise or even Will Smith as holding the coveted position.
Tom Cruise, Will Smith Are Not Among Steven Spielberg’s Favorite Actors
From Meryl Streep, and Tom Cruise to Matt Damon, Will Smith, and Liam Neeson, Steven Spielberg has collaborated with almost all of the A-list actors. He was familiar with the actors’ efforts to fully inhabit their characters due to his interactions with many talented performers.
According to Spielberg, Tom Cruise single-handedly saved the entire theatrical distribution industry when Top Gun: Maverick, which seemed to give the audience the experience of a lifetime. But that hardly qualifies Cruise as the director’s first choice for favorite actor.
Spielberg, who is well-known for his timeless masterpieces like Jurassic Park, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Schindler’s List, rarely gives actors such high praise. During a conversation with the Irish Examiner, he once said.
“I have worked with many fine, wonderful actors who all bring different values to their characters. I have learned how they arrive at those very private and personal moments of consolidation where they are really able to imprint on a character, to deliver the message, convince us they are that person.”
Even so, Spielberg believed that two actors stood out as the best in the industry, despite working with so many talented people.
“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.”
Steven Spielberg’s Films With Will Smith and Tom Cruise
Steven Spielberg is arguably the greatest and most versatile director to have ever lived in the history of cinema, having worked on movies like Jaws, Indiana Jones, E.T., Jurassic Park, Empire of the Sun, and Schindler’s List.
He worked with Tom Cruise on a few acclaimed movies! Their first movie together was Vanilla Sky (2001). Spielberg made an uncredited cameo appearance.
Then, Minority Report (2002), a science fiction action movie, received its highest overall rating. Spielberg helmed the movie. As the tenth most successful movie globally in 2002, it made over $358 million against a $102 million production budget.
And then, the 2002 spy comedy film, Austin Powers in Goldmember. Since the War of the Worlds in 2005, they have not worked together.
Will Smith initially denied having any interest in playing a role in one of his career’s most financially successful movies (Men In Black). Steven Spielberg, who served as executive producer of that film, had to persuade the actor to agree to the role.
In an interview on Kevin Hart’s Hart to Heart chat show on Peacock, Smith disclosed that at first, he was not interested in doing Men In Black because he had just wrapped up filming Independence Day.
He was eventually persuaded to star in Men In Black by Steven Spielberg, the film’s executive producer as the actor recalled:
“Steven Spielberg sent a helicopter for me. I was in New York. [He sent it] to talk to me. It landed at his house, and he had me at hello.”
Smith’s admission prompted Hart’s comment:
“Yeah, you can’t say no after you get off the helicopter.”
The actor further added:
“[I] get off the helicopter at his house, and it was the first time I ever had lemonade with carbonated water. You can’t say no to that.”
After accepting the role, Smith co-starred with Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black and its two follow-ups, Men in Black 2 (2002) and Men in Black 3 (2012).
Although Steven Spielberg has had a distinguished and successful career, he has only received 3 Oscar wins and 19 several other honorable nominations.
Source- Irish Examiner
