Mark Rylance enjoys working with Steven Spielberg because he finds him such an interesting filmmaker.
The 56-year-old actor and the legendary 69-year-old director collaborated with each other on ‘Bridge of Spies’ with Rylance’s performance as Soviet intelligence office Rudolf Abel in the 2015 Cold War thriller earning him the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and they then reunited for ‘The BFG’ and are now working on upcoming sci-fi thriller ‘Ready Player One’.
When Spielberg gave him the offer to play the titular Big Friendly Giant in ‘The BFG’ animation – which is based on Roald Dahl’s book of the same name – he had no hesitation in accepting.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz at an event in London to launch the home release of ‘The BFG’, he shared: "Stephen asked me and I was very much enjoying working with him on ‘Bridge of Spies’ so he asked me during that and I hadn’t read the book and I fell in love with the book and the script. I pick jobs mostly because of the people, if I’m interested in working with the people, as long as it’s a good story and isn’t a story that is promoting violence or something like that, I mean I’m lucky enough to try and be able to do that, but if I wasn’t so lucky I’d have to take any job … We’ve been through so many things together now."
Rylance – who turned down Spielberg’s offer of a minor role in ‘Empire of the Sun’ 30 years ago to appear at the National Theatre in London – starred in ‘The BFG’ with alongside Ruby Barnhill, who portrayed orphan Sophie who befriends The BFG.
Just like Rylance, young Ruby got on well with Spielberg and hopes she will work with ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ filmmaker again in the future.
Rylance revealed: "Ruby had a good friendship with Stephen. Every time she came in she would run up to him and give him a hug."
Discussing the possibility of working with Spielberg again, Ruby mused: "I’m not really exactly sure at the moment because I would like to focus on school for a bit because I missed so much school for two years, so I want to really focus on school and I’ve been doing quite well.
"Steven is such a lovely and gentle man, he’s amazing and he has such a way of working with children … He is the most kind and gentle person. I can’t wait to see him again, he’s become one of my best friends, him and Mark."
‘The BFG’ is available on Digital Download, Blu-ray and DVD now.
Mark Rylance loves working with interesting Steven Spielberg
