Steven Spielberg was nervous about asking Mark Rylance to star in ‘The BFG’.
The 69-year-old filmmaker was keen to sign the 56-year-old actor in the role of the Big Friendly Giant but was worried about giving him the script.
He said: "When I was working with Mark the first day on ‘Bridge of Spies’, he was so not Mark Rylance. He so became Rudolf Abel, and there’s nothing he can’t do.
"At the end of the day, I took a chance and said, ‘Would you read a script?’ I neglected to say ‘a script for you to star in.’"
Whilst Rylance added to Entertainment Tonight: "I thought he was just asking me to read an interesting script. I didn’t know he was offering me the part."
Meanwhile, Spielberg previously admitted he wasn’t "looking forward" to completing ‘The BFG’ movie because he feels his late creative partner Melissa Mathison – who died from neuroendocrine cancer in November 2015 – is still there with him as long as the film is still in its production phase.
He said: "I don’t miss Melissa yet because I haven’t had the chance to mourn her, because she is still with me. I’m not saying that in a supernatural way, because Melissa is alive in every single frame of ‘The BFG’. She has been with me all through this process and she is as tangible as if she were sitting next to me. What I’m not looking forward to is when I finish with ‘The BFG’ and I have to face the fact that Melissa is no longer with me."
Steven Spielberg’s nerves
