‘Disclosure Day’ answers questions from ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ Josh O’Connor says

JOSH O’CONNOR heard a quote once that said that Steven Spielberg was like “the director of every child’s imagination.”

- By LINDSEY BAHR

JOSH O'CONNOR stars in the highly anticipated Steve Spielberg movie Disclosure Day

The British actor may not have grown up in a moviegoing family, but he was still very aware the Spielberg thing as a 1990s kid. It’s just in our psyche, O’Connor told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

There were Blockbuster nights, of course, with viewings of E.T. and he’s since caught up with the classics. But even he was taken aback by just how ingrained those quintessential Spielberg images were on his first day shooting Disclosure Day. They were on a backlot, he said, and there were dripping pipes and big beams of light and smoke and mist. It was an environment he recognized so vividly. All he could think was, “Wow, I’m in a Steven Spielberg movie.”

While very little is known about the plot of Disclosure Day, which opens in theaters on June 12, it’s territory that Spielberg knows well. And it has been suggested by Emily Blunt, and confirmed by O’Connor, that it answers some questions raised by Close Encounters of the Third Kind. O’Connor plays a cybersecurity expert who has a mysterious connection with Blunt’s meteorologist. He holds some truths that the men in suits don’t want the world to know.

O’Connor spoke to the AP about the film, the secrecy, the awe of watching it for the first time and having “the greatest Steven Spielberg story.” Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Have you been able to take stock of this whole experience?