For nearly fifty years, Steven Spielberg has shaped how all of us think about aliens. He made beloved movies like ‘E.T.‘ and ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind‘. But now, with his new film ‘Disclosure Day‘ coming out, he has a surprising confession. He does not want to be humanity’s ambassador to the stars.
In a recent interview, the 79-year-old director was asked if he would volunteer to be the first human to meet an alien species. His answer was clear, humble, and honest, knowing how complicated that would really be. “I read everything on the market… I interviewed enough people to know that all of them could not possibly be lying,” Spielberg recalled, per Entertainment Tonight.
Why Steven Spielberg Thinks Real Alien Contact Is Too Complicated
This is striking, coming from a man who basically wrote the rules for first contact movies. From the gentle alien botanist in 1982 to the scary Tripods in 2005, the more Spielberg has explored the unknown in his films, the more he respects how heavy a real-life encounter would be.
Related: “We Are Not Alone”: Steven Spielberg Makes His Boldest Alien Claim Yet Ahead of ‘Disclosure Day’
Even though he says he is not the right person to be Earth’s diplomat, he still wants proof. He has spent his whole life looking up at the sky, thinking he is owed at least a glimpse of the truth. “I’m not asking to see aliens in real life,” he joked. “I’m saying with all the movies I made about non-human civilizations coming to Earth, I should be afforded the opportunity just to see one Tic Tac.”
The “Tic Tac” refers to the famous 2004 Nimitz incident, when Navy pilots tracked a strange craft that moved in ways that should not be possible. Spielberg has followed this story closely and thinks it helped push the government toward real disclosure.
Steven Spielberg Supports Full Government Disclosure of UFOs
This back and forth between his fiction and real life is nothing new for Spielberg. Before the Pentagon even released reports on UAPs, he was already digging into the topic. He once said the idea for ‘Close Encounters‘ did not come just from his imagination. He talked to real people who said they had seen strange things in the sky.
In case you missed it: Steven Spielberg Walked Away From This $200 Million Sci-Fi Film for One Terrifying Reason
Even with those interviews and some strange dreams he had while making ‘Close Encounters’, where he felt “things outside my window” trying to get him to look at the sky, he insists he has never had his own close encounter.
Spielberg does not want to be the one to greet the aliens, but he fully supports the idea of a global ‘Disclosure Day‘. That is the main idea in his new movie, in which governments finally tell the public what they know about non-human intelligence. “Just knowing someday that that could be an opportunity for all of us to see something like Disclosure Day actually happening in the world—that would be the day I would really look forward to,” he said.
He thinks humanity is ready for the truth. Sure, there would be “social dislocation,” and people’s beliefs would get shaken up, but the truth would not be a “lethal disruption.”
A Childlike Wonder and Why Steven Spielberg Will Leave the Talking to Someone Else
Maybe the best explanation for why Spielberg feels this way comes from a memory he has of a young Drew Barrymore on the set of ‘E.T.‘ He remembered how she really believed the mechanical alien was alive. “Only children can believe in extraterrestrial life,” he said.
Maybe that is it. The cynicism that comes with being an adult, even his own, makes him the wrong person for the job. To truly welcome a visitor from another world, you need a kind of innocence he no longer has.
For now, Spielberg is happy to watch the sky from the director’s chair. He still hopes the “Tic Tacs” are out there. But when they finally land, he says someone else will have to do the talking.
You might also want to read: “That’s Where I Draw the Line”: Steven Spielberg Slams AI’s Growing Power in Hollywood
