--- title: TIME Interviews Steven Spielberg | TIME description: TIME Managing Editor, Rick Stengel, sits down with director Steven Spielberg to talk about POTUS number 16 and the eponimous film starring Daniel Day Lewis canonical: https://time.com/video/UKkCumXf/ og:title: TIME Interviews Steven Spielberg og:description: TIME Managing Editor, Rick Stengel, sits down with director Steven Spielberg to talk about POTUS number 16 and the eponimous film starring Daniel Day Lewis og:url: https://time.com/video/UKkCumXf/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/UKkCumXf/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: TIME Interviews Steven Spielberg twitter:description: TIME Managing Editor, Rick Stengel, sits down with director Steven Spielberg to talk about POTUS number 16 and the eponimous film starring Daniel Day Lewis twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/UKkCumXf/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # TIME Interviews Steven Spielberg > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: TIME Interviews Steven Spielberg [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Interviews Steven Spielberg](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/UKkCumXf.m3u8) (6:10)  _Published 2012-10-24. TIME Managing Editor, Rick Stengel, sits down with director Steven Spielberg to talk about POTUS number 16 and the eponimous film starring Daniel Day Lewis_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:28 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Filmmaker Steven Spielberg Speech Harvard Commencement 2016](/video/uppNoYKe/) ### Filmmaker Steven Spielberg Speech Harvard Commencement 2016 [Daniel Day-Lewis and Steven Spielberg Q & A](/video/DcHly7CX/) ### Daniel Day-Lewis and Steven Spielberg Q & A [Rick Stengel on TIME Magazine's special Wireless Issue](/video/mN8uLZ2A/) ### Rick Stengel on TIME Magazine's special Wireless Issue --- ## Transcript [ SOUND ] Hi, I'm Rick Stengel. I'm the editor of Time, and I am here with the great Steven Spielberg to talk about his new movie Lincoln. Steven, welcome. Thanks, Rick. How are you? So why Lincoln? Why now? Why now is because when I first decided to make a story. Tell a story about Abraham Lincoln, I, I thought he was a man for all seasons. I thought, you know, he, his time would have come whenever I could have gotten a script and gotten an actor to play him. But that entire process took a lot longer than I anticipated. So, we're, we're talking about my meeting Doris Kerns Goodwin in 1999. And we met during a think tank meeting. And she told me during a coffee break that she was writing a book about. The Lincoln, the Lincoln Presidency, and, and, and I had always been interested in President Lincoln, and immediately I said you know, are the film rights available? Lincoln personally is very appealing, and yet he's become sort of a distant figure. I mean even if you look at you know, the Lincoln Memorial which we all saw. And I know you saw as it, as it, as a boy. What feeling did that give you about Lincoln? I've asked my parents how old I was when this happened, they said five or six. And I just remember walking up these steps and suddenly seeing this giant. I mean for a kid, it was a giant. It was a giant man, and it was terrifying. And I remember being very frightened, so frightened I couldn't look at the face I was just watching these huge hands gripping this throne- like chair. And, and, I remember really wanting to leave and just feeling panic, and wanting to get out of there and then I allowed my eyes to slowly, dared my eyes, to drift up to the face. And the second I saw Lincoln's face all of that fear just sort of dissipated. And, I just looked at him and, and, endlessly compelling you know, you know portrait of this man. Great. Piece of sculpture. But I just remember as a child his face calmed me down. He's a really interesting, and framing device for the movie which is the passage of the 13th amendment. Yes. It's funny, because you have this view of Lincoln as a, as a person, but then you actually have this narrative. Yes. There's 2 stories going parallel really there. Well, there, there, there's drama in democracy. And you know, and, and we found based on our research and based on you know, circumstantial evidence and the historical record, the 13th amendment was critical to you know, to Lincoln. Because he knew that if the war ended, no one, even a E, e, e, e, even the majority in the house, and, the majority in the senate that had already passed, the thirteenth amendment. They needed the house to, to to, to, to really pass it. Lincoln knew that this would never get through. Ever get through. Mm- hm. The South, couldn't live without slavery. They, they might cease hostilities. But Lincoln always said that unless we abolish slavery before this war ends, the end of this war, there'll just be a momentary pause between this war and the next war. Hm. So, he knew he had to get this thing done, but he didn't have the votes and, and, and that's sort of at the heart of our movie is this fight to get the votes to do the right thing. Daniel's performance Which, integrates all the different sides of Lincoln. You see Lincoln the pragmatist, you see Lincoln the family man you see Lincoln the idealist, you see Lincoln the, the, the approachable Lincoln. I mean. Yes He, he manages to do all this in a, in a, in a really extraordinary way, I mean what was that like. You know, directing him was it, was it also a revelation for you to? Well Daniel did a very he, he did something at first really for me any way made me sad because I wanted to make the film right away. But after you know, trying to get Daniel into this movie for almost nine years and he really loved the writing and. And, and like me and decided to throw his hat into the ring, there was only one catch, he wanted to wait a year. I was ready to shoot the movie in three months after it after he said yes but he wanted to wait a full year before starting. And it was, it was a master stroke. Because within that year, he had a year to do research. He had a year, year to find the character. In his own private process. He had a year, a year to discover how wikin sounded. And, and, and he found the voice. Within that year we became close friends. Daniel and I. So by the time we got to Richmond, Virginia to start making Lincoln. We had already developed a intimate shorthand with each other. So I didn't have to pontificate as a director. Mm- hm. He so had Lincoln, embedded in his psyche and his soul. In his mind. That, that, that I would come to work in the morning and Lincoln would, you know, sit behind his desk and we would begin. Hmm. And, and I believe you called him mister president all during. All during the picture I called him mister president. But that was my idea. Because I, I also wore a suit everyday. Which I don't usually do when I'm directing. You know, it, it was enough of an intrusion to have. Camera crew, microphone. Mm- hm. And play, and, and, and, monitors for playback around the set. But the fact that all of us looked fine and looked appropriate. And I called everybody by their character names. I called Davis Dreythern, Mister Secretary for Secretary of State William Steward. Mm- hm. I called Tommy Lee Jones Mr. Stevens for Thaddeus Stevens. Mm- hm. I addressed other people as Representative or Senator. And it was, and that was a, a really nice thing that all of us brought to this experience. It just created when she stepped onto the stages of the White House, or into the Cabinet room, or into the House of Representatives. Everybody really, really felt that they were making a contribution to remembering this. Very, very critical moment in our shared history. Well, but now you're not only a great film maker, you're a great historian now, Steven. So I just wanna congratulate you on what really is, is a masterpiece. And will, for so many people, flesh out in, in such a powerful way. Their understanding of Lincoln, their understanding of the 19th century, and their understanding of, of, why and how he saved the union. Oh, thank you, Rex. I thank you. Thank you, man. Yeah. It was great. Yeah. 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