Whether it’s rampaging dinosaur attacks, metaphysical robot dramas or all-out alien invasions, some of Steven Spielberg’s greatest works capture a child’s-eye view of his subject matter. The director has a gift for bringing the best out of his young stars, and so for Empire’s #SpielbergTakeover issue we spoke to the actors behind some of his greatest child characters about how the director changed their lives.
Back in 2005, Dakota Fanning battled (or, ran away from) world-conquering martians in War of the Worlds, having first met Spielberg on TV series Taken. “War of the Worlds was huge,” she told Empire. “On the Universal lot, they had smashed up a real airplane and built a set like it had crashed into homes. The magnitude of that set alone was insane and we only filmed on there for two-and-a-half days. I was young and couldn’t believe it was a real plane. Every day felt like the coolest thing ever.”
Shining through the darkness of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is the adorable quip-spouting Short Round, marking the screen debut of young Ke Huy Quan, who also later starred in the Spielberg-produced Goonies. “My family were refugees from Vietnam. We arrived in the States in 1979 and had nothing. Then suddenly I was on a plane to Sri Lanka, on this amazing adventure,” he recalls. “Steven totally changed my life, and I’m forever grateful for it. I’m his biggest fan.”
Fresh from the box office success of The Sixth Sense in 1999, Haley Joel Osment took on a lead role in Spielberg’s ambitious and emotional A.I. Artificial Intelligence. “When I joined A.I., the big thesis statement we talked about was the responsibility society has when it makes synthetic beings that develop emotions,” he explained. “To be a part of a movie where he really got into the emotional side of that is an experience that becomes more important to me as I get older.”
For more memories from Spielberg child stars — including Josh Brolin on The Goonies, and Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello on their trip to Jurassic Park — pick up the Spielberg Takeover issue of Empire, on shelves now.
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