- Home
- Movies
- Sci-fi
- Disclosure Day stars on why their minds have been opened to the existence of aliens
Disclosure Day stars on why their minds have been opened to the existence of aliens
Josh O'Connor and Eve Hewson are now convinced there's intelligent life out there...
- Patrick Cremona
Published: Wednesday, 10 June 2026 at 12:49 pm
Subscribe to Radio Times: 10 issues for £10
Almost half a century after he first tackled the subject of alien life with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the legendary Steven Spielberg has once again returned to the topic with his latest film – which is now showing in UK cinemas.
Ad
Disclosure Day follows Josh O'Connor's whistleblower Daniel Kellner as he attempts to expose a vast conspiracy to cover up extra-terrestrial visits to Earth, with help from TV weather presenter Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) – who appears to have a mysterious connection to the aliens.
Also along for the ride is Eve Hewson, who plays Daniel's girlfriend Jane Blankenship, and speaking exclusively to Radio Times ahead of the film's release, both Hewson and O'Connor admitted that working on the film had opened up their minds to the possibility that aliens are real.
Want to see this content?
This page contains content provided by Google reCAPTCHA. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as Google reCAPTCHA may use cookies and other technologies. To view this content, choose 'Accept and continue' to allow Google reCAPTCHA and its required purposes.
Accept and continue
"I mean, I wasn't like a crazy nerd about it," Hewson responded when asked if she'd done any research into the existence of aliens before signing onto the project. "But I'd be open to any sort of conversation or idea."
She continued: "I think I'd seen like a few documentaries and I was like, ‘Oh, interesting' you know? But this movie really got me down the rabbit hole. And now... I'm in!"
O'Connor admitted that he'd gone on a similar journey to his co-star, revealing that he was previously "agnostic" about the idea of intelligent life beyond our solar system.
"It seems very unlikely to me that we are alone and that we're the only developed civilization in endless space, but I don't know that I knew too much about it," he said.
But it didn't take too long working on Disclosure Day before he'd begun a truly deep dive into the subject.
Watch trailer
"I have this vivid memory of the first week before we'd started filming," he explained. "We were in New York, and I invited Eve over for dinner... and I had this wall full of like research papers and drawings. And Eve just came in, and it looked like a crime scene, like 'Whoa, what's going on?'
"That was my extent of like obsession," he added. "It's a real rabbit hole, and once you're open to it – and Steven has such a wealth of knowledge about it – it really opens your mind to it."
In the film, Hewson plays a former novitiate nun who has been wrestling with her faith, with the movie asking if it is possible to reconcile the existence of aliens with belief in religion. And this was also something she was keen to get into.
"I think it's a reason why people are so against the possibility of there being UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomena)," she said.
"Religion is, I think - holding us back from sort of exploring that idea. And I love that my character asks those questions, and the conclusion she comes to by the end of the film... it's a really great arc for me. It's great!"
The official synopsis for Disclosure Day reads: "As a massive government conspiracy unravels, a targeted whistleblower races against time to bring about the extraordinary event that will change human history forever: the day of ultimate alien disclosure."
Disclosure Day is now showing in UK cinemas.
Ad
Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
Authors
Patrick CremonaSenior Film Writer
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
Ad
Ad
Subscribe for £1 per week
Too much to watch this autumn? Let Radio Times magazine and app do the choosing, with expert picks across TV, streaming and film.
Loading...
Ad
Loading...