There’s an old adage that says “all actors want to be rock stars and all rock stars want to be actors.” And in the case of Disclosure Day lynchpins Josh O’Connor and Eve Hewson, who play a couple on the run from government agents in Steven Spielberg’s gripping new sci-fi blockbuster, it’s certainly true.
For proof, you only have to dig into their past. Hewson, daughter to a little-known musician by the name of Bono, formed several bands with her childhood friends in Ireland – before deciding she’d rather be in films than soundtrack them. And O’Connor’s teenage ensemble Orange Output (named after the garish guitar amplifiers at his Gloucestershire school) suggests a dormant desire to hit the road in a clapped-out Ford Transit van.
Read on, for more details on Hewson’s near-miss musical career and the drug-addled lyrics O’Connor cribbed from Pete Doherty – or watch the full video interview above.
Hey guys, what’s a notable note you got from Steven Spielberg?
Josh O’Connor: “I’ve got a funny one… We were talking about a scene where [my character] Daniel’s emotions are really present – and I was questioning whether he allows them to come through. We were going back and forth [via text one evening]. And [he sent] this text saying “the door is on the latch. Just push.’ And I was like: ‘Wow, that’s perfect. His emotions are just there and I have to just push to let them come out.’
“But the next day I was telling Steven how inspiring his note was. And he looked so confused – and checked his phone… That message was for his wife about how to get in [to where they were staying!]”
And you, Eve?
Eve Hewson: “Steven was always trying to get me to cry… I remember there was one day where I had to cry and… he asked Josh just before the take: ‘Will you give her a hug?’ He knew that I just needed a moment to relax and de-stress… He knows actors so well.”
JO: “Now I know that if you ever hug Eve, she bursts into tears! [laughs]”
Speaking of Spielberg, have either of you ever had any close encounters of the third kind?
JO: “I had a false alarm a few years ago. I was camping with my brothers and my best pals for a birthday. It was late at night and we were quite remote. We were looking up at the sky and we saw six stars, perfectly distant, moving straight across the sky. We freaked and then the next day we were looking it up and it was… the Tesla Starlink!”
EH: “I have never had any kind of alien experience. I’ve never even been visited by a ghost.”
Paul Mescal once told us a story about a haunted hotel he visited in Sligo, Ireland…
JO: “Was he joking? He’s my friend, so… we’ll get to the bottom of it.”
EH: “The two of them together are like this beautiful little romance. They went for dinner every Sunday night when we were filming.”
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Josh, we read about your school days indie band Orange Output…
JO: “Oh no… [O’Connor puts his head in his hands]. I was the singer-songwriter. I grew up in a place called Cheltenham Spa, in a very middle-class… perfectly lovely household. I had lovely parents and two very kind brothers.
“And at the age of 14, I wrote a lyric that went: ‘I’m addicted to crack, motherfucker.‘”
Where did you get that from?
JO: “I didn’t know what crack was! I’d heard it on a Babyshambles record.”
Did you write any other lyrics?
JO: “Yeah, I also wrote: ‘Sex and drugs and rock and roll/Kids walk past but walk too slow.’”
EH: “Profound.”
JO: “It is something that annoys most of us, right? Walk quicker!”
Eve, were you in any embarrassing bands?
EH: “I was in bands, but I wasn’t in any embarrassing bands! They were really cool! It’s out there already but I was in a band called Ten Past Two, which was the time that I got out of primary school, with my best friend Sorcha Richardson who actually is a really successful singer-songwriter now. So I was onto something.”
What kind of music did you play?
EH: “We had a song called ‘She Only Wants You for Your Money’. And that was a big hit.”
Is there a reunion on the cards?
EH: “I had a birthday party a few years ago in my backyard when COVID opened up again. It was, like, 50 people. All the festivals weren’t happening, so I threw my own festival. Everyone had to come dressed as their favourite rock star.”
Who did you go as?
EH: “I was Björk. It was iconic. I had a headpiece. And my friend [Sorcha] came dressed as Ozzy Osbourne. And she got to do a few songs… She surprised me [on stage] and was like: ‘All right Eve, we’re getting the band back together. Get up here!’ And we did a rendition of ‘She Only Wants You for Your Money’.”
‘Disclosure Day’ is in cinemas now