Steven Spielberg travelled the globe to find the perfect lead for his upcoming film The BFG.
Based on a novel by Roald Dahl, the movie stars Mark Rylance as the title character – a big, friendly giant who kidnaps orphan Sophie, played by Ruby Barnhill, to help him on a mission in Giant Country.
Steven both directed and co-produced the film from a screenplay by the late Melissa Mathison, but the Academy Award-winning filmmaker didn’t find his perfect Sophie until just days before shooting began. Luckily, after hosting auditions in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and New Zealand. Steven eventually came across Ruby’s talent. "I was on the verge of panic because we were committing millions of dollars to a production which was imminent, and I hadn't found my girl," he told Empire magazine.
As soon as 11-year-old English schoolgirl Ruby auditioned for Steven and his wife Kate Capshaw, the pair knew they had found their star. Steven adds he recognised immediately that Ruby encapsulated the sense of imagination and tone that he was trying to achieve for the character.
"Everything I saw her holding back in her audition was pouring out of her in the room. I knew by the end of the day that she had the part," he said.
And Mark, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in 2015’s Bridge of Spies, shared that he was equally impressed by Ruby’s performance in the live-action film, describing her as "a natural".
Apart from casting, Steven, 69, admits that getting the sense of scale right in the film also proved difficult. "It's a relationship picture. Even though there are other characters, it's really between Sophie and the BFG. Because it was a personal story between two characters eye contact meant everything, not just to the actors delivering credible emotional performances but to the audience believing they were in the same space relating to each other," he explained.
The BFG hits U.K. cinemas on 22 July (16).