Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Interview by GREG WILLIAMS/JANE CROWTHER
She plays a former novice nun in Disclosure Day, and Eve Hewson tells Hollywood Authentic about her belief system for negotiating acting and fame as she takes a London stroll.
Before she begins two days of UK press for Disclosure Day I meet Eve Hewson at the Corinthia Hotel in London on a blustery day in early June. Like her character in Steven Spielberg’s highly-anticipated latest foray into sci-fi, we are looking to the skies – the British weather is being particularly erratic for our planned stroll over Westminster Bridge to take in one of my favourite views of the capital. In the movie, the Dublin-born actor plays Jane, an ex-novitiate who is caught up in a dangerous race against time when her boyfriend Daniel (Josh O’Connor) steals whistleblower evidence of UAPs and ETs from his top-secret work with the intention of collaborating with fellow defector Hugo (Colman Domingo) to expose the truth to the world. ‘I think the sun’s going to come out,’ Eve says as we pull up outside Big Ben. ‘God is on our side.’
It’s appropriate that she should evoke a higher power given that she plays a religious character wrestling with the theological impact of understanding there may be life outside of humanity in Spielberg’s film. ‘My character asks the more religious questions. What does that mean for faith if aliens, or UAPs, really do exist – what does that mean for religion? What does that mean for God? What does that mean for everything we’ve been told to believe about how the world began?’ Despite its big questions, Disclosure Day is a true Spielberg film, loaded with action, wonder and empathy. It’s a blockbuster event movie, and a huge achievement to add to any actor’s resume.
For the 34-year-old it’s the second time she’s worked with the legendary filmmaker. ‘I worked with him at the beginning of my career on Bridge of Spies when I was 22 and terrified,’ she says as we walk across Westminster Bridge, dodging tourists and London swag sellers. She recounts how their latest project came to her on a ‘random Wednesday’, with her agent asking her to Zoom with the storied director. ‘I Zoomed with him, and then he sent me the script which was hand-delivered – very old-school Hollywood. You feel like you’re in some sort of secret society.
After I read the script I spoke with him again, and pitched him my ideas. And then I had to wait. He was like, “I’m not going to torture you over this, but I’m speaking to other people. I’ll let you know by the end of the week.” I got violently ill from the anxiety, because I just wanted it really badly. I puked a few times, which happens to me when I really care about something.’ Spielberg kept his word and told her he wanted her to co-lead the movie alongside Emily Blunt (as a TV weather reporter with a secret past), O’Connor, Domingo and Colin Firth, as a shadowy government consultant. Firth and Eve share a number of tense scenes which required incredible focus from her, not least because she had a particularly special audience while shooting.
‘I always keep the storyline of anything I’m doing secret from friends and family, because it’s more fun for me, and for them when they see it. But that was hard to do the day when Obama came to set, because I had the most bizarre day of my life doing that scene with Colin. It was so complicated and genuinely quite daunting as an actor. And then Obama was there. I did text my family at the end of the day, and say, “I can’t explain to you why this was the weirdest day of my life, but I can’t wait for you to see the movie because I get to say, ‘that was a scene that the former leader of the free world came to visit.”’
Though she’d worked with Spielberg previously, Eve admits to still being ‘terrified’ for round two. ‘This was a huge responsibility and a big role – I wanted to do it well, and I wanted to make him proud. Every day, you just had to come in and give 150%. It was just about stepping up, and taking on those responsibilities, and making sure that you aren’t shit.’ How has she changed as an actor in the time between Bridge of Spies and Disclosure Day? ‘The first time I worked with him, I was just learning what a set was, and what cameras were. It was maybe my third or fourth job. I was very new. When it came to Disclosure Day it was just a completely different experience.’
As we look over towards the Houses of Parliament, Eve tells me about living in London for three years during the pandemic when she and her friends would walk the streets with a hot toddy and look at the city, what she terms ‘whiskey walks’. Then she landed her role in hit TV show Bad Sisters and stayed longer. ‘And then I moved to LA. I went to the dark side. I didn’t love LA.’ She returned to Dublin where her parents, musician Bono and activist Ali Hewson, are based. She’s said in the past that as a younger artist LA had been tough to negotiate with all the rejection inherent in acting, driving past billboards of projects she didn’t get. ‘Now I’m on them,’ she chuckles, having moved back to Los Angeles. She remains level-headed thanks to a strong group of friends, many of whom are not in the business. ‘I’m a friend kind of chick. My friends mean a lot to me. I’ve had the same friends since I was four years old. Some of them are artists, but a lot of them are social workers, lawyers, working in finance – just not Hollywood people.’
It’s a balance between the business and real life that she’s always had growing up with a dad in U2. ‘It was a weird, strange, Hannah Montana version of my childhood, where we lived in Dublin, I got the train to school every day, I went to a normal school. And then two or three months out of the year, we would go off on tour with my dad, and live this insane rock-star existence. Which is great, because it’s actually quite similar to being an actor. You have your normal life, and then you go away, and you have this otherworldly experience with people. And then you come home, you know?’ She can, she says, ‘smell the bullshit easier’ because of it. ‘The ‘Bad Sisters’ [Sarah Greene, Sharon Horgan, Eva Birthistle and Anne-Marie Duff] call me their cunt compass,’ she laughs. ‘We’re in a group chat that has a foul name, and we all are in there every day still catching up with each other, and telling each other our deepest, darkest secrets.’
Like many artists I talk to, Eve says she’s ‘a huge introvert, an introverted extrovert’. ‘I was super-shy when I was a kid, and I used to not say anything. I would sit in the corner, and suck my thumb, put my hood up. As a little kid I cut off my hair, and I made everybody call me Elliott from E.T. which is so on brand. One time, I was brought to meet President Clinton and Hillary Clinton, and apparently I got under the table, and just started growling. I was that shy. And then Hillary got on all fours, and she was all, “Come out, little Eve. Come out.” And I was like, ‘Rarhhhhh!’ I was an interesting kid.’ Acting was an escape because she could disappear. ‘You get to pretend to be somebody else, but you also get to express yourself completely. But it’s like you’re wearing a mask. It’s a safe space. It’s a role play.’
These days she says her ambition is to be in bed by dusk. ‘I could go to bed at like 6pm. Me and my cat, Luna, a little bit of Bravo – that’s my jam.’ Professionally she’d like to play a vampire, a Hollywood agent, explore comedy and work with Paul Thomas Anderson. ‘If I’ve already done Spielberg – he is my number one. In my first year of college at NYU, I was mad about Paul Thomas Anderson, and I wrote my final paper on him, and handed it to my professor. I was going to meet some friends at the Greenwich Hotel. I came from my professor’s office, and I walked up to the Greenwich Hotel, and who opened the door for me? Paul Thomas Anderson. It was an incredible moment. He doesn’t remember it, but it was like a beautiful sort of nod from the universe that maybe one day I’ll work with him.’ I ask if she believes in nods from the universe?
‘I do. You have to. It makes life a lot more fun, you know? When I worked with Spielberg at the beginning of my career, that was like a nod from him, from the God of the movie universe. Then the fact that I’ve come back around full circle at this point of my career, and I’m working with him on this big movie on this big part – it’s the most beautiful story. I like to believe that the parts that I’m getting are the parts that are meant to be. It’s a nice philosophy to have, to be able to survive, otherwise you would be tearing yourself apart with all of the rejection and the close calls. What’s meant for me, will find me. And what’s for you, won’t pass you by.’
Not passing her by; Plan B film Isle of Man which she’s currently filming and learning to ride a motorbike for alongside Channing Tatum; and playing a mother of four in Lenny Abrahamson’s Dublin-set period drama, Hillside Drive. ‘Lenny is just such a talent, and I’m so blessed that he asked me to be in this film, it’s a really exceptional role and I think we made something very special.
Having shot on the bridge we hurry back to the car to get Eve back to her junket and press responsibilities. ‘All my dreams have come true,’ she smiles, pushing her wind-whipped hair back in place. ‘Being in my underwear in public – it’s my favourite thing!’ It’s also something that might become increasingly difficult to do when Disclosure Day releases and she becomes even more recognisable. ‘I get people recognising me quite a bit, but they’re nice, because they’re fans of something that I’ve done. I haven’t been mauled. I haven’t had it being too much of an invasion of my life. I can still do all the things that I want to do. I never really think ahead in those terms.’ We drive back to the hotel, where she loses a shoe getting out of the car, like a modern Cinderella. ‘Fashion emergency!’ she jokes and leans back in the car before disappearing into the lobby. ‘That was really fast and iconic,’ she says. ‘Fast and iconic. There she is…’
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Interview by GREG WILLIAMS/JANE CROWTHER
Hair by HALLEY BRISKER
Make-up by ALEX BABSKY
Styling by KARLA WELCH
Disclosure Day is in cinemas now
