Spielberg: Trump Is Symptom Of American 'Rage'

Steven Spielberg says America is gripped by a "paroxysm of rage" caused by a stalled political process.

The director is in London to promote his new film The BFG, which is based on the classic Roald Dahl novel and stars Oscar-winner Mark Rylance.

I asked Mr Spielberg how he would feel if Donald Trump became US president.

"America is a rational country … and right now it's going through what (playwright) Paddy Chayefsky predicted in his screenplay Network when everybody went to the window to shout: 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more'.

"I think America is going through a paroxysm of rage based on basically a Congress that's done nothing and that's stuck in a conservative way by the conservatives and not being able to really do anything to progress any further.

"But I think there's going to be a happy ending in November."

Spielberg has been making films for nearly half a century and this is his second starring Rylance.

The pair talked about Dahl's genius.

"Roald Dahl fell in line with so many fairy tales, like all the Disney animated films that scare you but also rescue you from your fears," Spielberg said.

Rylance added: "There is a place for fearful stories as well as for very loving stories.

"This story is about picking the right dream. Sometimes you have to frighten ... like teaching a child not to cross a street, you have to convey to them that that is a frightening thing to do."

The BFG was published in 1982, the same year Spielberg released ET.

Spielberg says he hasn't really changed as filmmaker.

"I've been able to genre jump, going from historical to fantasies, from adventure and science fiction, back to something as important as the Holocaust," he said.

"It's just that I have always been eclectic in my interest for enriching my own life by learning about different subjects."

Mark Rylance won an Oscar earlier this year starring in Spielberg's Bridge of Spies.

The pair work well together and Rylance says it's because they have a special affinity with each other.

"We both live in stories and have done since we were very young," Rylance said.

"Stories have been our way of dealing with the chaos and the great sadness one feels at the suffering of people.

"I don't know how you feel but I certainly find life in itself overwhelming and I love being in a story and imagining a story with a beginning, middle and end."

The BFG is released in the UK on 22 July.