Steve McQueen explains why ‘Blitz’ is ‘very different’ from other WWII films

Steve McQueen’s journey to Lightning started with a single image.

Although the gripping drama from the Second World War the A slave for 12 years The filmmaker’s biggest film to date, it all came from the inspiration of one intimate, unwavering photo that McQueen couldn’t get out of his head. “It was a photo of this boy standing at the train station, a black child ready to be evacuated,” the director says. Entertainment weekly. ‘That’s actually it. This innocent, cute, sweet boy in this very unstable landscape. And I wanted to know his story and see that world through his eyes.”

The film stars newcomer Elliott Heffernan as George, a biracial young boy lost in the tumult of war-torn London as he tries to reunite with his mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan). In stark contrast to the overwhelming whiteness and male-dominated perspective of most World War II films past and present, Lightning focuses on the women, immigrants and people of color who sustained English society during the war. McQueen discusses his inspirations, the casting process and building a more accurate vision of wartime London in a conversation with Entertainment weekly.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why did you want to tell the story of Lightning at this specific moment?

STEVE MCQUEEN: The seed was planted a long time ago. I was a war artist in 2003, in the war zone, and blah blah blah. But I suppose I was trying to get a sense of British identity, because we pay a lot of attention to the Blitz, in terms of the Blitz spirit and who we are as a nation. And I really wanted to investigate that. I really wanted to release that, but I also wanted to look at the landscape through the eyes of a child.

What we discovered when we did the research is that people weren’t just fighting the enemy, the Nazis – we were also fighting ourselves. And I think that’s still true today. So it’s this journey of discovery for this young boy and seeing the world through his eyes. It’s like, ‘What are we doing?’ It was quite urgent then. It is even more urgent now because, unfortunately, it seems like the world is on fire.

How did personal family experiences shape the film?

The first conversation with Saoirse was so beautiful because she talked about her mother and their relationship, and the closeness of that bond. It really touched me in a way because she was very lucky to have that connection with her mother. I never did that. My mother was always the authority. And I loved the way Saoirse came out of that relationship into working with Elliott. It was real.

How did you find Elliott filling the role of George?

You write something, and then you put the script down and you say, “Okay, not bad. Oh my God, gracious, we have to find a kid! Does a kid like George really exist?” So we cast the net wide and wide. And then Elliott’s band came in, and there was just a real silence in his eyes. And it’s like that kind of picture or that picture that you have on the wall, where you look at that picture, and you go to the left, and you go to the right, and you think you understand it, or even if you doesn’t understand. You don’t understand it, you want to understand it.

He had a silent movie quality to him, because you wanted to get to know him or understand him, or you thought you wanted to. So basically he got you. And I just love that silence in him as a child. There is a maturity in him, but also just a real empathy. You really had empathy for him.

How did the costumes and production design help recreate 1940s London?

Working with Adam Stockhausen on the production design and then with Jacqueline Durran on the costume design was extraordinary. As a double act they are pretty incredible. I had a conversation with Adam because I wanted real sets. I wanted a situation with depth. The quality of a green screen or a blue screen – I mean, it would put me to sleep, and I think the actors are reacting to the environment. That’s how I think you get the best performance, depth, texture. And Adam did a great job with everything, like Café de Paris and the flooded subway station. And with Jacqueline it was always detailed tweed or fabric. It’s so interesting and fascinating because you see the clothes in the film and you get a real perspective of London at that time. It’s not just a uniform; they are people who have made choices.

When making this film, did you feel that you were deliberately creating it in combination with other depictions of this war in British or American films?

No, I really wasn’t thinking about other types of images in films because I don’t really start there. I mean, I’m much more interested in real life. To be honest, I’m more interested in life than movies. Doing the research was so great because it’s a blank piece of paper. And then when you do the research, you can fill the canvas. So my reference points have never been other films. It has always been what you can find in real life, because it is much more interesting

So when we have our film, it’s obviously very different from the films that were being made about the Blitz at the time. I’d say it’s a revelation: the images in this photo have never been seen in theaters before. I mean, you have images of women who were the backbone of the country emotionally and physically. They took care of the elderly parents. They evacuated their children and worked in a munitions factory. They were the front line. And the fact that it hasn’t been depicted this way in cinema before is kind of weird, because that’s the other half of the story. It’s not just men in khaki fighting a war somewhere in France. The emotional support and the physical toll of what they did, all these things that were sustained, it’s pretty amazing.

And then all these images of Mickey Davies and all these characters and the multiculturalism of London, this is all interesting. And I have no idea why all these aspects were never seen in a movie before, because that wasn’t my focus. My focus was: how do I create an exciting photo that can represent a period that has never been seen before? And the scenery was epic. It’s a real breadth of a story.

Lightning is now playing in select theaters and streaming on Apple TV+.

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This interview has been edited for clarity and length.