Jon Stewart (Extended) | Steven Spielberg

From the trusted team behind 48 Hours, welcome to Case by Case, your weekly update on the biggest true crime stories unfolding right now. Nick Ryder remains in custody without bail. Luigi Mangione accused of stalking and gunning down United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. From high-profile trials and stunning evidence to major breaks in cold cases, we'll follow it all Case by Case. Follow and listen to 48 Hours, Case by Case, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome, welcome one and all. And here, our bear, to the late show, I am your host Stephen Colbert, ladies and gentlemen. I'm excited too. You can feel the excitement in this room. I'm excited too. This, listen, this is our last week and I have an exciting announcement. No, this is actually very exciting. We may be canceled, but apparently the late show has outlived the Constitution of the United States. Because yesterday, without any congressional or court approval, completely unilaterally, Donald Trump gave himself a $1.8 billion taxpayer-fueled slush fund. You might remember that in January, President Trump and his two sons, Uday and Kusey, filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, alleging that during his first administration, the IRS willfully failed to safeguard the Trump's tax information from unauthorized disclosure by a former IRS contractor, Charles E. Littlejohn. No, I gotta ask, Mr. Littlejohn, did you actually do that? Yeah! No, no, no, no, no. Ivan, Ivan, not that little John. What? I'm talking about the IRS guy, Charles E. Littlejohn. Okay! Can we please just move on now? Yeah! Thank you. The judge in the case seemed highly skeptical of this lawsuit. So to get around the court's oversight, yesterday, Trump's lawyers and Trump's DOJ, him on both sides, agreed to drop the case and set up this slush fund. And who exactly is this fund slushing? Well, one group of lucky slushies could be people prosecuted in connection with the January 6th Capitol riot. That means, that means people who storm the Capitol, rub their poop on the walls, assault on police officers, and tried to hang Vice President Mike Pence could be getting this cash, but they won't because Trump's going to steal it all. Why is that my educated guess? Because the funds are going to be managed by a five-person commission appointed by the Attorney General, though Trump would have the right to remove any member at will. So I'd like to congratulate the inaugural commission for Donald Trump's slush fund, Marco Rubio, Marco Rubio, Marco Rubio, Marco Rubio, and Marco Rubio. Now, please, from Venezuela. I think our last guy's from Venezuela. Rubio. Now you might be saying, surely this can't get more corrupt. Shut up. I'm talking, and it can, because most egregiously, the guidelines announced by the acting Attorney General stipulate, once the funds are deposited into the designated account, the United States has no liability whatsoever for the protection or safeguarding of those funds, regardless of bank failure, fraudulent transfers, or any other fraud or misuse of the funds. So it's just an, oh, you can fraud buffet. It's an unprecedented level of grift, because, again, funds of this scale typically are either created by an act of Congress or supervised by a court. And this settlement is just some piece of paper. They printed out saying that Trump can do anything he wants with a bunch of your money. Officer, officer, you can't arrest me. For you see, I've already laminated my homemade murder license. This is not just fraud is legal now. Today, the Justice Department posted an addendum to the original settlement, which says that the IRS is forever barred and precluded from pursuing examinations of Trump related or affiliated individuals and related trusts in businesses. So he just gave himself a get out of jail free card and a way better one than Jeffrey Epstein got. Yeah. Halfway around the world, somebody owes me money. Halfway around the world, Trump still got his ding dong caught in the door hinge of the Middle East. Negotiations with Iran have totally stalled. So on Sunday, he went online and posted, for Iran, the clock is ticking and they better get moving fast. Or there won't be anything left of them. Time is of the essence. You hear that Iran? Get your act together or next week. I don't know what will happen because I will be in a hammock ass deep in a pina colada. And a fantasy romance novel about Centars. It's called, it's called trampled by passion. This time, Trump backed up his tough talk with some powerful AI slop. He posted this image where he's pressing the big red button that blows up the earth. There's a whole bunch of stupid stuff in that picture. He appears also to be blowing up his own command console, which of course would endanger his teeny tiny generals on either side of him. Mr. President, there's a fire. Quick, everyone into the shoe. So, Trump is clearly ready to annihilate Iran. And I'm sorry, what is that? Oh, Trump says he's called off an attack on Iran to give talks more time. I gotta say, these threats are getting less and less effective the more he keeps dragging them out. You want to step outside, bro? Oh, you do? Well, it's kind of chilly out there, so I'm going to grab my jacket from Kochak. Okay, it looks like there's a pretty long line, so it might be a while and I don't have singles for a tip. So let me just go to the bar. You want something while I'm in there? I'm buying. You can hang out with my girlfriend until I'm back. Then it is go time, bro time. I don't understand why you did that, but I accept. Today, Trump let us know why he's decided to take a Mideast Chill Pill. Other countries have come to me and they've said we were getting ready to do a very major attack tomorrow. I've put it off for a little while, hopefully maybe forever, but possibly for a little while. Fun fact, hopefully maybe forever, but possibly for a little while, is also a direct quote from Trump's wedding vows. That's an oldie but a goodie. Today, amidst the news that he's sucking up billions of tax player dollars like a shop vac, Trump headed out to the pile of rubble where the East Wing used to be to talk ballroom, I think, because it was a little loud. As his polls get worse and worse, you know, he's just going to keep finding louder and louder places to answer questions. I will now answer your questions about Iran while I froth this latte. I can't hear you. I also can't answer because I'm making the sound with my own mouth. Don't know how the machine works. Trump gave us a preview of the state-of-the-art construction job. Oh, really? That's fascinating, Mr. President. You may not know this, sir, but there's actually a special word for when the roof goes all the way down to the basement, and that word is walls. It has walls. You build a building, it has a floor and a roof, and in between... Then he bragged about the classical architecture style. So this is a Greek, or, alas, here it comes out of Greece. This is the ultimate facade for Greece. Oh, yes. Yes, Greece. I believe Greece is the word. Tell me more, tell me more. What is wrong with your brain? Tell me more, tell me more. Where are you on Jeffrey's plane? Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. We got a great show for you tonight. Coming up, John Stuart. The greatest band in the history of television, Bruce Cato and the great big joy machine, everybody. Not only. Ladies and gentlemen, not only, not only are they the greatest band, but they've got the biggest hearts. They have a new album that is being sold right now, the great big joy machine, right there. They're auctioning off a very special signed copy of Lewis Cato and the great big joy machine's album today. Super exclusive one-of-one late show collectible signed by the entire band and yours truly, because Lewis and I sing on together. All proceeds go to Music Cares. What does that do, Lewis? What does we come about Music Cares? Music Cares is an incredible organization that provides financial support for musicians of all creeds and levels. They actually helped me through a pandemic myself when we were going through all of our step. They make it possible for musicians to continue to live while making a living. So great. Stand the QR code right there. Go place a bid. Now ladies and gentlemen, my friends, folks, my first guest tonight is the absolute best. He's a talented comedian and a 2002 Teen Choice Award nominee. Please welcome back to the late show my dear friend and yours, Mr. John сорks Can I just turn, gentlemen? Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That was great. That's so nice. Yes, you had fun. To hear them chant for Steven Spielberg is just... So generous. It's so generous of them. I just want to tell you the kind of friend that Steven Colbert is to me and how necessary he is in my life as my dear friend. We're backstage. I'm back there waiting to come on to the late show to celebrate my friend. Not to eulogize this show, but to celebrate it. And the joy that it's brought to so many people. And... Um... The people may not be aware. I don't dress very well. No. But you're also wearing sweatpants. That's probably right. So I'm back there and I'm dressed up and I figure, well, this is special. I should probably button my suit. But I don't know. There's two buttons. And I chose wrong. I chose the low button. And my good friend, Steven Colbert, who spotted it like a falcon. From his desk, soared over and went, buddy, may I? Flip, flip, flip. And then when I came out here, you're very calmly so that the people don't know what an idiot I am. Go, might want to puh-puh-puh. Before you sit down. That's what we're dealing with. This is a lovely man. Can I put a little cherry on that? Put a cherry on top. Put a cherry on top. This is what I learned years ago. I learned this from Anderson Cooper, actually. Natalie dressed. He's got style. He's got a nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice. And then he said to me, you can keep it buttoned when you're interviewing someone until, if you're seated, until you get to the critical moment of the question, you go like this, you'll go, now, let me ask you. Like that. That's what you get serious. Scott Pelle's version of that over at 60 Minutes is, so you're sane. He takes the glasses off. Can I tell you my version of that? Yep. I'm not going to do that. I mean, I don't mind. By the way, both of those guys, and I don't know if this is a problem in Network News in general, but those guys are jacked. Like Pelle and Cooper. Guns. Pelle works out in his office to fanfare for the common man. Bum, bum, bum. See, that seems, if I may say so, somewhat fascistic. That actually, but listen, you guys are, what are you in late night? Number one? What? You're number one. I think we are. Yeah. I don't know anymore. Doesn't really matter. So, I just think it's so smart what CBS is doing. I just think it's such a good move to take this show off the air and then to also ruin your evening news and then reduce 60 Minutes to like six good ones. I think it's so smart. Here's what I believe they're doing. They're just taking it for a tanking for a draft pick. I think that's... Yeah. Sure. Yeah. How have you met... You have maintained such... Such? You have maintained such grace through this process. I would not have had... I'm having fun with my friends. That's how you get to come on here. I get to hear those guys, these lovely people. And you know what, I also learned how to, you know, do the job under a lot of pressure from this friend of mine named John Stewart. I started working together. I've done a late night show of my own for 21 years. You and I started working together 27 years ago. Oh, dear God. Where are those guys? Can you see that? You know what? Wide enough for a moment, I just want to see, can you get our faces in here now? We're in the wrong areas. So, if I'm not mistaken, and again, this is no disrespect to me, but... one of us has not aged as well as the other. And this really looks like a double-blind study where they gave... one of these people is getting age-defying peptides. And the other one is getting a placebo. And if I may, and I mean no disrespect to myself. No, not at all. Not at all. I have gotten the placebo. Age... Can I tell you this? Mark Twain once said this. I think it was an excellent quote. Time is a mother-... Yes. Look at everything. You look fantastic. It's so kind of you to say. I've been the... As you get older, your body, it changes. Everything shifts around. You know what I find? I don't look good in anymore. Pictures. I... I'm... I'm... I'm not that thrilled about how I look on the radio. Oh, stop. Stop. But they take... I'll take pictures. I always have to say to Tracy, we'll take the picture and I'll go, is that what I look like? It's literally like the iPhone camera. And she's like, no. That's... I don't know what happened. It looks like a Japanese snow monkey in a picture. But I disagree. I actually... I think you look very healthy. I think you look very healthy. You've got a tan, which I find offensive. And, you know, I look forward to... Oh, buddy. Having some marrow back in the bones. Because you've... you've... you've... You've... you've... you've... you've somebody who has left late night once or twice before. Yes. Sometimes on my own volition, sometimes not. Yes. Yes. Oh, I've been fired, buddy. Talk to me. I haven't been fired yet. Tell me how about that. In your life? Oh, I've been fired, but I've never lost a late night show before. Oh. It's the best. Really? How about the Param... You were at the Paramount show. I was at the Paramount show. I was there for one of the last shows, actually. Were you really? I came there with... I think Higgins got his tickets. Oh, Stevie Higgins. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Stevie Higgins was our head writer. Yep. And is now has been, you know, executive producing over at SNL for... Yeah, wonderful folks. Wonderful. But we got... The term back then was sh... I don't know what they call it now. Yeah. And they put security guards. At the exits, we had two more weeks to go. And they put security guards at all the exits, like... Like, I was gonna run out... What were you gonna...? A fax machine? It was... We didn't have anything... of value. John Stuart is known for stripping buildings for copper to buy meth. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. I wish... Thank you for giving me that idea. That was Paramount 2, right? Son of a bitch. Yes, it was. It was. Because Paramount was... It was syndicated by Paramount, right? Let me tell you what happened. So, David Ellison was eight years old at the time. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And he walks into my office, Hey, you listen here, buddy! Is that... That's... I can't even do the other one. That was very good. That was spooky. Yeah. That was very good. But the show spiraled so out of control. Why? In those last... Because I was not a mature grown-up like you are holding it together. So we lost our s***. Wasn't Letterman one of your last guests? Letterman was our last guest. Very last guest. Very last guest. He said to me something very profound. He said, don't confuse cancellation with failure. And I thought that was profound. And then... Uh-huh. He said, don't... Don't confuse cancellation with failure. But then he said, But in this case, it is also a failure. That's fair. That's fair. Do you have a favorite? I mean, I got fired from things like construction jobs. Like, did you have anything that... Oh, I've been fired. What was your favorite being fired? My first job ever was the first time I got fired. What'd you do? So, I was a... It was in the heyday of... malls had just made their appearances like 1976, 1977. Uh-huh. And I got a job in the stock room at Woolworth's. If you remember... You were a stock boy at Woolworth's? What was FDR like, John? A stock boy at Woolworth's? I ran a coal scuttle on a steam train. Look, Stephen, you know, you can make your jokes, but people needed their penny candies. And who was going to fix their job? Who was going to fix their giant wheeled bicycles? Okay, so you're a stock boy at Woolworth's? Yeah, and back then Woolworth sold everything. I don't know what they do now, but like, pets... Like... Honest God. You'd walk into a war. Birds would show up. There would be birds flying around that a stock boy had let loose by mistake. And it was giant. Yeah. So the stock room was the entire basement. Uh-huh. 10,000 square feet. Filled with stock shelves. And this was at the advent of the beanbag chair, which was tremendous. You guys... Ha-ha-ha-ha. You guys have AI. Science had recently invented the bag. Oh. Science is that, what if we make a chair that has no shape? It could just be whatever your ass does to it. Yeah, yeah, sure. So... my friend George and I, who was also one of the stock boys, used to, was also the advent of ABC Widebrother Sports and cliff diving. So... Oh, no, Acapulco? Acapulco cliff diving, my brother. We would pile up the beanbag chairs. Of course you would. Climb to the top of the stock shelves. And half gainer, full gainer, double twist, flip. Here's the thing about beanbag chairs. They are not adhered to the ground in any way. Uh-huh. So if you hit wrong, you'd fire one across the floor. And one day I wiped out about $1,000 worth of aquariums. With fish or empty? Once I hit them? Empty. Okay. Sure. Now, a normal situation, if it wasn't maybe your first job, you might tell somebody that a terrible mistake had been made. Uh, in my situation, I thought, I have the key to the incinerator and the comp factor. I'm just going to shovel this sh** in there as fast as I can. No. Here's where it gets ugly. My boss at the time, the assistant manager at the Woolworths, is my older brother. Oh. Well, you couldn't just go to him and say, I f***** up and what do I do? What kind of relationship do you have with your family? What? Share a vulnerable moment? No. No. Oh. I was one of these. I think I just destroyed a bunch of this stuff and tried to throw it in the incinerator. And he was like, well, tic-tac, mother f*****g. Punch your card and go home. And I was let go. But have you ever been fired by someone? I went home for a consoling dinner. And there they were. No. No. Pass the mashed potatoes. Traitor. How dare you, son? Well, it sounds like you handled that with enormous grace. Oh, I was... And I admire that so much. Oh, pipe down you. All right. I'm excited. This is... You know what... I was just going to say that we are getting to the age. You know, someone is literally calling me right now. Who is? Who is it? Who is it? Oh, g*****. Who is it? So here's... Can I tell you what's very strange about that? Yeah. All right. That was my mother. Here's... 92 years old, so in five more years, she'll be CVS's target demographic. Um... No, let me say this though. In CVS's defense, network television is built so that old people can solve fictional murders using forensics. That's... It's the whole purpose of it. So she must have heard me talking about my brother. She was going to call and just go, Yeah, the mommy senses were tingling. Where are you? So you now, sir, as I leave this... the CVS family, the Paramount Skydance family, you now are the only person in the... in the corporation left in late night. Good luck. You are. There used to be more of us. Now it's you. That's chilling. On Monday, this comes Monday, you're going to be the only one in late night for the CVS Paramount Skydance Corporation, and I am happy for you. Here's the only saving grace that I think that I... that I have is that I don't think Trump has cable. I really think... I noticed that. I think it's a network thing. I don't think it's basically a... But let me tell you something. And I truly mean this. And what upsets me about this situation is that, first of all, you're just a tremendous human and one of my favorite people. So that's... We all have that. But second of all... that... I have seen your talents from Exit 57 to, you know... You saw my talents in Exit 57? ...to writing to... He can do whatever he wants to do. But the ubiquitous bloviating of the Commander-in-Chief has put us all as defined as who we are in opposition to him. That's right, yeah. And it's just a ridiculous framing. It's a minute portion of the joy machine that you call your show. And it's annoying. And let me say this, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, not just for this show, but for the country. The day, the day, oh, people, close your eyes and dream. The day that the electorate in this great nation we call home repudiates this putrid administration. The day that that happens. My brother. Uh-huh. There will be, and I mean this, the day that that happens, there will be a joyful noise from the bowels of this great country that will make Hungary's repudiation of Orban look like an Amish Sabbath. It's done. It's done. It's done. We are tired. We are tired. You can tell people are exhausted by it. And your staff, may I say something about... Your staff is also, they are... They're the best. They're extraordinary. Extraordinary. They're their own leaders. They, they, I admire them and I'm so proud to be one of them. You're, yes, ish. But the other thing about them is they are so game. You were kind enough to lend me your desk when I wasn't having a show and you always said, if you ever get a wild hair about something, come by the show and we'll throw something together and we'll do something and we, you know, I lived under the desk for a while and... I would come out. Your staff is so competent and excellent and but also almost more importantly, game. You said something so wise to me once, which was get yourself in trouble and it's an ethos about challenge yourself creatively, do all these things. And they would always do that. I am, as you know, famously, not a particularly good long-term planner. So I would challenge them. My last appearance on the show, right before I, I went back to the Daily Show. I talked and I said, wouldn't it be funny? Wouldn't it be funny if we did a bit that showed where I had been living all this time as I had to move out? Wouldn't that be funny? Yes. And I always did it to Jay Ketzer, your head writer, who is always my wingman on any of the bits. Fantastic guy, one of the most brilliant comedy writers and just lovely individual. So I'd call him the day before and I'd say, wouldn't it be funny if we show them that room? Sure, that'd be funny. Jay, wouldn't it also be funny if in that room I had, I don't know, a James Bond-like bookcase where I could pull a book and it would open. The bookcase would open, revealing more of my layer. Wouldn't that be funny, Jay? Sure. Jay, wouldn't it be funny if when it opened it revealed that I'm raising alpacas? Oh, I remember. Wouldn't that be funny, Jay? I'm coming on the next day. I'll never forget. Jay Ketzer calls me at 11 o'clock at night. A little bit of edginess voice. Yeah, uh-huh. Rare for Jay. Rare for Jay. And he says to me, they'll build the room, but the alpacas can't be here till one. That's why you're in show business. That's why you do all these shows. That's why this show is the best. And you're the best. And you know what's here? Hold on. I don't want, you know... Now, why I want you to know that every of the conversations you had over there, they'd get to me. I'd get updates every so often. And I'm working on something like this, and I go, what's happening? Do we have an alpaca? I believe you asked for a llama, and they said, we can only get an alpaca. And I said, he won't know the difference. That'll be fine. And I went home and I said, you won't believe the sh**. They pulled on me today. That was no llama? That was a long neck to llama. Here's... Did you have more to say? I was gonna... That's fine. We have... I just want you to know that this will go online, right? We'll put this online. Good. But we're like so beyond the time we had allotted for you. And it was not a short amount of time. No, no, no. And I understood. And by the way, I believe one question. I am not disciplined. I believe one question. I am not a disciplined performer. So what a wonderful... I don't want you to be. That's not why we love you. Everybody has been coming up with a bit to sort of end their thing. They sang you a song. They wrote you a poem. They did all that. I am not talented. So I'm not doing any of that. And also, why do that? An ephemeral wind of nothing that blows away like humbug? No. You deserve something tangible, something that you have earned. You deserve a gift that befits the sacrifice and work that you have put into this show. And that can show you the life you can lead and the life that I am leading now that I'm not really in show business. So boys, bring it out. My man. Oh. My man. Oh. Are you gonna enjoy watching Matlock and this mother. Oh. And let me tell you something. Here's the thing. Got it right now. I'm gonna hit the colonoscopy button. Here we go. Oh, it vibrates. This is what I'm talking about. And is my guy coming up? Hold on. There we go. So anybody can have one that has levers and fulcrums and stuff, but this doesn't do it. But I haven't really given you the fiesta levers this long. Okay. The thing about these chairs is as you get comfortable in them, you start to think to yourself, am I going to have to expend energy to get out of it? No. Stephen, get ready for the ride of your f***ing life. Down, press the up button, press the up button. Up button? Okay. Press it. Press it. Press it. And hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold. Hold. Hold. Hold. Hold. Wait. Wait. Stop. Stop. Stop. No. You know what? No. No. No. This tribute isn't complete. Stephen, this tribute doesn't represent the joy that you've brought to me as my friend and the joy that you've brought to this country as one of its leading entertainers. No, what this moment needs is something so much more. Uh-huh. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Miss Anne. Miss Andra Day. Hold on. And I'll rise up. I'll rise like the day I rise up. I'll rise up. I'll rise up. And I do it a thousand times. I'll rise up. And I do it a thousand times again. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. explanations waiting for a closer look. Listen to and follow Hidden History, available now wherever you get your podcasts. ["Hide and Seek"] Ladies and gentlemen, I am so happy for you because my friends, you know my next Oscar award-winning guest because he has directed some of the most iconic films of all time. Please welcome back to the Late Show, Steven Spielberg. ["Hide and Seek"] Well, there you go. That's for you. No, no, sorry. I can hear the beat. That's true. I can hear the beat. Steven, it's great to see you again. Very happy to be here. Listen, I didn't know there were any more awards for you to win, but you recently wrapped up the big one. Earlier this year, you joined an exclusive club and became an eGOT, winning for producing the documentary, Music by John Williams. Congratulations on that. I assume the film, Music by John Williams, is extra special for you because it's about you and your longtime collaborator. Who you are. Oh my God, look at that. Look at the hit. For close encounters of the third time. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Well, yeah, well, he's one of the most, as you know, you met him. One of the most special people I have ever worked with. He is actually the greatest collaborator of my entire professional life. Is he the only one who's done everything? He's done everything. I've had a couple scores he didn't do because he was working on Star Wars. He was working on a couple of other films. That thing, yeah. But he has done, this is, disclosure day is the 30th score he's written for one of my films. Now when I interviewed you earlier, it's a beautiful score. But when I interviewed you both for Fableman's, I thought that was it. I thought Fableman's was the last one. John thought it was the last one too. He did. And he was really happy to retire. That was gonna be it. He was not gonna work for any other director. And then I knocked on his door again on this one. And I said, John, I want you to come back and do this. And so what John first did was, he presented me with four other composers' names. He said, what about these people? Yes. And I said, John, you're still writing music? And he said, yes, you're still loving writing? Yes. Then please write my 30th movie with you. Wow. And he did. And it's a great score. So composing for Spielberg is like being in the mafia. There's no getting out. No, no, no. No, there's no getting out. No, I made up an offer he couldn't refuse. There you go. Well, it's, you know, the film is highly anticipated. I've seen it. I don't want to give away too much, obviously, because there's so many wonderful moments in the film. I've seen it. Very beautiful. I was deeply moved by it. So many incredible performances in this. Emily Blunt, Joshua Connor, Eve Houston, Coleman Domingo, Colin Firth. I understand in this film, we have an exclusive clip here from Disclosure Day. Is there anything we need to know about this? The clip, well, you know, the story is a chase. The story is a kind of race for the truth. It's a pursuit to take an entire archive of all the information about UFO and extraterrestrial visitation to this planet, beginning with Roswell in 1947. And the people who have been guarding these secrets and keeping these secrets away from the general public, the whistleblowers inside that organization have stolen the entire archive. And those who do not want the truth to be known go after them. And there's a couple of very important people in our story, Emily Blunt plays Margaret and Joshua Connor, I mean, he just, they're both incredible together. But Joshua Connor suddenly realizes that he knows a language that a week ago he didn't know he knew. And something has happened to both of these people that has imbued them with tremendous powers, not superhero Marvel DC type powers, but powers that we could all relate to, powers involving human connection and empathy, deep empathy. And this scene is where he admits that he suddenly understands something that a week ago he didn't even know anything about. Yvonne? Look at this. Do you understand what she's saying? I hear it's Giparach, I can't understand it. Okay, I just heard this for the first time and I can't, it's English. I mean, it's math, turned English in my head, translating the words. When I look at this, I hear this. I love your description. Thank you. I love the choice, not just the description, but I love the choice of empathy as a superpower in this. Because there are many moments in this when Emily Blunt's character, without giving anything away, expresses this empathy toward people and it doesn't just get them out of a tight bond at times, it actually changes the people to whom she is expressing this inner power of hers. And those are some of the most beautiful moments in the film. I think if you became, if you become the person you're talking to, even if it's for five seconds, and in five seconds you understand deeply everything this person's been through throughout their entire life before you come back to yourself, there would be a lot more cooperation between our own species on this planet. We have to take a quick break. But right back with more Steven Spielberg, everybody. Stick around. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. As Joshua Conner's character is saying there that the math that he's written out, to him he sees that and he hears that language in this math. Math and music played a big part in communication in close encounters of the third kind in 1977. How have your feelings, Thank you. How have your feelings about extraterrestrials and extraterrestrial encounters involved over the last 49 years? Well, I've been interested in everything involving, you know, what's out there. And the whole big question is, because I believed that certainly there is, you know, the cosmos is teeming with life. The big question is, has that life ever at any epoch in our history visited here? Or is that life currently interacting with us now and has that life been interacting with us for many years? I've always been interested in this. When I made close encounters for me, it was a story that I thought, wouldn't it be great when this movie comes out? Wouldn't it be great if people like this movie that come out and they see close encounters? And wouldn't it be great if this someday could all come true? Wouldn't it be great if this could be true someday? And with everything that's happened from 1977 until today, I can now make this closure day and say, isn't it gonna be wonderful when people realize that we're seeing this movie that everything is true and has been true? That's the big difference. Steven Spielberg, I want you to be right. I wanna be right too. I want you to be right. I wanna be right. I'm not, I want there to be aliens out there. What I wanna know is, do you know things that we don't know, Steven Spielberg? Are you sure? Because the government's dumping a lot of this alien stuff right now, right when your movie's coming out and it seems pretty fishy. Yeah, they haven't dumped it on me. I interviewed Obama recently about this because I think you saw it maybe in an interview where he said, no, no, there's aliens out there. And I asked him about it and he did the old back pedal going, I mean, I hope there are aliens out there. And so obviously he's holding stuff back from us. But he said, I said, who do you think should like go represent us if they land here? And he goes, what about me? You know, he goes, I'm a nice guy. Who do you think should represent us and keep in mind that I am available very soon? You know, I think I should represent, I mean, my whole thing is I should be me. Everybody wants the game. I love Barack. I love Barack. We're friends. I love him and love his family, but he's had his eight years, you know? You know, I think the whole thing is I made Close Encounters. My first alien movie I was 17 years old was called Firelight in eight millimeter. I made ET and I produced, co-produced Men in Black and War of the Worlds and- Now you're just bragging. No, I'm not bragging. Here's the point I'm trying to make. I've made all these movies where I've kind of played an ambassadorial role. They've never shown themselves to me. Why is that? It's so unfair. Wow. It's so unfair. Wow, though afraid they'll use the footage and cut it into one of your films and the cover will be blown. Well, something like that. I don't have no idea, but I'm available, guys. You know? He said just now, you mentioned that you're, you know, one of your, you made first alien film in your 17 on Super 8 film. Super 8 film. And I'm just curious, are you a different director? I assume you're a different director. Has your love of film and the reason why you love it changed from when you were that boy making the films till now? It's a terrific question. Thank you so much. It's a terrific question. That's all we have time for. I'm not answering that question unless you get another season. Okay. I think nobody, I don't know myself. Everybody thinks we know ourselves. We don't know ourselves. We evolve, we change. I've got seven kids, six grand kids. The kids change you. You're different with each child. You're different with each day as life goes on. You learn different things. You get wisdom points. Maybe you lose wisdom points. But in any case, the movies reflect who I am at any different point in my life. So whoever I was when I was 17 and whoever I am now, there's been a lot of differences, but the one thing that hasn't changed is my love for telling stories, my love for telling stories for an audience, for all of you, and my love for telling stories just because I like doing it, because it's the thing that I can't do anything else to accept that very well. This is what I do better than other things. I just feel that it was my, it's just something that I love to do and that hasn't changed since I was a kid. The same joy of going to the set every day, the same breathless kind of anticipation and the scariness of going to the set every day, the stage fright, which I get even now when I'm making a movie, believe it or not, please believe it, it's true, is no different than when I first was a kid and started experimenting with eight millimeter. Hasn't changed. Well, Steven, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much. Thank you. The disclosure day is in meters, June 12th. Steven Spielberg, everybody. Thank you for listening to the Late Show Pod Show with Steven Colbert. Just one more thing. If you wanna see more of me, come to the Late Show YouTube channel for more clips and explosives.