AEW star Brian Cage has revealed how he landed a role in the new Steven Spielberg film, Disclosure Day.
Disclosure Day follows cybersecurity expert Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) and TV meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) as they attempt to expose a 79-year-old government cover-up regarding extraterrestrial life in order to prevent a looming global conflict. The film has been both a critical and commercial success, grossing $195 million worldwide and earning an 80% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film features a pro wrestling scene that includes Brian Cage, Lance Archer and Chavo Guerrero, who portray the blue wrestler, the red wrestler and the referee, respectively.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet about his role, Cage recalled that Chavo Guerrero, who serves as one of Hollywood’s top wrestling coordinators, initially contacted him about a different project:
“He [Chavo Guerrero] is like the liaison for wrestling in Hollywood. So, he hits me up for this TV show. It doesn’t happen. Well, it was gonna happen. It gets postponed. And then he goes, ‘Hey, I think you would fit really great for this role. Contact this guy and get him everything he wants.’ So I email him. I get everything he requests. Typical kind of like audition situation, where after a few weeks go by, you don’t hear anything, whatever. Easy come, easy go.”
Cage then revealed that he received the call while working out in the gym, but had no idea what project he was being considered for. Continuing, the AEW star admitted that although he was repeatedly being told that “Steven” was a big fan of him, he didn’t realise that the Steven in question was director Steven Spielberg:
“Nothing. [They say] ‘Yeah, I was watching it, and Steven loves you, loves you. He just wants you on the set, blah blah blah.’ He keeps saying, Steven, I go, ‘Who’s Steven?’ He goes, ‘Oh, the director, Steven Spielberg.’ I went, wait, what? Steven Spielberg’s watching my stuff and is like, ‘That’s it, I need Brian Cage in my movie.’ I go, this is amazing. He goes, ‘[Spielberg] likes you so much, we want you to work somebody else, preferably another big guy that looks a different type of big than you. But instead of casting it, we figured he just wants you, so you could just pick whoever you want.’ So I was like, what about my buddy Lance? Because he was in some of the photos they sent, my tag partner, and he goes, ‘Oh yeah, we did see him. We thought he looked good.’ I go, I mean, I’m fine with that. They’re okay. So then that’s how Lance got in the movie, too.”
Cage also opened up about working directly with Spielberg during filming.
Brian Cage On Being Directed By Steven Spielberg
Cage recalled that the acclaimed director had specific ideas for how certain wrestling spots should be filmed, including a POV shot of a diving attack:
“He wanted this one cool diving elbow or head butt off of the back. How it was filmed, he wanted the POV shot. But there’s one other thing he specifically wanted, and we didn’t use a lot of that. We were doing our bit, because I just kind of put together the match, essentially I was like, ‘Lance, let’s just give all of our hits, let’s just do this, this, this, this, this, and this.’ So we’re just going through it, and he loves it, then he was like, ‘Can you guys do from the same [angle]? This angle, that angle?’”
Cage also discussed Guerrero’s involvement in the film:
“Yeah, he’s the referee for the whole match. So I did the suplex, 619, he did his bossman slam and his finisher, and it was great.”
Cage noted that the planned sequence changed after Archer hurt his back and he later suffered a knee issue during filming.
“But then when I hurt my knee and I had to take a little time out. Then I went and I got my bag and I put on a different knee pad, I taped up my knee and I switched my outfit around, and then Spielberg was like, ‘Hey, come here, come here.’ He’s like, look at this, and he’s under his little tent in this TV, showing me different clips and showing me the moonsault. That’s why I talked to him one-on-one about wrestling.”
Despite spending considerable time with the Oscar-winning director on set, Cage admitted that neither he nor his fellow wrestlers managed to get a photograph with the legendary director, as requesting pictures was considered somewhat taboo during filming:
“We still wanted to mark out and ask for a picture. None of us did, especially because we don’t have our phones on us while we’re on set. Then even afterwards, we kind of asked, one of the stunt guys, ‘Oh, hey, can we get a picture?’ He goes, ‘You know, it’s kind of like a taboo kind of situation.’ I go, ‘But he talked to us so much.’ He still liked us. I feel like if we would ask him just on the spot, he’d be, “Oh, yeah, no problem.’”
Brian Cage recently returned to AEW TV after undergoing knee surgery back in 2025.
Featured image: Brian Cage
