Steven Spielberg Commemorates Anniversary of Gettysburg Address
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VALERY HACHE/AFP/Getty Images(GETTYSBURG, Pa.) — Steven Spielberg, who directed the highly-acclaimed movie Lincoln, delivered a keynote address Monday near the site of the 16th president’s famed Gettysburg Address, to commemorate its 149th anniversary.
Appearing at an event at the Soldier’s National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pa., Spielberg said he was “humbled” to deliver an address at the historic location that President Abraham Lincoln made famous with his 1863 speech.
According to Entertainment Weekly, he said, “I admit that one of the reasons I wanted to make this film, I wanted — impossibly — to bring Lincoln back from his sleep of one and a half centuries even if only for two and a half hours, and even if only in a cinematic dream.”
Spielberg remarked that Lincoln feels like a close friend to him, so much so, he joked, that “I have Daniel Day-Lewis’ phone number in my speed dial. And if I start to really miss him terribly, I can just call him up and ask him to tell me a story.”
Day-Lewis portrays Lincoln in Spielberg’s film.
During Monday’s event, several immigrants took an oath of allegiance to become U.S. citizens.
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