Disclosure Day Breakout Star Courtney Grace On Journalistic Past and Delivering That Iconic Monologue

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In all the discussion about Steven Spielberg's latest dive into the world of aliens, Disclosure Day, is the powerful work of breakout star Courtney Grace. Grace, whose newscaster character delivers the news about the existence of aliens in the film's finale, has become a social media darling for her vulnerable and authentic portrait of a journalist receiving Earth-shattering news in real time. (I've talked to several critics about the movie and even those who didn't love the movie, including myself, all cite Grace as a high point.)

The movie's release has left Grace with a heady mix of emotions, including "shock, a lot of tears, [and] excitement," she tells The Film Maven. "I've gotten to know so many new people over the past week...I'm the one that obviously was in that role [but] it feels like we all were a part of that role. We all experienced that together, so I feel this sense of community in a way that is quite lovely."

What's fascinating about Grace, and that aids in her performance in the film, is her past as an actual news anchor and journalist. Before turning to acting three years ago, Grace was an interviewer and journalist working for various outlets throughout the United States. It was the background that Spielberg and casting director Cindy Tolan were looking for in the role. "I sent them my anchor reporter reel," Grace says.

Grace didn't officially audition for the film, originally going out for an entirely different project. Somehow, Tolan and Spielberg saw her anchor materials and requested she audition for the role. "This is where Cindy Tolan and Steven Spielberg are the greats, because they knew exactly what they needed and they entrusted that the decision that they made was going to get them the results that they wanted."

For Grace, she doesn't know what exactly people are gravitating to but she posits a theory: "I think at the end of the day what that moment on camera taught me is that I think we just want to see something real," she says. And that authenticity was something she certainly experienced both in her performance and within the filming of it. Grace admits she was sweating watching the finished sequence, not seeing the character but herself up there. "I saw me actually breaking down. I saw me falling apart, and that was the most raw and vulnerable that I think I have been on a set," she says. "Knowing that everyone was watching at the same time, I kind of just got [down] in my seat and I did a little bit of this [cringe] because I've never been exposed in that way."