Tye Sheridan said "every day was a new challenge" while filming 'Ready Player One'.
Tye Sheridan
The 21-year-old actor stars as the lead role Wade Watts in Steven Spielberg's latest sci-fi romp - which is based on the book of the same name by Ernest Cline - and Sheridan said he "grew a lot" as a person and actor while shooting the movie.
He told Collider: "I was so excited to go to work and I was so excited to work with our crew and the rest of our cast, and work alongside Steven and ask him questions.
"Every day was a new challenge, and with challenges, you learn and you grow. On this movie, I grew a lot, as an actor and as a person, and I grew a lot with my knowledge of filmmaking, in general.
"This movie gave me so much, and in return, I hope it gives everyone else as much as it did for me."
The new film is set in 2045 and the world is on the brink of chaos and collapse, but people have found salvation in the OASIS - an expansive virtual reality universe created by the eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance).
However, when he dies, he leaves his fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere sparking a contest that grips the entire world.
Wade (Sheridan) decides to join the contest and he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through the universe.
Sheridan also said the movie has "beautiful messages" and said it was "beautiful" to him on a personal level.
He said: "There are really, really beautiful messages in this film. I hope that for people who are reading this interview right now, when you look at this movie, it's so large in scale and scope, and it's a crazy adventure movie, but it's also a very human story and it has something that everybody can relate to.
"This movie is for everyone, and that's really beautiful to me. At Comic-Con, Steven said, 'When I read this book, it was the coolest flash-forward 'cause it's set in a future that feels not far off from reality, and it was the coolest flashback because of all the '80s culture embedded into the film'.
"One of the main takeaways and major themes for me, in this film, is accepting yourself, as you are, because it's who you are. Everyone should feel comfortable in their own skin.
"Whether there are social standards set in place that act against that, it doesn't matter because the people that love you for who you are, are going to love you, always, and you should love yourself, always.
"That's something that humans constantly struggle with because you're comparing yourself to people. We all do that.
"This movie speaks to me, in that way, and I think it will speak to everyone else, in that way, as well.
"Underneath the surface, this is an adventure film, but that element makes it so complex and beautiful."
Tagged in Stephen Spielberg Mark Rylance Tye Sheridan