Child Actors Who Play Young Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor in “Disclosure Day ”Cried with Joy When They Were Cast (Exclusive)

Delaney Anne Cuthbert and Tyler Maxwell Renaud chatted with PEOPLE about starring in Steven Spielberg's new sci-fi film

NEED TO KNOW

• Delaney Anne Cuthbert and Tyler Maxwell Renaud play the younger versions of Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor’s Disclosure Day characters
• The child actors told PEOPLE at the N.Y.C. premiere that they cried with joy after learning they were cast in the new Steven Spielberg film
• Cuthbert and Renaud also opened up further about their experience working on the movie

In Disclosure Day, Delaney Anne Cuthbert and Tyler Maxwell Renaud play the younger versions of Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor's characters. The child actors say they teared up with joy when they first learned they'd landed the parts.

“I cried when I got the news. It was amazing,” Cuthbert told PEOPLE of the moment she was cast in the latest Steven Spielberg feature at the film's New York City premiere on June 8. So did Renaud, who interjected to add, “Same.”

Asked what it was like to play the kid versions of O'Connor's whistleblowing programmer Daniel Kellner and Blunt's meteorologist Margaret Fairchild in the science-fiction adventure flick, Cuthbert said, “It was amazing. I've learned so much.”

“I got to work with Steven Spielberg, which is kind of crazy for a young actor,” she continued at the premiere, held at Lincoln Center. “And I just can't believe that this is happening. It's crazy.”

Of the elder Daniel, 36-year-old O'Connor, Renaud said, “I think it was really fun working with him. And it was just because I've always had a dream to work on a movie and just do this, and I think this really fulfilled my dream.”

“And I loved working with him because he's worked with kids before,” the young actor continued, adding that the pair “bonded right away and he was so nice to us.”

Before Disclosure Day's American premiere, neither of the child actors had yet seen the film, they revealed ahead of the screening. Asked what part of the movie they were most excited about, Cuthbert replied, “All of it!” Renaud, meanwhile, said he was eager to see what had been digitally added.

“I'm so excited to see what they're going to put in for the CGI and stuff because you put so much hard work into this, it's just gonna be great seeing it," he told PEOPLE.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Disclosure Day sees Daniel (O'Connor) and Margaret (Blunt) racing to evade the sinister Wardex corporation with the ultimate goal of disclosure. They want to share decades of evidence of extraterrestrial life with the world, and Wardex wants to thwart them.

Asked if they believe aliens are real outside of the world Spielberg, 79, builds in his latest feature, Cuthbert told PEOPLE that this has been a much-discussed topic as the two child actors promote the film.

“There's so much out there, right? And there's like millions and millions and millions of galaxies, and there's no way in any universe that there is not more to discover,” she said matter-of-factly. “There's no way that there's not anybody else, nothing else, you know?"

Renaud agreed, adding, “I feel like if we explore more and stuff, I think there will be aliens and I think it would be really fun to explore them.”

Renaud also told PEOPLE that if aliens did actually come to Earth and he were in charge of showing them a movie, he'd show them Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial or Close Encounters of the Third Kind — “and if they come super soon, they can watch Disclosure Day.”

Cuthbert had a similar response, but also said she would throw a classic Reese Witherspoon comedy in the mix. “I would probably show them E.T. and all the alien movies to see what they actually think about them,” she told PEOPLE before adding with a laugh, “I also think that they should watch Legally Blonde so they can be baddies.”

Disclosure Day — which also stars Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, Wyatt Russell and Colman Domingo — is in theaters now.

Read the full article here