Director Steve McQueen revealed that he’s “fully recovered and functional” after privately battling prostate cancer.
The 55-year-old British filmmaker shared details about his health battle publicly for the first time in an interview with Deadline published on Thursday.
McQueen said that exactly two years ago, he had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor right before he was set to start filming his new war movie “Blitz.”
He got tested because his father, Philbert McQueen, died of prostate cancer in 2006.
McQueen recalled that doctors “discovered that I had developed this cancer, this tumor, a small tumor, and therefore obviously caught it very, very, early. I delayed the shoot by two weeks and then had the procedure.”
The “12 Years a Slave” director spent two days in the hospital, where he worked from his bed, and then went home for 12 days before he began production on “Blitz” in London.
However, McQueen didn’t tell anybody in the cast or crew about his health scare because he didn’t want them to be “concerned.”
Instead, only McQueen’s mother, sister and close family were aware of his diagnosis.
“And that was it. I really just wanted to get on with the job,” said McQueen. “And that’s kind of like who I am. I’m a ‘get on with it’ kind of person,” he added.
The Oscar winner confirmed that he’s cancer-free today and chalks that up to discovering the tumor early. “Early detection means virtually a hundred percent success rate. Again, it’s a cancer that if you detect early, it’s totally survivable and curable,” he said.
McQueen also reflected on how his dad’s passing made him “want to know everything” about prostate cancer.
“Because I knew that if it did come my way, if I did get it, it could be dealt with in an extremely effective way, and that’s the end of it,” he shared.
“In some ways, you could say, my dad saved my life because unfortunately he died of it.”
McQueen completed filming on “Blitz” in April 2023.
The movie follows a young boy (Elliott Heffernan) who finds himself in danger during the German bombing of London during World War II, as his mother (Saoirse Ronan) frantically searches for him.
Paul Weller, Harris Dickinson, Stephen Graham, Kathy Burke and Benjamin Clémentine also star in the film.
In a separate interview with Deadline, McQueen explained his thought process that went into creating “Blitz.”
“I wanted to look through a child’s perspective,” he said. “Like a Brothers Grimm fairytale, it’s very dark, but it’s almost like a dream — and I think that seeing these things through a child’s perspective is what gives it a dreamlike quality. Because I’m putting you in a situation where you’re experiencing things for the first time. It’s a landscape we’re all familiar with, but it’s at the same time it’s unrecognizable.”
“Blitz” is in select theaters now and will be released on Apple TV+ on Nov. 22.
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