John David Washington became “like a big brother” to his child co-star while making The Creator.

The new sci-fi movie, which is set during a war between humans and robots with artificial intelligence, follows a former soldier as he finds the secret weapon; a robot in the form of a young child.

According to director/writer Gareth Edwards, Washington developed a “sweet” friendship with child star Madeleine Yuna Voyles, who makes her movie debut as Alphie.

“We both agreed that the most important thing on the film when the camera wasn’t rolling was that Madeleine and him became best friends,” he explained during a virtual press conference. “Madeleine’s like a very quiet, shy girl. It’s really hard to become her friend. I tried the entire movie and I think she let me a little bit in but not fully. But JD cracked the code and became like a big brother to her and her best friend.”

Edwards recalled how Voyles would go up to Washington in between takes while he was sat in a corner trying to stay in his character’s headspace.

“He would go over in the corner and do that and she would just jump off, run after him, hold his hand and start talking about toys she really likes at home that she was playing with or something,” the Godzilla director shared. “He’s such a sweetheart, he would go down to her level and start getting really excited about what she was saying. They were inseparable.”

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