Bill Pullman's presidential movie date

Bill Pullman first watched 'Independence Day' with President Bill Clinton.

The 62-year-old actor played US President Thomas J. Whitmore in the movie and was shocked to get to watch it at a special screening in the White House before it was released.

Pullman explained to Empire magazine: "He said, 'Hey, guys. I got a spare seat up here, anyone want to join me?' [Producer] Dean Devlin said he couldn't do it because he was just too excited. And [director] Roland Emmerich said, 'No, it can't be me, I'm German. It would be all wrong. It should be an American.' So in the end I wound up going to the front and watching it next to the President... He said he enjoyed it."

However, the film shows the White House being blown up by an alien spaceship and Roland was scared 'Independence Day' would be more a "phenomenon" with shock scenes than a "good movie".

Tom Sharek, the movie's marketing executive, said to him at the time told him: "Roland, you know this is not a movie now. It is a phenomenon!' I was totally afraid. I didn't want to make a phenomenon. I wanted to make a good movie."

They pitched the film to studio bosses with a simple title that read 'The World Ends July 4th' and a clip of the destruction of the White House and knew it would hook the bosses.

He added: "That whole movie was a marketing campaign. I mean when we originally sent the screenplay out, the title page just said 'The World Ends July 4th'. (I thought) In that case it will be very controversial and how is that supposed to be a bad thing?"