Lincoln director Steven Spielberg captured another presidential performance while he prepared to show his acclaimed new movie to Barack Obama when he filmed the U.S. leader arriving at the White House.

The moviemaker's leading lady Sally Field reveals Spielberg became childlike as Obama landed on the lawn outside, and grabbed his camera phone.

She recalls, "We were all there; it was Steven and Daniel (Day-Lewis) and Tommy Lee Jones and James Spader, and we were just as nervous as can be...

"Then he (Obama) landed... on the lawn and Steven was like a child... He got his iPhone and was like, 'Move out of the way everyone... Tommy, move your a**'. And he takes a movie of the President landing on the lawn."

And the commotion didn't help anyone's nerves as they anxiously awaited a verdict from Obama.

She tells U.S. Tv host Ellen DeGeneres, "We were all shaking... and we all sat there and watched it with him, which was horrifying... I can't bear it (watching myself).

"Then afterward... Jimmy Spader said, 'I saw him (Obama) toward the end lean down and wipe his eye'. We were all really, really moved. He then came around to us all and thanked us... Caught in the headlights of his face, coming at me, I said - and I wish I hadn't, because I feel a great deal of loyalty towards (character, Lincoln's wife) Mary - 'Aren't you glad you're not married to her?' I didn't want to say that, it just came out like that.

"He recovered for Mary and said, 'No, no, not at all, I thought she was really amazing'. And I did too."