Steven Spielberg may be one of the most recognisable directors today, but he thought his career was over 50 years ago.
At 78 years old, Spielberg has made iconic films such as Schindler’s List (1993), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and The Post (2017). Among other prizes, he has won three Academy Awards, including two accolades for Best Director for Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Schindler’s List as well as the Irving G Thalberg Memorial Award in 1987.
In a new interview, as per The Hollywood Reporter, the filmmaker reflected on one of his earliest hits, Jaws, telling audiences that he thought it “would be the last movie I would ever be given to direct”.
Released in 1975, the shark thriller became a classic, but the disaster-plagued production left a mark on its maker.
“In most circumstances, summer in the Vineyard is a dream,” he said in reference to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts where Jaws was filmed. “But when you are over budget and over schedule and when I am over my head, that summer of 1974 was a bad dream before it ever became the dream of a lifetime.”
Spielberg made the comments as part of a video message to an audience in Martha’s Vineyard attending a National Geographic world premiere for Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story on Friday (20 June).
He had been a 27-year-old director at the time and chose to shoot in Martha’s Vineyard because he wanted his mechanised shark to swim in real waters.
Speaking about Jaws @ 50, he continued: “It details how young and unprepared all of us were for the challenges of shooting in the Atlantic Ocean with a mechanical shark that was more temperamental than any movie star I have ever worked with since, and how in the wake of running over schedule and budget, I truly believed that Jaws would be the last movie I would ever be given to direct.”
The film budget ultimately tripled to $9m, with the schedule stretching from the originally planned 55 days to 159.
Jaws proved so troublesome to produce that Spielberg said he had a “full-blown panic attack” after the film wrapped.
“I couldn’t breathe, I thought I was having a heart attack. I couldn’t get a full breath of air,” he said. “I kept going to the bathroom and splashing water on my face. I was shaking. I was out of it – completely out of it”
Spielberg said it was thanks to cinema-goers that he was able to work again, recalling how theatrical audiences threw him a “life preserver” in 1975.
“Fifty years after its initial release, making Jaws remains a seminal experience for every single one of us, and five decades has done nothing to dim the memories of what remains one of the most overwhelming, exciting, terrifying and rewarding experiences of my entire career,” the director concluded.
Jaws went on to earn over $475m at the box office, becoming the first true summer blockbuster. It won three Academy Awards and has gone down in cinema history, but the experience left Spielberg with “consistent nightmares” for years.
Directed by Laurent Bouzereau, Jaws @ 50 will air on National Geographic on 10 July before it is later released on streaming services Disney+ and Hulu.
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