Alternate castings

Though Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss will forever be associated with ‘Jaws’, the actors weren’t originally going to appear in the movie.

In fact, Roy wasn’t even in the running for Chief Martin Brody until he overheard director Steven Spielberg talking to a friend about the scene where the shark jumps out of the water and onto Quint’s boat. Enamoured by what he was hearing, the actor went over to Steven and begged the director to cast him in the film, and due to his enthusiasm, the director agreed.

As for Richard, Jeff Bridges, Jon Voight and Timothy Bottoms were in contention for the part of Matt Hooper, though all of them turned it down.

Eventually, George Lucas, Steven’s best friend, suggested Richard after he had worked with him on ‘American Graffiti’.

The visionary asked the actor if he wanted the part, and he quickly signed on.