Steven Spielberg reveals how Jaws saved his career by giving him total freedom
Jaws filmmaker Steven Spielberg has admitted the 1975 classic gave him "a ton of a career" despite costing "a pound of flesh".
Steven Spielberg says Jaws gave him "a chance to make any movie" he wanted.
The iconic filmmaker was at the helm of the 1975 horror classic, and while work on the movie was never plain sailing, the director pointed to the camaraderie on set, as well as its lasting impact on his career.
Speaking at the Academy Museum's Jaws exhibition press preview this week, he said: "I’ve never been closer to a crew or a cast until many years later.
"But this was the ultimate example that when you work as a team, you can actually get the ball across the finish line. And we did, and I’m very proud of the movie.
"The film certainly cost me a pound of flesh, but gave me a ton of career. And the success of the movie gave me a chance to make any movie I wanted to make after that.”
Spielberg - who joked he hadn't planned a speech because he did "not prepare very well enough" for the film itself - revealed how troubles in production meant the studio tried to get him to "gracefully bow out" on a number of occasions.
He recalled: “I was offered, actually, several times a chance to gracefully bow out of the film, not to be replaced by another director, but for the film to be shut down.
“We shot 158 days [which was 100 over schedule], but nobody wanted to quit. Nobody wanted to stop."
Despite the movie becoming a resounding success, Spielberg noted he feared his "career was over" halfway through production.
He said: "Everybody was saying to me, ‘You are never going to get hired again. This film is way over budget, way over schedule and you are a real liability as a director. You are not going to get hired again.'
"I really thought that I better give this my all because I’m not working in the industry again after they see the movie. Fortunately, fortune smiled on us.”
Jaws' legacy has lived on, and Hollywood stars like Emily Blunt have revealed how the movie inspired them.
She previously told the Sunday Mirror newspaper: "My dad was always going to the video store to get really inappropriate films for all of us to watch.
"One of my first experiences was watching 'Jaws' at the age of seven, and he would pitch that it was for the whole family - but it was really for him and we would be terrified.
"It was one of my first memories of films and it’s still my favourite, even now. I must have seen it 35 times. The more you see it, the more you learn about how extraordinary it is."
