Steven Spielberg is one of the best to ever step behind the camera. Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones franchise, and Catch Me If You Can are some of his movies for which he has received numerous accolades.
Spielberg’s films are exciting, open-hearted, and not limited to a few genres. His vision explores themes from childhood wonder to the dissolution of the nuclear family, where ordinary people are shoved into extraordinary situations and win over hate. Besides this, there are plenty of reasons why he’s an acclaimed director in the Hollywood industry.
Every actor looks up to working with the director at least once, but there is someone who rejects him — the one who’s popularly known as the ‘Master of Suspense’ for his use of innovative film techniques in thrillers. He is someone from whom Spielberg took his cues.
Someone Who Surprisingly Refused to Meet Steven Spielberg
The person who rejected Spielberg is but one of the best auteurs of all time, Alfred Hitchcock. He is the major source of inspiration to Steven Spielberg (known for creating the best iconic movies of today).
Surprisingly, Spielberg never got to meet his hero. Before Hitchcock died in 1980, Spielberg tried to meet him plenty of times, even on the set of Hitchcock’s final movie, Family Plot, which came in 1976, but the old director refused to meet the young Jaws filmmaker.
In Stephen Schochet’s 2001 audiobook Tales of Hollywood, it’s mentioned that Alfred Hitchcock was annoyed by a young man on his movie set, who turned out to be Spielberg and was promptly removed from the sets of Family Plot.
The Reason Behind Alfred Hitchcock’s Unpected Rejection of Meeting Steven Spielberg
The reason why Hitchcock refused to meet Spielberg was only disclosed in Bruce Dern’s 2007 autobiography. Dern revealed that he tried to convince Hitchcock to meet the director of Jaws. Actor Bruce Dern worked with Hitchcock on Marnie (1964) and Family Plot (1976), and said to Hitchcock:
“I said, ‘You’re his idol. He just [wants] to sit at your feet for five minutes and chat with you’,” Dern wrote, stating that Hitchcock flat-out refused. “Hitchcock said, ‘Isn’t that the boy who made the fish movie? I could never sit down and talk to him…because I look at him and feel like such a whore.’”
Dern continued in his book Bruce Dern: A Memoir:
“I said, ‘Why do you feel Spielberg makes you a whore?’ Hitch said, ‘Because I’m the voice of the Jaws ride. They paid me a million dollars. And I took it and I did it. I’m such a whore. I can’t sit down and talk to the boy who did the fish movie. I couldn’t even touch his hand.’”
Hitchcock and Spielberg have strong ties to Universal Studios Hollywood tour and theme park. Hitchcock invested in Universal, while Spielberg earns $30 million annually from these parks.
Source: The Digital Flix
