Steven Spielberg is afraid sharks might be 'mad at him' after Jaws

2022-12-18

Triple-Oscar winner Steven Spielberg reveals he’s afraid sharks might be ‘mad at him’ after Jaws and he still regrets the impact his legendary 1975 film had on the boom in shark hunting

Steven Spielberg’s Jaws was based on a 1974 novel by Peter Benchley
After its release in 1975, a hunting frenzy for sharks broke out
The director regrets the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film

Steven Spielberg promised cinema goers they would ‘never go in the water again’ after seeing his 1975 thriller Jaws.

But the director has now revealed that he’s also afraid to take a dip – because he believes sharks are ‘mad at him’ for the hunting frenzy that broke out in the wake of the film.

The triple-Oscar winner, interviewed for today’s BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs, said: ‘That’s one of the things I still fear. Not to get eaten by a shark but that sharks are somehow mad at me for the feeding frenzy of crazy sports fishermen that happened after 1975.

‘I truly and to this day regret the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film. I really, truly regret that.’

Triple-Oscar winner Steven Spielberg reveals he fears sharks might be ‘mad at him’ for the craze of sports fishermen that happened after his 1975 film Jaws

Jaws, based on a 1974 novel by Peter Benchley, was billed as ‘the most terrifying film ever made’. After its success, hunting for sharks became a popular sport, with competitions to catch the biggest or heaviest creature becoming regular events along the Atlantic coast of America.

The film was hailed by critics who noted that some of the scariest moments were when the shark didn’t appear.

The director said: ‘I truly and to this day regret the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film. I really, truly regret that’

Spielberg told Desert Island Discs host Lauren Laverne that many of these scenes were born out of necessity because the film’s mechanical shark kept breaking. He said: ‘It’s a much better movie that the shark kept breaking down because I had to be resourceful in figuring out how to create suspense and terror without seeing the shark itself.

‘It was just good fortune that the shark kept breaking. It was my good luck and I think it’s the audience’s good luck too because I think it’s a scarier movie without seeing so much of the shark.’

Desert Island Discs is on BBC Radio 4 today at 11.15am.

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