Steven Spielberg on Why He's Done With Action Movies and More
Over the weekend director Steven Spielberg did an interview on '60 Minutes' to talk about his life and filmmaking career. There was a lot of interesting stuff revealed such as; the fact that he's a nervous wreck when he's directing a movie, he was bullied in school, the movie he thought no one would see, and why he's not interested in making action movies anymore.
Here's what he had to say about all of these points during the interview.
On being a nervous wreck:
Lesley Stahl: You're a nervous wreck.
Steven Spielberg: Yeah, it's true.
Lesley Stahl: Is it a fear?
Steven Spielberg: It's not really fear. It's just much more of an anticipation of the unknown. And you know, the unknown could be food poisoning. It's just the kind of level of anxiety not being able to write my life as well as I can write my movies.
Lesley Stahl: What about a way to handle your fears?
Steven Spielberg: There's no better way than to tell a story about them and infect everybody else. Although, I'll tell you something, it doesn't get it off your chest. It doesn't.
Lesley Stahl: The fear comes right back again?
Steven Spielberg: Comes right back again like it belongs to you. I own my fear.
On being bullied:
Steven had trouble fitting in: he wasn't a good student, and wasn't good at sports. He was bullied.
Steven Spielberg: I was a nerd in those days. Outsider. Like the kid that played the clarinet in the band and orchestra, which I did.
Leah Adler: We lived in an all non-Jewish neighborhood. These people used to chant, 'The Spielberg's are dirty Jews.' And one night, Steve climbed out of his bedroom window and peanut buttered their windows, which I thought was marvelous.
Lesley Stahl: Do you remember what you did?
Steven Spielberg: I took Skippy peanut butter and smeared it all over their windows.... I guess right now we're beyond the statute of limitations, so I can't get sued for vandalism.
On the movie he never thought anyone would see:
Even Schindler's List about the Holocaust grew out of a decision by Spielberg to face down the anti-Semitism he grew up with in Phoenix.
Lesley Stahl: You never expected people to go see it, I heard.
Steven Spielberg: No. I didn't. That's why I shot it in black and white. I did everything I needed to do to tell the story the way I thought the story should be told, to give it as much integrity as I could, never expecting it to make a dollar.
But it did, and then some: it made 320 million. Spielberg won his first Oscars for Directing and Best Picture. And his career went to a whole new level.
On not being interested in action movies anymore:
Lesley Stahl: There's not a lot of action. There's no Spielberg special effects.
Steven Spielberg: Right.
Lesley Stahl: It's a movie about process and politics. Have you ever done a movie even remotely-
Steven Spielberg: Never. Like this?
Lesley Stahl: Not even close.
Steven Spielberg: Never. No. I knew I could do the action in my sleep at this point in my career. In my life, the action doesn't hold any-- it doesn't attract me anymore.
I guess he doesn't see a challenge in making action films anymore. I can understand that maybe he feels like he's burnt out on action, but then I think how awesome it would be for him to take action to a whole new level. If anyone can give us an action movie we've never seen before, it's Spielberg. It also doesn't seem to be stopping him from directing the adaptation of Robopocalypse, which seems like it will be a heavy action film. I wonder if he'll start to phase them out after.
The interview is 14 minutes long and you can watch it below! It also includes new footage from his next feature film Lincoln, and he also talks about things in his his personal life that you might find interesting. What do you think about Spielberg not being interested in making action movies anymore?