How Richard Dreyfuss Landed JAWS Role After Spielberg Met with Jon Voight, Jeff Bridges, and More
Director Steven Spielberg initially didn’t think of casting Richard Dreyfuss in the role of Matt Hooper in his classic 1975 shark thriller Jaws. While Dreyfuss was perfect in the role, the filmmaker initially looked at casting the likes of Jon Voight, Timothy Bottoms, and Jeff Bridges.
During a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Spielberg opened up a lot about Jaws and how he originally thought of the film as a sequel to Duel. He also talked about what led him to cast Robert Shaw in the role of Quint. When talking about how Dreyfuss landed the role in the film, Spielberg said:
“Richard Dreyfuss was not my first choice either. I went to Jon Voight first, and he said no. I think we interviewed Timothy Bottoms as well as several other actors, including Jeff Bridges. I was a big fan of The Last Picture Show [1971]—I was going after everyone in the cast from that film, including Bottoms and Bridges. We got turned down or they weren’t available. These things happen all the time.”
He went on to say that Dreyfuss ended up in the movie because Spielberg was a fan of American Graffiti, and George Lucas recommended he use Dreyfuss:
“Richard Dreyfuss got the part because I loved [George Lucas’s] American Graffiti[1973]. George was the one who told me, ‘Why don’t you cast Ricky Dreyfuss?’ I sought a meeting with Richard, who said he was interested in seeing Jaws, but he wasn’t interested in being in it.”
It’s pretty crazy that Dreyfuss initially wasn’t interested in starring in the film! But, Spielberg wasn’t taking no for an answer. He was hell-bent on cast Dreyfuss in the role. He said:
“I was persistent, and [Jaws co-screenwriter] Carl Gottlieb, who knew Richard well, kept saying to him, ‘Come on, it will be fun.’ So, Richard accepted another meeting with me, and I talked him into it.”
Making a movie like Jaws does seem like it would be a ton of fun! But, as we all know, the production ended up being a nightmare for Spielberg. Regardless of how hard it was making the movie, Dreyfuss and the rest of the actors ended up giving amazing performances!