Michael Jackson’s favourite Steven Spielberg movies: “You feel loved in his films”
Finding out about Michael Jackson’s affinity for the motion pictures of Steven Spielberg makes perfect sense. After all, in the mid-1980s, when Jackson waxed lyrical about his favourite Spielberg movies, his public image had yet to be forever altered by the horrifying idea that his ‘eternal child’ persona might have had very sinister undertones. At this time, innocent parallels were drawn between the two as the most prominent faces from music and Hollywood refused to grow up, and collaboration seemed inevitable.
In 1985, Time magazine profiled Spielberg in an article that officially dubbed him “the world’s most successful picture maker.” The numbers were hard to argue with at that point, too, with ET the Extra-Terrestrial being the biggest movie ever made and Jaws fifth, while the first two Indiana Jones movies settled for seventh and eighth place. That meant half of the eight feature films Spielberg had made up to that point took pride of place in the list of the Top Ten highest-grossing movies in history.
At that moment, Jackson was effectively the Spielberg of music, with his 1982 album Thriller racking up the most sales of any LP in history while simultaneously giving birth to music videos as we know them today. Perhaps he recognised a kindred spirit in Spielberg, a man whose sole raison d’être seemed to be entertaining audiences.
“You feel loved in his films,” Jackson told Time. “Steven never sleeps, never rests at ease. Last year, during the Victory Tour, I was on vacation with him in the Hamptons. But instead of vacating like everybody else, he found a Betamax, and we made movies!”
Jackson explained that Spielberg showed him how to shoot underwater by putting a plastic bag around his camera, taping it up, and plunging it into his swimming pool. “I worked the lights,” Jackson smiled. “He is constantly creating, because making movies is like playing. He will always be young. I love Steven so much, it almost makes me cry. He inspires me more than anybody on earth today.”
What were Jackson’s favourite Spielberg movies, though? Which of his pictures spoke most directly to Jackson’s sense of childish wonderment? Which films did he watch over and over again to his heart’s content? Well, unsurprisingly, they’re the same ones most of us point to. “I must have seen ET around 40 times and Jaws a good hundred or so,” Jackson gushed.
In the ’80s, Jackson and Spielberg actually talked about turning Jackson’s fandom into a working relationship by collaborating on a movie. They had many conversations about the filmmaker’s planned Peter Pan adaptation, something Jackson – who named his own home ‘Neverland Ranch’ in honour of JM Barrie’s classic book – was desperate to be involved in. Unfortunately for him, though, by the time Spielberg got around to making his movie about the titular boy who wouldn’t grow up, it had morphed into a very different beast. In fact, ‘Peter Pan‘ wasn’t even the title anymore. Instead, it was called Hook.
“Michael had always wanted to play Peter Pan,” Spielberg admitted to Entertainment Weekly in 2011. “But I called Michael, and I said, ‘This is about a lawyer that is brought back to save his kids and discovers that he was once – when he was younger – Peter Pan.’ So, Michael understood at that point it wasn’t the same Peter Pan he wanted to make.”
Over the years, rumours abounded that Jackson was pretty upset by this snub and may have tried to put a curse on Spielberg – yes, really – but hey, at least he never stopped loving ET and Jaws. We hope.
