The Steven Spielberg movie disrupted by the KKK: “I can say only that I had the feeling of waiting”
Having endured one of the most notoriously difficult productions in Hollywood history, Steven Spielberg would have been well within his rights to assume that he’d weathered the most unexpected obstacles he’d face in his career, until one of his movies ran afoul of the Ku Klux Klan.
The filmmaker may have thought that a faulty mechanical shark nicknamed Bruce would be the most troublesome hurdle he’d have to leap over, but he didn’t account for angry racists. Nobody should, really, but they proved to be so disruptive that one of Spielberg’s actors was forced to flee for their own safety.
As was to be expected of his immediate follow-up to Jaws, the highest-grossing movie ever made, one of the most industry-shaking releases of all time, an instant classic, a three-time Academy Award winner, a ‘Best Picture’ nominee, and arguably still his magnum opus, expectations were through the roof for what came next.
Spielberg chose to aim even higher, writing the screenplay for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a big-budget sci-fi adventure that saw him channel his love of the genre on his biggest canvas yet. Jaws was supposed to be a one-off, in terms of being a fucking nightmare, but his next film followed a similar pattern.
With Columbia Pictures experiencing financial difficulties at the time, the blockbuster costing almost $20 million, much more than Spielberg had claimed it would, didn’t sit well with the top brass. The director called it “twice as bad and twice as expensive” to make as Jaws, matters that weren’t helped by new scenes constantly being added after he’d been struck by a burst of sudden inspiration.
François Truffaut, making a rare acting appearance in an American production, grew increasingly exasperated with the constant thumb-twiddling. “I never really tried to figure out what my role meant,” he told Time. “I know I was there a lot, but like Greta Garbo, I can say only that I had the feeling of waiting.”
Melinda Dillon was in the same boat, accusing Spielberg of “forever screwing up schedules like a whirlwind” by tinkering with Close Encounters. Some of the hold-ups and delays were his fault, but the KKK? That was an entirely different matter, all because Richard Dreyfuss gave an interview to a newspaper.
Speaking to a local outlet in Alabama, where the majority of location shooting took place, the actor dared to speak ill of the Klan, as anyone who’s not a bigot is wont to do. Taking it personally, the organisation issued a death threat in the direction of the picture’s leading man, which necessitated him being removed from the state for two weeks as a precaution.
Thanks to the KKK, a tricky shoot became even trickier when Spielberg was forced to shoot around Dreyfuss’ absence for a fortnight, all because he’d dared to insult them in a local paper. It was the right thing to do, since they literally threatened his life, but it was nothing if not an unlikely speedbump that Close Encounters had to navigate its way around.
