Steven Spielberg’s one-sided friendship with Stanley Kubrick: “I had such a phone bill”
Their approaches to filmmaking couldn’t have been more different, which is probably one of the major reasons why Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick shared such an affinity for each other, even if they were never going to be caught down at the local pub sinking a few pints and having a right good chinwag.
Kubrick’s incomparable contributions to cinema had always enthralled Spielberg, so he’d been a fan for years before they’d even crossed paths. The latter, meanwhile, was fascinated by the mercurial director who’d made a repeated habit of making history and pushing the medium to new commercial heights.
One was famed for their meticulous and painstaking approach to the craft that often came across as cold and calculating, whereas the other was known for wearing their heart on the sleeve, filling their features with sentimentality that regularly flirted with the mawkish and saccharine. What on earth would they have to talk about? Cinema, of course.
They existed at opposite ends of the emotional spectrum as professionals, but they were both among the all-time great auteurs. That at least gave them one solid commonality, even if Spielberg tended to do most of the work during their conversations. He indulged in hero worship, but Kubrick would never be caught dead fawning over another filmmaker, taking a more analytical approach to their bond.
What did Spielberg say about 2001: A Space Odyssey? “I came out the other end of that picture much higher than any of my friends who had taken mind-altering substances. I went in there clean as a whistle. And I came out of there altered myself.” Fair enough, because it’s one of the art form’s timeless masterpieces.
However, what did Kubrick say about 1941, to Spielberg’s face no less? “Saw your movie, 1941. It was great, but it wasn’t funny. You should have sold it as a drama.” That might not be the best example seeing as it was the first notable misfire of the director’s impeccable career, but it established a recurring theme nonetheless.
Schindler’s List? Kubrick reportedly said, “Think that was about the Holocaust? That was about success, wasn’t it? The Holocaust is about six million people who get killed. Schindler’s List was about 600 people who don’t.” Not quite an evisceration, but hardly an outpouring of praise and adulation, either.
When Kubrick decided he wasn’t interested in developing AI Artificial Intelligence, who did he pass it on to? Spielberg, of course, who only made it when the project’s originator passed away four years after it was bestowed to him, dedicated it to Kubrick in tribute and then faced unwarranted accusations that he’d butchered the maestro’s initial vision.
Why did Spielberg include a recreation of The Shining in his literary adaptation, Ready Player One? Because “the main living area with the grand fireplace in the Overlook is where I first encountered Stanley in 1979,” a meeting that he instigated when he discovered they were sharing soundstages during pre-production on Raiders of the Lost Ark.
In fact, Spielberg admitted to Total Film that he ended up footing the bill for their regular phone conversations, which ended up costing him a pretty penny. “We were always on the phone, sometimes once a week, sometimes once a day,” he recalled. “I paid for it because it was always collect calls! I had such a phone bill from 18 years of talking to Kubrick!”
Describing him as “the most famous brain drain of any man I’ve ever met,” Spielberg confessed that “most of our relationship was Stanley asking me questions, sucking my mind dry until he figured I had nothing left in the gas tank.” With saturation point having been reached, he’d promptly hang up the phone and go radio silent for weeks before beginning the cycle anew.
That’s not to say Spielberg was being taken for a ride or that Kubrick didn’t find his council to be valuable, but all worthy friendships are based on give and take. One of them ended up doing a lot more heavy lifting than the other, but Spielberg wouldn’t change that connection for the world.
