The “shattering” movie Steven Spielberg wishes he had directed
Let’s be real, Steven Spielberg really has no reason to be jealous of anyone.
In cinema, it feels especially unusual for someone to become a true titan of the industry while still alive, as often, it’s only in retrospect that their true greatness is appreciated. But in Spielberg’s case, he’s one of the rare names who has got his flowers while he’s still here to appreciate them.
In fact, Spielberg even got his flowers relatively young. He was only just in his 30s when he wrote his first real blockbuster, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and even younger when he directed the iconic Jaws. From then on, his run has been golden as he earned major respect in Hollywood young, and has really only grown it since.
If you need the ultimate example for that, look towards The Fabelmans. Not everyone could get away with directing a dramatised biopic of their own life, and even fewer could rope in David Lynch to play a role in it despite his complex relationship to acting. That alone is a glowing sign of Spielberg’s looming legacy and broad respect, and success.
Yet still, there is one movie Spielberg always wished he’d had a hand in, harbouring a slight jealousy towards the director who got to make it.
It’s quite a random one, as it’s not like the movie was a huge hit or was even all that iconic or well remembered, but Spielberg always wished he’d been involved in Philadelphia, not for the story so much, but simply because of Tom Hanks.
Hanks is one of Spielberg’s favourite players. That’s proven by the fact that they’ve worked together on five feature films, as he seems to consistently call Hanks back in as if he can’t imagine anyone better to take on some of his leading roles. It developed a sweet friendship between the two as well, and in the late 1990s, Spielberg was watching as Hanks prepped for his role in Philadelphia, which was directed by Jonathan Demme.
“Before we all took off for our movies, Tom cut all his hair off, so he brought his family over on the weekends to our beach house. And I’ve got videos of Tom with no hair with a baseball cap on,” Spielberg recalled as he spent time with the actor before they were both about to head off to work on different projects. “I knew the story, but hadn’t read the script,” he said, but from this vantage point, he could already see that Hanks was going to deliver something special, as he could see the focus and dedication.
Then, when the director went to the cinema to watch his friend, he found him basically unrecognisable. “When I went to see Philadelphia and forgot that I even knew this man. And saw one of the most noble statements I had seen in film,” he said as perhaps the ultimate compliment an actor could be given, as they were fully lost in their role.
He was jealous of not being a part of that most of all as he witnessed Hanks in what he believed to be his greatest performance. “That was one of the most shattering experiences I’ve had seeing a movie, when I knew the actor and then discovered that I didn’t know the character,” he said, adding, “The knowing of the actor didn’t knock down the fourth wall.”
