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Spielberg Thought He’d ‘Never Get Hired Again’ While Filming Iconic Movie

The film was over budget, behind on schedule, and he was called a “liability.”

Steven Spielberg thought his career in movies was over halfway through making Jaws, he said while speaking at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on Wednesday. The multiple Oscar-winning director recalled how during filming he was labeled a “liability” as he spoke ahead of a new Jaws-themed exhibit at the museum. “I thought my career was virtually over halfway through production,” he said. “Everybody was saying to me, ‘You are never going to get hired again.’ ‘This film is way over budget, way over schedule and you are a real liability as a director.’” Spielberg said he decided to give the 1975 box-office hit his all, since he believed he would not be “working in the industry again after they see the movie.” Spielberg, now 78, was only 26-years-old at the time of filming, and claimed, back in June, that after the film wrapped, he believed he had a heart attack. “I couldn’t breathe, I thought I was having a heart attack. I couldn’t get a full breath of air,” he said. “I kept going to the bathroom and splashing water on my face. I was shaking. I was out of it—completely out of it.” He was given multiple chances by executives to walk away from the horror hit that gave him “consistent nightmares” for years, and for the film to be shut down entirely. Spoiler alert: he did not. “The film certainly cost me a pound of flesh, but gave me a ton of career,” he said. Jaws, Spielberg’s second film, earned over $475 million at the box office and won three Oscars.