Steven Spielberg said after his hit movie Jaws that “he really regrets” “the decline in the number of sharks”.
The story is a classic movie, but unfairly demonized sharks in the eyes of many, leading to the rise of sport fishing in America.
Spielberg He was asked on the BBC’s Desert Islands record how he would feel if there were real sharks on his island.
“It’s one of the things I’m still afraid of,” he said.
“It’s not being eaten by sharks, it’s the frantic sport of fishermen that happened after 1975 that makes sharks mad at me.”
He added: “To this day, I still regret that the book and the movie caused the shark population to plummet. I really, really regret it.”
Peter Benchley, the author of the “Jaws” novel, also talked about his regrets.
“What I know now, what I didn’t know when I wrote Jaws, is that there’s no such thing as a rogue shark that would generate an interest in human flesh,” he said in a 2000 interview.
Spielberg, 75, ranks “Jaws” as one of his most successful blockbusters, along with such films as “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Jurassic Park” and “Alien.”
His latest semi-autobiographical film, The Fabelmans, follows an aspiring filmmaker boy in postwar America.
The success of ‘Jaws’ made Spielberg a superstar director
He joked on Desert Island Discs that it was “$40 million therapy,” adding: “I don’t really know what I’m doing other than I’m getting my needs met.
“Being an orphan, or recently orphaned by the loss of both parents, to somehow rediscover those memories seemed unforgiving for an actor I really respected. So there was a time when I was nervous.”
“Probably the biggest difficulty I had with this film was not getting emotional,” he said.
“But there are times when it’s out of my control.”
Spielberg’s new movie is The Fabelmans.Image: Amblin Entertainment/Universal Studios
The film is set to be released in late January and stars Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen and Gabrielle Labelle.
Spielberg said it was “absolutely right” to see him as a “sentimental and nostalgic” person.
He added: “I think there’s even more nostalgia than sentimentality, but I’m never mad unless someone says it ruined their movie… I don’t like that.”