13 Jaws Behind-The-Scenes Stories

To many, the best scene in Jaws is Quint's haunting monologue about surviving the sinking of the USS Indianapolis.The best scene in Jaws is Quint's haunting monologue about surviving the sinking of the USS Indianapolis.JawsQuint delivers a haunting monologue about surviving the sinking of the USS Indianapolis.IndianapolisQuint survives the sinking of the USS Indianapolis during WWII, fighting sharks for days while floating for rescue. Peter Benchley's novel and early screenplay drafts lacked this scene. Playwright Howard Sackler told Spielberg he needed an explanation for Quint's "biblical vengeance against sharks" and suggested placing the Indianapolis in Quint's backstory.IndianapolisQuint's backstory.

Spielberg liked the idea and asked his friend John Milius, future director of films like Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn, to write the speech.Conan the BarbarianandRed DawnMilius, a hyper-masculine, self-consciously Hemingway-esque person, fit the task. Spielberg said Milius "wrote a brilliant 8-page soliloquy about the sinking of the Indianapolis."Indianapolis.

The scene was too long. Shaw, a playwright himself, reworked it, cutting it to five pages. Spielberg stated, "The speech in the movie is basically Shaw’s version of Milius’s version of Sackler’s version."

Some say success in Hollywood depends on attending the right parties. This story supports that common wisdom.

When casting Jaws, Spielberg considered several actors for Brody, most of whom were unknown. The studio pushed for a more famous star, but Spielberg could not find anyone he liked initially.JawsSpielberg considered many actors for Brody, most unknown. The studio pushed for a known star, but Spielberg first...Then, I remember going to a party one night, and Roy Scheider, whom I loved from The French Connection, came and sat down next to me and said, 'You look awfully depressed.' I told him, 'Oh no, I’m not depressed. I’m just having trouble casting my movie.' He asked what the film was - I explained it was based on a novel called Jaws and told him the entire plot. At the end of it, Roy said, 'Wow, that’s a great story! What about me?'The director said:

Roy Scheider came to a party and sat next to me. I loved him from The French Connection.The French ConnectionRoy Scheider sat next to me at a party and said, 'You look awfully depressed.' I told him, 'Oh no, I’m not depressed. I’m just having trouble casting my movie.' He asked what the film was, and I explained it was based on a novel called Jaws and told him the entire plot. At the end, Roy said, 'Wow, that’s a great story! What about me?'Roy Scheider sat next to me at a party and said, 'You look awfully depressed.' I told him, 'Oh no, I’m not depressed. I’m just having trouble casting my movie.' He asked what the film was, and I explained it was based on a novel called Jaws and told him the entire plot. At the end, Roy said, 'Wow, that’s a great story! What about me?'Roy Scheider sat next to me at a party and said, 'You look awfully depressed.' I told him, 'Oh no, I’m not depressed. I’m just having trouble casting my movie.' He asked what the film was, and I explained it was based on a novel called Jaws and told him the entire plot. At the end, Roy said, 'Wow, that’s a great story! What about me?'

Many of Jaws's most memorable scenes build tension. Steven Spielberg included a couple of jump scares. One happens while Hooper swims around Ben Gardner's boat at night. Hooper sees Gardner's severed head drift out of the wreckage.Jaws's most memorable scenes build tension. Steven Spielberg included a couple of jump scares. One happens while Hooper swims around Ben Gardner's boat at night. Hooper sees Gardner's severed head drift out of the wreckage.

The scene originally filmed at Martha's Vineyard. Spielberg saw during a Dallas test screening that the audience reacted quietly. This contrasted with the large reaction to a later scene where the shark appears while Chief Brody feeds the water.

Spielberg decidedhe could reshoot the Gardner sceneto make it more shocking:

[T]he executives were happy, the audience loved the movie, we were all happy. But I was greedy, and I said, 'There is one more scream we can get in this movie, if I can figure out this thing with Ben Gardner’s head.'

The studio was thrilled with the film but offered no more money. So, I spent three thousand dollars of my own cash. I had the art department build Ben Gardner's boat side from balsa wood, matching the previous shot. We cut a hole, used the same head, and filmed it with a double for Richard Dreyfuss in my editor Verna Fields' swimming pool.

Spielberg got the timing right after filming it several ways and experimenting with the edit. Spielberg said, “That moment got a huge scream, way bigger than the one with the shark coming out of the water in the Dallas preview.”

Lee Fierro has a small but memorable part inJawsShe is Alex Kintner's mother, who becomes the shark's second victim. Dressed in mourning clothes, she slaps Chief Brody, telling him he allowed the beaches to stay open after the first victim was found. Brody sees he gave in to Mayor Vaughn's (Murray Hamilton) political pressure and decides to improve things.

Fierro recalled the scene needed multiple takes from different angles.Lee Fierro, who plays Mrs. Kintner, slapped Roy Scheider seventeen times.She did this in one day.

[W]e had to review it repeatedly. Once, I hit him so hard his glasses fell off, and I broke character, saying, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry!’ Steve [Spielberg] said, ‘Don’t be sorry, it was wonderful!’

After one take, the crew applauded Fierro's performance. She recalled, “It was sweet… I never expected it.”

Robert Shaw drank a lot and often consumed alcohol during theJawsAs theHis son, Ian, recalled.:

I think that generation, especially working-class actors like Richard Burton, felt some awkwardness about the job regarding tights and makeup. They showed their masculinity by being heavy drinkers, a Viking way to prove themselves.

Robert Shaw himself spoke in an on-set interview whileJaws was being filmed.he admitted that alcohol helped him handle the filmmaking boredom. When asked how he managed long waits, Shaw answered, “Scotch, vodka, gin, whatever… No, we all have different ways. I tend to drink when totally bored.”

Roy Scheideradded, about the famousIndianapolis monologue where Quint talks about being stuck in the ocean with hundreds of sharks:

Robert was an alcoholic and needed supervision on certain days. That is a hard [monologue] Shaw delivers. Some parts of that speech show him being absolutely ripped. This was shot over two or three days.

Some shots from Shaw's drunken performance were used, but generallythey were not good enough.. Spielberg said, “He really couldn’t do it that day.” The next day, he came in sober and nailed it. To Dreyfuss, the first day shooting the scene was “the longest day of our lives.”

On March 26, 1975,A preview of Jaws.JawsThe film showed at the Medallion theater in Dallas, TX. Spielberg watched the audience's reaction.

After Alex Kintner was devoured by the shark, an audience member stood up to leave.Spielberg recalled:

I thought,Oh my God. Our first walkout.Then he started running and I went,Oh, no, he’s not walking out—he’s running out.I saw he headed for the bathrooms, but he failed to make it and threw up all over the floor. I just went,Oh my God, what did I do? What kind of movie did I make? A man barfed because of my film.But the good news was, about five minutes later, he returned to his seat.

JawsJohn Williams scored Jaws, making it the second Steven Spielberg film he scored after his first theatrical feature,The Sugarland ExpressThe two worked together on twenty-nine films total.Twenty-nine filmsthroughout their careers.

As a temp track while editingJaws, Spielberg used music from Williams's score for the 1972 Robert Altman filmImages. But Williams found that music did not fit Jaws. The music forJaws needed to be “primal.” This idea sparked the film's famous, two-note theme.

Spielbergrememberedhearing the theme for the first time as Williams played it on the piano:

I expected something weird and melodic, tonal but eerie—maybe something for the shark underwater. Instead, he played me with two fingers on the lower keys, ‘Dun dun, dun dun, dun, dun, dun…’ At first, I laughed—I thought he was putting me on it. It seemed too simple. He said, ‘That’s the theme forJaws!’ I asked him to play it again, and it suddenly sounded right.

The second half ofJawstakes place entirely on Quint's boat, theOrca, and it was filmed on the open sea, not a studio tank. Since there were no Steadicams or other stabilizers then, and a tripod would make the footage choppy like the ocean, camera operation options were few. Ascinematographer Bill Butler explained:

[T]he old-fashioned way to shoot water scenes used a gimbal—it weighs about 400 pounds, it is very awkward, but it keeps the camera level on the ship. Still, it is too clumsy for how we film today. So I chose to handhold the camera… using my knees and body to take the film roll.

Michael Chapman operated the camera, who later filmed movies likeTaxi DriverandRaging Bull. Hedescribedthe camera work on Jaws as “just a joy.” Spielbergalso calledJaws“probably the most expensive handheld movie ever made.”

“The shark” inJawsThe production used three life-size sharks, all from the same mold. One shark was set to be towed. The other two sharks connected to a crane on the ocean floor. Martha's Vineyard offered an ideal spot. Even far out to sea with no land in sight, the ocean remained shallow.A fourth shark was made.This shark was not used in the production; it is the only one that survives.

During filming, the crew started calling the mechanical shark (or sharks) “Bruce.”This name honored Spielberg's lawyer, Bruce Ramer.Bruce Ramer. Years later, Ramer quipped, “They never paid me a royalty - that's all I know.”

Decades later, the joke moved to another film, the 2003 movie.Finding Nemo.This film features a shark named Bruce.A shark named Bruce..

Technical problems during filming the second half on the Orca caused issues.The Orca.The production process for Jaws ran over schedule.Jaws.It became an ordeal. Nobody knew when it would end. Spielberg recounted this.Spielberg recounted this.On the sixtieth day of shooting, crew members asked him, ‘When will this movie be done?’ Spielberg replied, ‘I don’t know. I could finish it if I got fired, if someone replaced me who could finish fast. Or maybe they will shut us down.’ Most crew members were happy about being fired or the show stopping. This was not a labor of love. It was a physical impossibility, and people wanted to go home.

Spielberg recounted this.

Spielberg pushed to finish the film because he feared it would end his blockbuster career if he did not.

I never left the island because I knew I would never return. Yet, I never wanted to quit. I had awful, despairing days seeing no one hire me again. I pictured Jaws being my last studio movie.Jaws.I thought I would make independent films if I could get money to finance a small movie with four people playing cards.

As Jaws began filming,Jaws.A weird dynamic developed between Robert Shaw, a large, British, aggressively masculine, larger-than-life personality, and the shorter, American, less athletic Dreyfuss.A weird dynamic developed between Robert Shaw, a large, British, aggressively masculine, larger-than-life personality, and the shorter, American, less athletic Dreyfuss.Shaw seemed driven to mess with Dreyfuss every chance he had, perhaps due to character tension. Robert Shaw was large, British, aggressively masculine, and larger-than-life. Dreyfuss was shorter, American, and less athletic.

Roy Scheider saw this as a lack of respect. To Shaw, Dreyfuss was an upstart who wanted movie stardom without earning it in the theater business. Scheider recalled, “He really thought Dreyfuss needed a slapping down. Young punk with no stage experience.”

Dreyfuss recalled:

Privately, he was the kindest, gentlest, funniest person you met. Then, walking to the set, some evil troll possessed him, making him my victim.

Shaw constantly provoked Dreyfuss. Shaw insulted him, called him fat, and said things like, “mind your mannerisms” right before filming began. Spielberg said Shaw also dared Dreyfuss into reckless actions.

Robert would make Richard take a risk. For example, Robert would say, ‘I’ll give you a hundred bucks if you climb to the top of the mast on the..."Orcaand jump off."

Dreyfuss got tired. One day, he grabbed a glass of bourbon from Shaw's hand and threw it off the boat. Shaw then retaliated by hitting him hard. Spielberg recalled, “It got ugly.”

The Shaw/Dreyfuss fight became a main part of the 2019 play.The shark is broken, written by and starring Shaw's son, Ian. Dreyfuss felt the play did not capture their relationship accurately.Dreyfuss argued, “That was not a feud. A feud lasted forever. We never had bad feelings between us, ever.”“That was not a feud,” Dreyfuss argued. “A feud went on forever. We never had any bad feeling between us, ever.”

Two versions of the Orca actually existed.One Orca was a boat production designer Joe Alves redressed for more character. The other boat was specially designed to sink partially for later scenes where the boat goes under.One boat used in Jaws got redressed by production designer Joe Alves for character. Another boat was built to sink partially for later scenes.

One time, the Orca...Orca causing a brief panic among cast and crew. Spielberg recalled:The Orca caused a brief panic among cast and crew. Spielberg recalled:

The actors asked for boats to get them off the Orca. Meanwhile, sound mixer John Carter, who later won an Oscar for his work in Jaws, held his expensive Nagra tape recorder over his head to stop it from sinking. He said, “F*ck the actors, save the sound department!”OrcaOne of the most common Jaws stories claims the mechanical shark never worked, causing production trouble. There is some truth to this, but other issues existed with the shoot—especially the bad weather and objects drifting on the open sea before a shot finished.

Actors asked for boats to move off the Orca. Sound mixer John Carter, who later won an Oscar for his work in...JawsHe held his expensive Nagra tape recorder over his head to stop it from sinking. He said, “F*ck the actors, save the sound department!”

The film magazine sank. Spielberg worried the day's work would vanish. Cinematographer Bill Butler knew film emulsion is salty like seawater. He stored it in salt water buckets and sent it to the lab. The footage developed fine.

Many people tell the story that the mechanical shark never worked, causing the production endless trouble. Some truth exists here, but other issues happened on the shoot—especially bad weather and objects drifting away before a shot finished.

Steven Spielberg admitted he...may have overstatedhow much the shark failed:

It was frustrating and hard for everyone. I got angry and blamed the shark. It rarely worked, making it an easy target. Still, it worked well enough that we got the biggest hit ever for a time. I owe the shark much more than I want to take away now. I also owe Bob Mattey, the special-effects technician who built the mechanical sharks, and his team an apology and thanks.

The shark having problems affected other members of the JawsThe Jaws cast sees it as a blessing. “What really helped us was that the shark didn't work, so you had to rely on character,” they said.Jeffrey Kramer said this.Roy Scheider played Deputy Hendricks.echoed this feeling.He said this in an interview:

A lucky thing happened on that film: the shark failed! This gave us weeks and weeks to shoot, polish, improvise, discuss, enrich, develop, and experiment with the other [non-shark] scenes that usually get only a quick look in a movie like that.

It is not surprising that actors are happy about a situation that gives them more time to rehearse and maybe more time on camera.