Steven Spielberg Spent His Life Idolizing Alfred Hitchcock – But Then He Got Savagely Shut Down

Alfred Hitchcock and Steven Spielberg are indisputable giants of cinema. But did you know about the hidden tension that ruined their chances of friendship? You might’ve presumed the pair were buddies while Hitchcock was alive. After all, his classics such as The Birds and Psycho influenced fan-favorites like Jaws. But while Spielberg completely idolized Hitchcock, the feeling most certainly wasn’t mutual. The younger talent even tried to meet his hero several times. But the British director always shot him down – and he was pretty brutal about it, too.

Hollywood icon

Any filmmaker probably would have appreciated a few tips from Hitchcock – even one as talented as Spielberg. The former’s wizardry changed the face of Hollywood cinema forever, and his movies are still revered to this very day. If a director wants to make a film full of suspense, then turning to Hitchcock’s back catalogue is probably the first thing to do.

He was aware of his impact

That’s exactly what happened when Spielberg was making his soon-to-be classic Jaws, which came out in 1975. It’s fair to say that hints of Hitchcock hits such as The Birds and Psycho can be seen in Spielberg’s masterpiece. Also, the director himself was apparently well aware of Hitchcock’s influence on his movie.

An meeting of minds

As we know now, Jaws turned out to be a huge success. So, buoyed by the widespread adoration for his film, Spielberg decided that he’d like to meet his idol Hitchcock. The pair would have plenty to talk about, surely? But as things turned out, an encounter between these two legends would never materialize. And according to the audiobook Tales of Hollywood by Stephen Schochet, it was all down to Hitchcock.

He was escorted away

Despite Spielberg’s clear admiration, Schochet writes that Hitchcock had no desire whatsoever to meet with his filmmaking fan. When the Jaws director visited the set of one of Hitchcock’s movies, the older director went so far as to have him escorted away from the area! Evidently, he wanted absolutely nothing to do with Spielberg.

Keeping it blunt

In 2014 the actor Bruce Dern published a memoir in which he shed some light on what really happened. Apparently, Dern once confronted Hitchcock and asked why he was so adamant about not meeting Spielberg. The Rear Window director then responded to Dern – and he didn’t mince his words.

End of an era

This period in the mid-1970s when the failed meeting went down can be seen as symbolically significant. Hitchcock was working on his last movie Family Plot at the time, while Spielberg had just found huge success with Jaws. The latter, then, was taking up the mantle from Hitchcock – marking the end of one era in Hollywood history and the beginning of another.

Overlapping stars

There were differences in the ways that Hitchcock and Spielberg worked, but there was also definitely plenty of overlap. Many parallels can be drawn from the two directors – both in terms of their style and general careers. And without either of them, of course, cinema would look very different today.

Ambitious track record

Hitchcock directed 54 full-length movies over the course of a 52-year career. Though if we also counted other projects such as short films or TV shows, that number rises right up to 70. He was a prolific artist and released a new film roughly once a year. That’s a pretty impressive rate, right?

Prolific producer

Spielberg, meanwhile, kicked off his own directorial career in 1971 and has helmed over 30 films since. His movies are a little bit more spaced out than Hitchcock’s, but the younger talent is still active and his tally is always on the rise. Plus, he’s arguably more prolific as a producer than Hitchcock ever was.

Gotta start somewhere

Hitchcock’s first ever movie was a complete failure, as it didn’t even get finished. According to Stacker, the flick was either titled Mrs. Peabody or maybe Number 13. The project actually ran out of money during its production, so Hitchcock had to wait until 1925’s The Pleasure Garden before picking up his first directorial credit.

Before the big budgets...

Spielberg, meanwhile, completed his first feature-length flick in 1964, after he made Firelight on a budget of $400. This movie was something of practice run, of course, though it was actually shown in a local theater. Ten years after this, though, Spielberg was up and running with his first nationwide release: The Sugarland Express.

First full credit

Hitchcock and Spielberg were screenwriters at the start of their careers, but they both opted to drop that side of things later. The older director was more active than his younger counterpart as a writer – usually adapting novels into screenplays. He eventually totally concentrated his efforts on directing, though, with the 1931 film East of Shanghai marking his last full credit as a writer.

Final writing credit

Spielberg has written only four full screenplays – most of which were produced during his early days in the film industry. His last writing credit, however, came in 2001 with A.I. Artificial Intelligence. And according to Stacker, Spielbierg’s writing on this flick was the result of a vow he made to his peer: the late Stanley Kubrick.

Looking at the numbers

It should go without saying, of course, but both Hitchcock and Spielberg are extremely popular filmmakers. For an insight into this, we can take a look at their respective user scores on the movie database IMDb. Hitchcock hits an average of 7.0, while his younger counterpart does a little better with 7.3. Given how many films each man has made, they’re both extremely impressive figures.

The big-hitters

Everyone has their own favorite Hitchcock movie, and the same goes for Spielberg. But broadly speaking, certain flicks do tend to stand out more often than not. Hitchcock’s most popular hits as per IMDb are Psycho, Vertigo, Dial M for Murder, The Birds, North by Northwest and Rear Window respectively.

All iconic movies

Spielberg, for his part, might well have more classics under his belt than even Hitchcock did. IMDb notes that his most popular hits in descending order are Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler’s List and a couple of the Indiana Jones movies.

You win some, you lose some

It isn’t just audiences who have adored the respective artistic output of Hitchcock and Spielberg, mind you. Both directors have picked up a great deal of critical acclaim for their efforts. Naturally, the two men have directed movies that flopped, but generally speaking they’ve tended to do well with critics.

Acclaimed by the industry

All this critical acclaim is perhaps best exemplified by the huge number of industry awards that both Hitchcock and Spielberg have picked up. In terms of the Academy Awards, the latter is ahead with his movies taking in more than 130 nominations and winning over 30. Hitchcock’s films, meanwhile, received 50 nominations, but only six were won.

Hugely successful

Ultimately, then, Spielberg has had an unfathomably successful career that, in at least in terms of awards, has surpassed that of Hitchcock. But, of course, it wasn’t always so. There was a time when the younger director totally idolized his older counterpart. In a way, it could even be said that Spielberg owes his entire career to his hero.

Technical difficulties

That’s down to what happened during the making of Jaws, which wasn’t an easy experience. Perhaps the main issue was the mechanical shark that had been made for the film. Basically, it looked terrible. The thing wasn’t realistic or scary, so any shots of it would look awful in the movie. Spielberg – with his career dangling by a thread – had to get creative. So, he took inspiration from a master filmmaker.

He felt he had no choice

Spielberg has actually spoken about this moment in his life since. According to Mental Floss, the acclaimed director once remarked, “I had no choice but to figure out how to tell the story without the shark. So I just went back to Alfred Hitchcock, ‘What would [he] do in a situation like this?’... It’s what we don’t see which is truly frightening.”

Using an old technique...

By making Jaws around the idea of not seeing the shark, Spielberg saved his production and created a masterpiece. He’d tried to think like his idol Hitchcock and it had paid off. Jaws is now considered to be a classic – a movie that helped change the film industry forever.

New blockbusters await!

This latter distinction has less to do with the film itself and more to do with how it was marketed. Jaws was released in the summer of 1975, which was unusual for the time. Before that point, summer was considered a bad time for a movie to come out. Jaws changed that, and its huge success heralded a new era of summer blockbusters.

Marketing from the master

But without tense movies like The Birds or Psycho, maybe Spielberg wouldn’t have found a way to properly direct Jaws. His entire career may well have ended with that film’s poor performance – yet it didn’t. Spielberg instead became a legend who’s still adored today. Really, then, he owes a lot to Hitchcock.

What would have happened?

Perhaps that’s why Spielberg wanted to meet his idol so badly back in ’75 – in the wake of Jaws’ success. If they could chat, after all, then maybe he’d get the chance to tell Hitchcock how much films like The Birds had influenced his own work. But unfortunately for Spielberg, it never actually came to fruition.

Not a fan of being disturbed

The story goes that Hitchcock was directing what would turn out to be his last movie: Family Plot. According to Stephen Schochet’s book, Spielberg was near the set at this time, so he decided to call in to say hello. Hitchcock, though, was apparently perturbed by this unwanted visitor showing up to his place of work.

He wasn't playing

Schochet claims that Hitchcock was so annoyed by this young man appearing on his set that he took drastic action. The older director supposedly ordered a crew member to get rid of the intruder. And with that, Spielberg was escorted away from his idol without ever getting to meet him!

Truth or rumor?

It’s quite the story, right? But the tale does sound like the typical sort of rumor that might emerge from Hollywood. Having said that, people have spoken out to confirm whether the event really happened. According to actor Bruce Dern – who starred in a number of Hitchcock’s films – it’s all true.

Confirming the rumors

Dern might not be quite as famous as his daughter Laura, who took home an Oscar for best supporting actress in 2020 for the movie Marriage Story. Though he’s nonetheless sufficiently well-known that he published a memoir back in 2014. And it’s in this book that Dern confirms the story about Spielberg trying to meet Hitchcock.

An unexpected response

Writing in Things I’ve Said, But Probably Shouldn’t Have, Dern explained that he once asked Hitchcock why the director wouldn’t meet with Spielberg. The actor wrote of the exchange, “I said, ‘You’re his idol. He just [wants] to sit at your feet for five minutes and chat with you.’” The director’s response, it’s fair to say, was jarring.

Not one to mince words

According to Dern, Hitchcock replied with some blunt words. As the actor tells it, “He said, ‘Isn’t that the boy who made the fish movie? I could never sit down and talk to him... because I look at him and feel like such a whore.’” One imagines that wasn’t the response that Dern was expecting.

An interesting take

Dern pushed for an explanation from the British director. He wrote in his book, “I said, ‘Why do you feel Spielberg makes you a whore?’ Hitch said, ‘Because I’m the voice of the Jaws ride [at the Universal Studios theme park]. They paid me a million dollars. And I took it and I did it. I’m such a whore. I can’t sit down and talk to the boy who did the fish movie. I couldn’t even touch his hand.”

Parsing his words

So, what exactly was Hitchcock referring to here? Well, it’s not entirely clear. What we do know is that the director actually invested a lot of money into Universal Studios during his lifetime. Hitchcock had a clear connection to the company and therefore its theme park, but it isn’t certain that he recorded a voiceover that was used in the Jaws ride.

Voiceover work?

Hitchcock did shoot a video used to promote the Universal Studios Tour Hollywood – a ride that simulates a backstage experience of various movie sets. Maybe this is what the director was referring to when he was claiming to be ashamed of his voiceover work for the studio? After all, the ride does have a section dedicated to Jaws.

He did take the money, though

It appears that Hitchcock was deeply embarrassed by the fact that he took a huge sum of money in order to advertise a theme park ride. And as a result, he couldn’t even bear to meet Spielberg. If that’s really the case, then it’s sort of a compliment that Hitchcock didn’t want to see him. Only this wasn’t the first time that he’d dodged the younger director!

Slipping into the studio

It turns out that Spielberg had actually tried to meet Hitchcock before 1975, too. Back when he was just 16 years of age, he used to slip into the Universal lot in order to watch people filming. And one day he happened to be there as a legend was at work.

Thrown out

Spielberg once spoke about his adolescent habit of making his way onto the Universal lot to Entertainment Weekly. When the magazine pushed him to reveal if he’d ever seen anyone of note during one of his sneaky adventures, the director replied, “Hitchcock! But I got thrown off that set very quickly.”

Simple as that

Hitchcock was filming Torn Curtain at the time, and Spielberg had spotted him on set talking to star Julie Andrews. The younger director recalled, “I was on the Phantom of the Opera stage and they were far away. I had just come in through the back of the theater, and there were 500 extras in the seats. That’s when an AD [assistant director], or a second AD, maybe even a third AD – I got kicked off by a third AD! He said, ‘Why are you here,’ and I said, ‘I’m just here to watch,’ and he said, ‘No, this is a closed set.’ And that was the end of it.”

The "fish movie" paid off!

So, Spielberg had been trying to meet Hitchcock for a long time, but the talent never quite managed to do it. That must have hurt – given how much he clearly idolized the pioneering director. But in the end, “the boy who made the fish movie” did okay in the film business, so he can’t have too many regrets!