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45 years ago, almost to the day, summer movie season changed forever. Steve Spielberg and Universal Pictures released Jaws into theaters on June 20, 1975 and immediately made the entire industry rethink their strategy, essentially giving birth to the blockbuster movie as we know it today. Even after four and a half decades, Jaws remains one of the most beloved films in cinematic history, continuously praised for its ingenuity and suspense. However, there were those back in 1975 that didn’t believe Jaws would turn out to be anything special, including one of the film’s stars, Richard Dreyfuss.
The actor’s role as marine biologist Hooper is one of the most important in the entire film, but Dreyfuss couldn’t figure out what everyone was getting so excited about throughout production. That changed when the film was released and he saw the finished product. Talking with Yahoo! about Jaws for it’s 45th anniversary, Dreyfuss explained his initial reaction, as well as how drastically his mind changed.
“Everyone had thought that they had struck gold, and I said, ‘What are you talking about? It’s just a little movie,” Dreyfuss said. “And so when the film was released, I found myself going back to the talk shows and saying, ‘I’m the guy who didn’t believe in it.'”
During the interview, Dreyfuss also talked about a massive scare he had on set. At one point in Jaws, Hooper is lowered down into the water in a shark cage. While filming that scene, something happened with the device that supported the cage, and it sent Dreyfuss down into the water without any sort of technology to keep him safe.
“We were putting me into the cage and I had a line, which was, ‘I ain’t got no spit.’ And as I said it, the winch went [cracking noise] and the cage fell,” he said. “I was caught inside the cage, mask is gone, breathing apparatus is gone, the top of the cage is gone. And I have to not panic.”
How well do you think Jaws holds up? Are you still as big of a fan today as the day you first saw it? Let us know in the comments!
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