When shooting two of his best films together made Spielberg angry
Steven Spielberg says filming two of his most memorable films of all time — Schindler’s List and Jurassic Park, simultaneously was a burden for him. Both films released in 1993, and transferring emotional weight from one film to the other would get tough.
The writer of both films was Steven Zaillian, who, Spielberg recalls, came up with the best draft of the holocaust drama at around the same time he was deep in production for Jurassic Park.
“It was the best draft [Zaillian] had written after multiple drafts. Kate (Spielberg’s wife) said, ‘You’re making this movie right now, aren’t you?’ And I said, “Yeah, right now’,” the 71-year-old filmmaker recalls. “I was making Jurassic park right now. That was the problem,” he adds. The prospect of shooting in the winter setting in Poland for Schindler’s List was enticing, and Spielberg wouldn’t let it go.
However, shooting two massive projects together wasn’t to be without its aftereffects. The concurrent filming built a “tremendous amount of resentment and anger” in him, which lasted until after the films released.
“When I finally started shooting… in Poland, I had to go home about two or three times a week and get on a very crude satellite feed to Northern California… to be able to approve T-Rex shots,” he says. “And it built a tremendous amount of resentment and anger that I had to do this, that I had to actually go from (Schindler’s List) to dinosaurs chasing jeeps, and all I could express was how angry that made me at the time,” he recalled.
Spielberg added winning seven Oscars for the 1993 film including the first of his two best director trophies - was a blur for him as he was so “moved” when the film’s producer Branko Lustig memorably discussed his Holocaust experience.
“That night wasn’t really a celebration at all. I don’t feel that this movie is a celebration. The subject matter and the impact the movie had on all of us… it took the celebration out of that,” he said of the 1994 Academy Awards ceremony.