Steven Spielberg confronts his childhood in The Fabelmans
Steven Spielberg finally turned the camera on his own childhood — from his parents’ troubled marriage to anti-Semitic bullying — in his new movie The Fabelmans, set for release in Thailand today.
Considered one of Hollywood’s greatest living directors, with classics from Jaws to E.T., Spielberg told a rapturous audience how he had long wanted to make such a deeply personal movie, but had eventually been motivated by the “fear” of the pandemic.
“I don’t think anybody knew in March or April of 2020 what was going to be the state of the art, the state of life, even a year from then,” said Spielberg.
“I just felt that if I was going to leave anything behind, what was the thing that I really need to resolve and unpack about my mum and my dad and my sisters?”
“It wasn’t now or never, but it almost felt that way,” added the 75-year-old.
The movie is technically semi-autobiographical, following young Sammy Fabelman and his family, although the parallels to Spielberg’s own life could hardly be more clear.
Like the real Spielberg, the Fabelmans move from New Jersey to Arizona and eventually California, with Sammy falling in love with filmmaking and honing his craft as a young director with the help of willing friends and improvised camera tricks.
“It was really using glue and spit, trying to figure out how to put things together,” recalled Spielberg after the film, which recreates many of the amateur movies he made as a teenager.
“I made all the behind-the-scenes stuff in this movie much better than the actual 8mm films I shot... it was a great do-over!”
While directing and filmmaking are a source of comfort and escapism for young Sammy, the movie tackles head-on his problems at home, including within the marriage of his parents — played by Michelle Williams and Paul Dano.
Another sequence recalls anti-Semitic taunts by two bullies at his California high school — a real-life incident Spielberg said he wanted to include in the film, without placing it centre stage.
“Bullying is only a small aspect of my life. Anti-semitism is an aspect of my life but it isn’t any kind of a governing force in my life,” he said. “It made me very, very aware of being an outsider growing up.”