Steven Spielberg Decided to Shoot Movies Based on History Because of His Kids
Steven Spielberg started exploring history through his filmography with movies like Schindler’s List and Lincoln. This was a new direction he took his projects in thanks to his kids.
How having kids changed Steven Spielberg as a filmmaker
Spielberg went through a bit of a metamorphosis when he started his family. Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw share 7 kids together. Two of their children are ones that they brought over from previous marriages. They also have two adopted children, and three children who they share biologically. The filmmaker’s family didn’t just affect his personal life, but his professional life as well.
Before having kids, Spielberg mostly pulled from his creativity to craft his movies. Movies like Jaws and E.T. were products of his imagination. But overtime, Spielberg began to delve into more historical movies. According to an interview he did with Diamond Back, Spielberg’s children caused this slight shift in his storytelling.
“Well to begin with my imagination has always been my best friend especially when I was younger and making all those early movies. … But when I became a dad for the first time life took a very sort of serious turn and I just became concerned about something I was never concerned about which was the future of my children,” he said.
Spielberg’s passion for history, and his new obligations as a parent, inspired the director to revisit the past.
“When I started having kids it, it made me look ahead and then that forced me to look back ‘cause I’ve always loved history. I excelled in history at school probably not much else,” he said. “I was a good history student and history I’ve always said to my kids you, you can’t go forward unless you know where all of us collectively have been and so I’ve always had this interest in historical subjects, in biographies but I never really turned to that until I got serious about being a parent.”
Steven Spielberg didn’t want children before filming ‘E.T.’
Whereas his kids may have inspired some of Spielberg’s films, Spielberg’s films inspired the director to have kids. The Oscar-winner confided in an interview with Variety. that starting a family was once the furthest thing from his mind. Especially given how busy he was because of his directorial career.
“I didn’t want to have kids because it was not a kind of equation that made sense for me as I went from movie to movie to movie, script to script,” Spielberg said.
E.T. changed the director’s perspective entirely. Seeing as Spielberg was directing and guiding many child stars on set, he already felt like he took on the role of a parent.
“It never occurred to me till halfway through E.T. I was a parent on that film. I was literally feeling like I was very protective of Henry [Thomas] and Mike [McNaughton] and my whole cast, and especially Drew Barrymore, who was only 6 years old,” Spielberg said. “And I started thinking, ‘Well, maybe this could be my real life someday.’ It was the first time that it occurred to me that maybe I could be a dad. And maybe in a way, a director is a dad, or a mom … I really felt that that would be my big production.”
Steven Spielberg turned down the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise because of his kids
The Harry Potter series could’ve been another blockbuster Spielberg added to his resume. But the filmmaker rejected the film due to his own familial obligations.
“They offered me Harry Potter and I chose to turn down the first Harry Potter to basically spend the next year and a half with my family, my young kids growing up,” Spielberg said according to Insider.
Despite how successful the wizard movies were, the director had no regrets on passing up the franchise.
“So, I sacrificed a great franchise — which today looking back I’m very happy to have done — to be with my family. The choice I had to make in taking a job that would move me to another country for four of five months where I wouldn’t see my family every day,” he said.
