Steven Spielberg Felt His Biggest Contribution to ‘Indiana Jones’ Was Sean Connery
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas worked together to develop the highly successful Indiana Jones franchise. But Spielberg has always asserted that Indiana Jones is Lucas’ story first. However, he did take credit for making one small contribution to the franchise.
Steven Spielberg once took credit for this ‘Indiana Jones’ idea
Spielberg has been very loyal to Lucas when it comes to the Indiana Jones movies. Although a team effort, Lucas initially came up with the idea. And Spielberg simply did his best to bring Lucas’ ideas to life, even if he didn’t agree with them. The filmmaker wasn’t a huge fan of the direction Lucas wanted to take in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, for instance. But he acquiesced to his friend’s instincts.
“I am best friends with George and I’m very obedient to the stories that he writes. I’ll fight things I don’t believe in but, ultimately, if George wants to bring inter-dimensional beings into Crystal Skull, I will do the best job I possible can to acquit George’s idea and make him proud,” Spielberg once told Entertainment Weekly (via Games Radar).
But if there was one idea Spielberg was proud to come up with, it was the inclusion of the former James Bond actor in the franchise.
“My biggest contribution was adding the father to the third movie,” Spielberg said. “That was my idea to cast Sean Connery as Harrison’s father.”
Spielberg felt focusing on the relationship between Indiana Jones and his father introduced another layer to The Last Crusade.
“The dad thing was my idea,” he said in an interview with Empire. “The Grail doesn’t offer a lot of special effects and doesn’t promise a huge physical climax. I just thought that the Grail that everybody seeks could be a metaphor for a son seeking reconciliation with a father and a father seeking reconciliation with a son. It also gave me a chance to suggest Sean Connery. Who else but Bond could have been worthy enough to play Indiana Jones’ dad?”
Sean Connery was initially supposed to play a Yoda-like figure in ‘Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade’
Connery’s character in The Last Crusade, Henry Jones, didn’t have the best relationship with his son. But initially, their dynamic was supposed to be a lot warmer. Harrison Ford once explained why Connery’s role changed in the movie.
“There were some other thoughts. There was an early concept of Indiana’s father as a wise old Yoda type. I don’t think that would have worked as well as having somebody of the strength of Sean,” Ford said.
The late Connery agreed with this approach.
“They had to be very sure what they were going for,” he said. “A more academic-type casting would have been somebody like Gregory Peck, but you needed somebody that Harrison could bounce off. Henry had to be something pretty special to produce Indy. Also, he had to be something different. When Indy says, ‘You never talked to me,’ I say, ‘Well, you weren’t interesting until you were 19.’ Which is right below the belt but probably right on the nose.”
“It was an emotional story but I didn’t want to get sentimental. Their disconnection from each other was the basis for a lot of comedy. And it gave Tom Stoppard, who was uncredited, a lot to write. Tom is pretty much responsible for every line of dialogue,” Spielberg added.
Why Sean Connery didn’t return for ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’
Connery was enjoying acting retirement when Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came around. Still, he briefly considered coming out of retirement to reprise his role as the father. But Connery didn’t like what they had in store for him in the movie.
“I spoke with Spielberg, but it didn’t work out,” Connery once said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “It was not that generous a part, worth getting back into the harness and go for. And they had taken the story in a different line anyway, so the father of Indy was kind of really not that important. I had suggested they kill him in the movie, it would have taken care of it better.”
