Director Steven Spielberg revealed that one of the ways he survived making the film Schindler’s List was with the help of comedian Robin Williams .
We all need some help from our friends every now and then, especially when things are tough and we need a little laugh to get our minds off of it all. Celebrities aren’t any different, except sometimes the friend they get to turn to is one of the most beloved comedians of all time.
‘Schindler’s List’ is widely agreed to be one of the best movies of all time.
The 1993 film was based on the real story of Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who saved the lives of more than a thousand Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust. The film is emotionally heavy to watch, and the process of filming was equally as hard on director Steven Spielberg, who recently revealed one of the ways he survived the process.
It involved a weekly call from Robin Williams.
Spielberg and Robin worked together on the film Hook , and Spielberg revealed that Robin helped him out during the filming of Schindler’s List . “Robin knew what I was going through, and once a week, Robin would call me on schedule and he would do 15 minutes of stand-up on the phone,” he said . “I would laugh hysterically, because I had to release so much.”
Spielberg shared that Robin ended the calls exactly how you would imagine.
“The way Robin is on the telephone, he’d always hang up on the loudest, best laugh you’d give him,” Spielberg said. “He’d never say goodbye, just hang up on the biggest laugh.”
The filming process was made even more difficult by the fact that Jurassic Park was in post-production at the same time.
“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,” Spielberg revealed.
“It built a tremendous amount of resentment and anger that I had to do this, that I had to actually go from [the emotional weight of ‘Schindler’s List’] to dinosaurs chasing jeeps, and all I could express was how angry that made me at the time.”
We’re so glad that he had Robin’s help to get him through it!
h/t: Indiewire
Last Updated on July 7, 2022 by Rae Batchelor