Chantal Anderson for The New York Times
In making his autobiographical film “The Fabelmans,” Spielberg confronted painful family secrets, as well as what it means to be Jewish in America today.
Merie Weismiller Wallace/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment
On casting ‘The Fabelmans’
“It became much, much harder, and I needed to know them in a different way. I needed to already have felt, Oh, something about her reminds me of Mom, and there’s something about him that reminds me of Dad. So, that limited the playing field.”
Merie Weismiller Wallace/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, via Associated Press
On his mother, Leah Adler
“She was so much more peer than parent that my three sisters even from a very young age refused to call her Mom or Mommy and only called her Lee, her first name. I’m the only one that called her Mom or Mama.”
Eric Liebowitz/FX, via Associated Press
On Michelle Williams in ‘Fosse/Verdon’
“I realized, Oh, my God, she can really step far away from everything I’ve ever seen her do to completely reinvent herself through a character, and that gave me tremendous encouragement.”
Chantal Anderson for The New York Times
“Being Jewish in America is not the same as being Jewish in Hollywood. Being Jewish in Hollywood is like wanting to be in the popular circle and immediately being accepted.”
Chantal Anderson for The New York Times
On therapy
“Movies, and my relationship with Kate and my kids and my closest friends and with the stories I choose to tell, that has probably been as therapeutic as anything I could have done in Freudian or Jungian therapy.”
Valerie Macon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
“I don’t watch a lot of my movies with audiences, but my wife said, ‘You have to watch “The Fabelmans” at Toronto. We can sit in the back row, but you have to watch once.’ And it was a great experience.”