Steven Spielberg said he has no regrets about turning down the offer to helm the first Harry Potter film in 2001, because it enabled him to watch his children grow up.
The 76-year-old director, who previously revealed Covid inspired him to make The Fabelmans, had the chance to make Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the first movie in the wizarding franchise based on J.K. Rowling’s novels – but decided to bypass the opportunity to spend time with his family.
In a conversation for Reliance Entertainment with Indian director SS Rajamouli, the movie icon said: ‘There were several films I chose not to make. 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.’
The father of seven who shares son Max, 37, with his first wife Amy Irving, and kids Theo, 34, Sasha, 32, Sawyer, 30, Mikaela, 28, Destry, 26, and step-daughter Jessica Capshaw, 46, with wife Kate Capshaw said he needed to put his kids first.
He added: ‘So I’d sacrificed a great franchise, which today looking back I’m very happy to have done, to be with my family.’
No regrets: Steven Spielberg (L in January) said he has no regrets about turning down the offer to helm the first Harry Potter film, because it enabled him to watch his children grow up (R Daniel Radcliffe is pictured in The Sorcerer’s Stone
‘Kate and I started raising a family and we started having children. 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.’
The Sorcerer’s Stone was helmed by director Chris Columbus, earned three Oscar nominations and made young actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint international stars.
In 2012 Digital Spy reported the Schindler’s List director explained he knew the film would be a big hit.
‘I just felt that I wasn’t ready to make an all-kids movie, and my kids thought I was crazy. And the books were by that time popular, so when I dropped out, I knew it was going to be a phenomenon.’
Spielberg is currently nominated for three Academy Awards in connection with his latest release, The Fabelmans, including Best Director and Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.
This comes after Spielberg shared that his fears over the Covid-19 pandemic inspired him to make his latest film, The Fabelmans, which is based on his life.
‘I was terrified this was an end-of-days, and epic-level event, I mean an extinction-level event, that was happening to the world,’ the legendary movie director revealed in a new interview with the Daily Star.
He said his fear made him decide which movie he truly needed to make, in case it would his last one: ‘If I got the chance to make one more movie, it was going to be this story.’
Not ready: The father of seven explained his reasoning, ”I just felt that I wasn’t ready to make an all-kids movie, and my kids thought I was crazy. And the books were by that time popular, so when I dropped out, I knew it was going to be a phenomenon’
The Jaws director said, ‘By the time I had serious discussions about writing this, we’d lost 250,000 Americans to Covid.’
The filmmaker explained that he told his family that if there was going to be ‘one thing I was able to leave behind’ it would be that movie.
Spielberg added that like the rest of the world he was glued to watching different news outlets and following the trajectory of the pandemic.
‘All the experts that were coming out and the denial from the White House that this wasn’t so bad, it was just like a passing flu epidemic,’ he remembered.
‘I really thought were were not heading in a good direction and this was not going to end well for many of us. And that just got me thinking about telling a story that has been on my mind. All my life I’ve thought about this,’ he said.
The Fabelmans is a semi-autobiographical film. It details the dissolution of the marriage of Mitzi (Michelle Williams) and Burt Fabelman (Paul Dano) as seen through the eyes of Spielberg’s surrogate, played by Gabriel LaBelle.
Semi-autobiographical: Spielberg is currently nominated for three Academy Awards in connection with his latest release, The Fabelmans, including Best Director and Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay
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