Steven Spielberg disowned Hook - ‘I didn’t have confidence in it’
STEVEN SPIELBERG hit out at his 1991 movie Hook by saying he felt "insecure" when he was shooting it. To make matters worse, the director also had an ongoing feud with star Julia Roberts during filming.
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In 1991 legendary director Spielberg took on a new adaptation of the iconic fairy tale character Peter Pan. In his adaptation, Hook, the director continued the story of Peter after he had grown up and moved away from Neverland. While the film has become a cult hit since its release 30 years ago, Spielberg previously revealed he wasn’t entirely on board with the concept, despite the fact it made a fantastic $300 million at the box office.
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Speaking on the Kermode and Mayo Film Review programme Spielberg admitted Hook was the film of his he still “had a problem” with.
He said: “I want to see Hook again. I still don’t like that movie.”
He added: “I’m hoping someday I’ll see it again and perhaps like some of it.”
This wasn’t the only time the legendary director spoke out about working on the movie.
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While speaking to Empire Magazine in 2012, Spielberg opened up on Hook once again when he was asked if he ever felt he “wasn’t getting the material right while shooting a film”.
He said: “I’ve made a few films like that. I felt like a fish out of water making Hook.
“I didn’t have confidence in the script. I had confidence in the first act and I had confidence in the epilogue. I didn’t have confidence in the body of it.”
He also spoke candidly about the style of the movie, referencing his own mindset while filming.
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Spielberg added: “I didn’t quite know what I was doing and I tried to paint over my insecurity with production value.
“The more insecure I felt about it, the bigger and more colourful the sets became.”
What’s more, the director had some trouble on set while working with Tinkerbell star, Julia Roberts.
Roberts, at the time, was going through a breakup with her fiancé, Kiefer Sutherland.
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According to reports at the time Roberts was “difficult” to work with. So much so that she was given the nickname: “TinkerHell”.
When Spielberg was asked years later if he would work with Roberts again he replied: “No.”
He later spoke highly of the actress, however, adding: “Julia probably went through the most trying times of her life [during filming].
“It was simply bad timing for all of us that she happened to start on Hook at that low point.”
Spielberg later added that he thought her performance in the movie was “terrific”.
Roberts herself spoke out about the claims saying she had “never heard” anyone call her the nickname of TinkerHell.
She added: “But I'm a normal person. I mean, if I sit in my trailer for six hours doing nothing, I'm going to say: 'What the f*** is going on?’”
Hook is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.
