Why Steven Spielberg Asked George Lucas To Mentor Him – Legends Report

Image @ Wikipedia

By Sukh Singh Associate Partner, Lighthouse International

“I thought my career as a filmmaker was over. I heard rumors from back in Hollywood that I would never work again.” – Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg is one of the most successful, well-known and trustworthy filmmakers with a track record that spans generations. You will almost certainly have seen one or many of his films: Jaws, Jurassic Park, E.T., Saving Private Ryan, Schilnder’s List… What you may not know is how he went through incredible failure in his career, before needing to ask one of his friends and peers to mentor him…

Failure #1: Jaws

One of Steven Spielberg’s greatest films, Jaws, was actually a very troubling experience for everyone involved. As Jeff Stibel (Author and Vice Chairman at Dun & Bradstreet) recently wrote about in a blog on LinkedIn;

The production’s 55 planned shooting days dragged out to a grueling 159 days, and the $4.5 million budget to soar to $10 million. 

Spielberg was traumatized: “I thought my career as a filmmaker was over. I heard rumors from back in Hollywood that I would never work again because no one had ever taken a film a hundred days over schedule – let alone a director whose first picture had failed at the box office.” And it wasn’t just the studios that kept him up at night. He did not enjoy good relationships with the overworked crew and later stated “I was really afraid of half the guys in the crew.” For months after finishing the film, Spielberg had full-blown panic attacks.

From Bad To Worse…

He called the filming of Jaws “the worst experience of my life,” but without truly internalizing his failures, he moved on to his next movie (Close Encounters of the Third Kind), which he later described as “twice as bad and twice as expensive.”

The legendary director was going way overbudget and over time in order to get his films made. While they were great films, they were coming at a heavy price for everyone involved. He was breaking himself, his crew and the studios against the principles of vision and the principles of leadership. Worse, the now legendary director wasn’t learning from his mistakes and improving as a director.

Asking George Lucas To Become His Mentor

Having finally made the kind of mistakes that lead to true failure, Spielberg acknowledged there were things he did not do well. It was clear that he never learned how to manage budgets or people well. His own vision was also blurred by his success. So Spielberg did what all great individuals do: he found himself a mentor and took a step back from calling all the shots. He signed up to work under George Lucas, who had just produced Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. 

Sometimes we need a massive hit to our pride to show us that we really need to change. Sometimes we don’t. Steven Spielberg knew that he could not carry on failing and upsetting so many people, even though he was receiving critical acclaim and receiving many awards. A mentor can help us avoid living the rest of our days making the same mistakes, with our goals and happiness always eluding us.

To find out what came of Steven Spielberg taking guidance from George Lucas, click here for the full blog.