Steven Spielberg is often seen with a cool and composed demeanor. But a situation that happened on the Twister 1996 set reportedly left the filmmaker completely baffled. Spielberg, who helmed the executive producer role for the American disaster movie, flew down to Oklahoma and yelled at director Jan de Bont.
The reason being de Bont’s alleged meltdown on set. This further led to the entire crew temporarily halting all the activities. A stuntman present on the movie set detailed what chaos took place on the movie set in a recent interview.
How Steven Spielberg’s Intervention Brought the Twister Crew Back on Set?
The entire production of Twister 1996 took an entirely different turn when the crew temporarily halted all activities and walked out. The reason behind this being director Jan de Bont’s dramatic meltdown on set. Stunt coordinator Mic Rodgers recalled what happened on the fateful day (via Independent). He added that the entire crew was filming in a ditch one day.
But the filming atmosphere changed when director de Bont pushed a camera assistant aside. This led the assistant to stumble and fall down the gully. However, when the director was asked to apologize, he refused to do so. This further infuriated the crew, who then walked out from the set. When this news reached the ears of Steven Spielberg, he quickly got on a flight to Norman, Oklahoma, the following day to address the situation.
But Spielberg never actually made it to the filming location. Instead, de Bont reached the airport itself to discuss the chaos with him. But Spielberg was in no mood for a discussion. Rogers added:
The ramp came down on the Learjet and Spielberg walked down it and he never touched the ground. He just stood there yelling at Jan. He never even got off the plane. He was just f*cking yelling, pointing his finger at him, screaming at him. I don’t know what he said to him, but he barked at him for, like, 15 minutes and got back in the plane. The plane left without him even stepping off.
Steven Spielberg’s intervention brought the crew back on set. But it was still fraught with drama throughout the filming of the movie. The dangerous weather was also making things quite dangerous for the crew and had injured actors Helen Hunt and the late Bill Paxton on set. Hunt faced a blow to her head, while Paxton suffered temporary blindness due to the brightness of the electric lamps that were used on set.
But despite these obstacles, the movie went on to collect a staggering $495 million (via Variety) worldwide and was also the second highest-grossing movie of 1996.
A Crew That Displayed Hostility Towards Steven Spielberg
Spielberg is currently one of the best filmmakers in Hollywood. But during his initial years, he faced quite a challenge to convince everyone of his directorial prowess. Today, the director has movies like Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Catch Me If You Can under his belt. But while directing Night Gallery in 1969, he faced significant hostility from the crew.
While the actress Joan Crawford warmed up to him, others on set did not. In a past interview with Empire, the filmmaker had described the entire experience as “terrible” and added:
The crew rebelled and slowed down, and I think consciously huddled to try to get me fired. Now I think that’s just probably the way I saw it. It may not be the way it actually happened, but the crew really was hostile in every regard to everything I did on that show.
But to Spielberg’s dismay, the crew continued to work at a “snail’s pace.” This led to him falling a day behind the filming schedule. To take matters into his own hands and to criticize Spielberg, a producer arrived on set. But fortunately, actor Barry Sullivan stepped in and asked the second director as well as Spielberg to leave the set while he talked to the crew.
After just 20 minutes, when the Jaws director returned to the set, the demeanor of the entire crew had changed significantly.
You can rent Twister (1996) on Apple TV and watch Glen Powell’s Twisters in theaters near you.
