Hollywood gentleman Steven Spielberg’s prowess as a director is well known to the world. The director is now one of the richest celebrities of all time, but he once went through a phase where he could not even think of dating anyone. Thanks to his endurance, the world is blessed with a legendary filmmaker who has several astonishing titles to his credit.
Spielberg’s movies inherently possess the crux of unique storytelling, and the director has provided several astonishing blockbusters, including his highest-grossing movies Jurassic Park, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. But before crafting his legacy and a whopping $8 billion fortune, the filmmaker was financially struggling.
Steven Spielberg Didn’t Have Enough Money To Go On A Date
Steven Spielberg is one of the two billionaire directors with a fortune of $8 billion (per Celebrity Net Worth), the director stands on the same ground with George Lucas being the richest movie directors of all time. Spielberg is also adding $150 million to his financial empire annually. However, before his breakthrough and making top dollars, the filmmaker’s financial struggle prevented him from even thinking of dating anyone.
In a chat with Rolling Stone (retrieved via David Breskin Magazine), Spielberg revealed his life story and his early days in Hollywood. “When I was doing television, I was living in a $130-a-month apartment, and I was looking to eat dinner at night, looking to go to restaurants,” Spielberg told the outlet.
It was hard dating because I did not have enough money to date. Even under contract as a director to Universal, my take-home pay was just a little over $100 a week. Not quite enough to live on. I did have a lot of close calls with shooting schlock to make a living. I had many chances to make sleazo, exploitation movies. That was all I was being offered then. You know, you meet the producer and you wind up buying him lunch.
The director eventually turns his fate alongside his longtime friend Lucas and another legendary director, Martin Scorsese. Right now, Spielberg is among the most prominent directors of all time, but his long road to Hollywood was not a cakewalk.
Steven Spielberg Reflected On Breaking Into Hollywood
Spielberg was not alone in the fight to break into Hollywood, the director further revealed in the same interview that Scorsese, Lucas, and Brian De Palma. Lucas was working under Francis Ford Coppola, who recently premiered his ambitious project Megalopolis at Cannes, while Scorsese was assisting Roger Corman.
After meeting producers and buying them lunch hoping for a big break which was common at the time and practiced by his fellow directors, Spielberg was desperate to get into the industry but still had to play the game. “I played that game for a long time,” he told Rolling Stone.
And at other tables there were other producers with other young neophyte directors buying those producers lunches. And we knew each other pretty well, we knew the game we were playing. Lucas got his break from Coppola first; Scorsese got his break from Roger Corman. We all knew we were gonna make it in Hollywood. We just didn’t know when. It was like waiting to get your pilot’s license. Marty [Scorsese] got his first with Mean Streeets, Lucas got his second with THX, I got mine third. De Palma got his before all of us, ’cause he was making movies in New York City by raising money from doctors and lawyers.
With his 1975 movie Jaws, the director found a major breakthrough to superstardom. The Shark Monster movie earned over $483 million worldwide with a reported budget of $12 million (per The Numbers). The movie elevated his prowess as a capable director, and he has proved it again and again over the years with several masterpieces.
Stream Jaws on Starz.
