Laurent Bouzereau dives into ‘Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story,’ exploring Steven Spielberg’s fears, rare footage, and the film’s enduring cultural impact.
“I really hope that this is gonna be inspiring to even people who are not in the film business, don’t know about Jaws, but people who wanna do things,” Bouzereau says of the documentary. “As we all know, it is so hard to accomplish anything and it’s so easy to give up and quit. But [Steven] never wanted to quit and so there’s a great message here about persistence.”
Laurent Bouzereau opens up with Awards Focus about the fast-paced, emotionally charged process of directing ‘Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story.’ He reflects on his initial excitement—and anxiety—about revisiting such a heavily documented film, and how he found a fresh perspective by focusing on the human element behind the production. Bouzereau shares personal insights into his interviews with Steven Spielberg, revealing never-before-heard stories and the vulnerability Spielberg brought to the project. He also discusses the tight production timeline, juggling multiple projects, and the thrill of unearthing archival gems, all while aiming to inspire viewers with a story of creative resilience and perseverance.
‘Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story’ is the only authorized documentary marking the 50th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s groundbreaking film. Produced by Amblin Documentaries and Nedland Films in collaboration with Wendy Benchley and Laura Bowling, the film features exclusive interviews, rare footage from Spielberg’s and the Benchley family’s personal archives, and reflections from original cast, crew, and modern filmmakers influenced by ‘Jaws.’ It dives deep into the production chaos, emotional toll, and cultural legacy of the first summer blockbuster—reframing the “Jaws effect” as one of wonder and conservation rather than fear.
‘Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story’ will have its TV premiere on July 10, at 9/8c on National Geographic and will be available to stream the following day, July 11, on Disney+ and Hulu. If you have the digital copy of Jaws on Movies Anywhere, the film was automatically added to the ‘Jaws’ bonus features when the 50th anniversary edition was released on June 17.
Awards Focus: It’s always a pleasure getting to chat with you. How are you doing?
Laurent Bouzereau: Never complete without you, so I’m just so thrilled and so appreciative. How are you doing?
AF: I’m doing well. Hanging in there.
Bouzereau: Good, good, good.
AF: With so much out there already about ‘Jaws,’ what first went through your mind when you were tasked with directing a documentary for the 50th anniversary?
Bouzereau: It was a little daunting even though I was the one who started the conversation about making this film. When I finally got it set up, I was like, Oh my G-d, what have I done? How can I reinvent the dialogue?
I quickly realized that one aspect of the film that’s not really being talked about is the human aspect of it. It’s easy to laugh and smile at the tribulation of making the film. The shark is not working, how funny. But when you put yourself back in Steven’s shoes at that time, after having had a very interesting beginning of a career on television, successful, and done ‘The Sugarland Express’ and suddenly, you make this film and you realize it’s either gonna make you or break you—and most likely break—you must have been incredibly stressful and scary.
For the first time, I think I, in my discussions with Steven, really brought out what that anxiety is meant and how it has to some degree, still stayed with him. I don’t think that that was ever explored in a way that made my film really a story of survival and a story of the triumph of the human spirit over the odds that are completely against you.
Therefore, Danielle, I really hope that this is gonna be inspiring to even people who are not in the film business, don’t know about Jaws, but people who wanna do things. As we all know, it is so hard to accomplish anything and it’s so easy to give up and quit. But he never wanted to quit and so there’s a great message here about persistence.
AF: Yeah. I think it was the first time I’ve heard about Stephen hiding out in the boat at the theme park in the years after the film was made.
Bouzereau: Yeah, me, too. I mean, especially in those terms where, again, while all the stories are told with a little wink, this was told with full heart and full vulnerability, I think, on his part, which was so generous. You could tell. My crew was here with me, he was there with me in the room. We were all tearing up and getting goosebumps when he was telling that story.
I really hope that it’s a really incredible portrait of a filmmaker and a great artist and again, the echoes of the struggles and what that does to oneself. But yet again, he never gave up and kept going and we still have him today. So that’s great.
AF: How many new interviews did you conduct with Steven and on average, how long were they?
Bouzereau: Oh, there were at least three hours. We did a couple of sessions because I had a very short amount of time to do this film. I had to shoot within two months and that included Martha’s Vineyard and trying to get Jim Cameron, Jordan Peele, JJ, Guillermo, and Steven Soderbergh. Going to London and meeting with Ian Shaw and Soderbergh was also there. I mean, it was crazy.
I was literally in a zone because I didn’t know that I was going to be able to make the film in that amount of time. It is a very complex movie that required a lot of licensing, a lot of complexities having to do with just documentary filmmaking and crews all over the world, including Martha’s Vineyard, LA, New York, London. I mean, nuts and very, very stressful.
So yeah, I’m having PTSD from making it right now, just talking about it. I’m just like, Oh my G-d, how did I do it?
AF: You were also working on ‘Music by John Williams’!
Bouzereau: Yeah, and I was finishing up my book on Brian De Palma, I was promoting Faye Dunaway, and I was doing a film on Hitchcock for Studiocanal.
I have to say the past year and a half, I’ve been blessed with incredible projects, but I don’t think I’ll ever be as busy as I was. It was a perfect storm of everything happening at the same time.
I’m just very focused and literally would wake up at 4.30 in the morning, work on my book until about 7, go to the gym, and then run to set, the airport, or the cutting room. My husband-slash-producer was keeping me sane and fed. When I got on set, everything was perfect, because I couldn’t make one false move, really.
AF: What’s the most surprising thing that you learned during the making the film?
Bouzereau: That there was still things to talk about and that it was still exciting. I defy anyone not to be excited and learn something while sitting across from Steven Spielberg or any of the other filmmakers and people I had the privilege of talking to for this film.
But again, what surprised me the most was the human angle of the story and to see it’s a film that’s timeless because of the fact that it was shot on location and a location—if it had been shot in Miami, it would have been today because Miami doesn’t look the same as it did in 1975, but Martha’s Vineyard—aka Amity Island—looks the same. You go there and you’re literally—you expect to see Roy Scheider popping up on the corner.
That really contributed to the film, and I didn’t really appreciate that until I really observed, went there, and realized the impact that the making of this film had had on not only the culture at large, but on the socioeconomic aspect of that community, which is really, I think, maybe unique in film history.
AF: You directed the 1995 documentary. How come there’s still never-before-seen footage from Steven Spielberg’s archives in this one?
Bouzereau: Because a lot of his home movies had not been transferred then. It was kind of funny. I would say, Hey, do you guys have footage of Sid Sheinberg visiting Steven? Do you have footage of Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins, who he mentions, were talking to him about the script? Do you have footage of him watching the Oscars when he didn’t get nominated? And suddenly they’re like, yes, yes, yes. I’m just like, oh my G-d. My head was exploding, right?
You have to remember when I made the first one, there had not been anything about Jaws since the film came out. There was no such thing as the internet. The thing that I found in the vaults of Universal with that 16 millimeter, no sound, of building the shark—and I had used some of that—but I was completely blind into looking for stuff in a way that no one else had done.
I remember Universal saying to me, Listen, there’s a dumpster in the back lot, and here’s the key, and you can go and look for stuff in there. It was a dumpster, gigantic, and it was the middle of the summer. And then, they told me I have to wear special gloves because there could be rattlesnakes in there. I was petrified and found a bunch of stuff, so I was literally—
And now you can just type things up and have access to the whole history of the film. So there you go.
AF: It’s amazing how much technology has changed!
Bouzereau: But you know what? I would not trade the experiences I had doing it for real and entering vaults—like something out of the end of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’—looking at boxes and finding the real stuff.
I’m very tactile, as you can tell by the books behind me. I think to feel an experience and to be able to convey to people you’re interviewing an experience, you have to have experienced yourself. If you’ve not had any life experiences—including going into a dumpster looking for archive material—you’ve not lived as a documentary filmmaker or as a filmmaker, period.
All of that fed my enthusiasm and my incredible dedication to finding new things. But in this case, it was much more about finding not so much the archive and being able to say never-before-seen, which is an overused term, and was to find a voice to illustrate things that had been seen. I was really looking for enhancing the experience of the making of the film and the impact of the film through a different lens and a different voice, really.
AF: Thank you so much. It’s always a pleasure.
Bouzereau: Always a pleasure. Good luck. Stay in touch and talk to you soon.