“I’ve been in a lot of collaborative enterprises. Jaws was one of the happiest collaborations of my life. Steven Spielberg wasn’t ‘Steven Spielberg’ yet,” said screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, the latest guest at UCSB’s Script to Screen series. Following a showing of Spielberg’s 1975 hit about a Great White terrorizing a Long Island resort town (considered the first modern summer blockbuster), Pollock Theater Director Matthew Ryan moderated a discussion rich with colorful anecdotes before 200 students.
Gottlieb, who described the Peter Benchley novel-inspired movie as “Moby Dick meets Enemy of the People,” had left his writing gig on the ABC hit The Odd Couple to work on Jaws. Then-super-agent Mike Medavoy paired Gottlieb with Spielberg, a director so green that no studio would hire him.
Gottlieb, 78, praised Spielberg’s genius directing and casting, down to the minor parts. He discussed the pain of hacking down his own role (“Meadows”) and how effectively Spielberg built suspense.