Filmmaker Steven Spielberg wants to lend Hollywood’s current crop of young directors some good advice from his decades of experience. Spielberg turned 27 while he was making Jaws, one of the biggest summer blockbusters of all time.
Photo by Merie Weismiller Wallace/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment
During a recent episode of The Rest Is Entertainment, he was asked about 26-year-old Obsession director Curry Barker and 20-year-old Backrooms director Kane Parsons.
“Don’t let success go to your heads,” he quickly responded. “Do not let wild success go to your heads, because when you make your next movie, you’re starting from scratch.”
“It’s always good to have a big hit to shore up your reputation, and you’re going to get a lot of respect from executives, from the film world and from the studios. But the advice I’d give them is something I had to learn the hard way: We all start over again,” he adds. “And if you get the chance to make 20 or 30 films in your career, you will discover, maybe on your second or third film, that you’re beginning your career all over again at the outset of every single project.”
Young Hollywood
Both Obsession and Backrooms have cleaned up at the box office, with the former sitting at $238.7 million globally, and the latter at $220.6 million. Parsons’ movie was made for $10 million and was based on a YouTube series he created. Barker, who also got his start on YouTube, made Obsession for only $750,00.
But Spielberg’s advice applies to any young filmmaker or artist. Careers aren’t made through one big hit. They are made by continuously turning out a quality product.
Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day hits theaters on June 12th. You can check out the trailer below:
