Billy Van Zandt: JAWS 2 45th anniversary interview
Billy Van Zandt, who played Bob in JAWS 2, joined The Daily Jaws for another of is exclusive JAWS 2 45th anniversary interviews to talk about filing the shark sequel and its legacy.
He talks how he was on the film, which was his very first movie audition, for 11 months – which included a month of rehearsals with original director John D. Hancock - and how for many of the then young cast it was very much like a ‘high school graduating class’.
He said that the Hancock version of JAWS 2, was a much darker vison and that “it would have been a great adult horror film.”
A big fan of the original Steven Spielberg classic, it is Van Zandt’s second favourite (pipped by The Godfather) and called the shark film the scariest movie he’d ever seen, meaning we no longer have to put a horse’s head in his bed.
The JAWS 2 star also spoke to Ross Williams, the founder of The Daily Jaws, about his time with the returning Roy Scheider (Chief Brody) who he said “he hates being there”, Lorraine Gary (Ellen Brody) who was “lovely and friendly”, Murray Hamilton was “a trip…he was fun” (Mayor Vaughn) and the mechanical shark.
And although the character of Bob lived, that wasn’t always the case, and Van Zandt tells us about filming his shark death scene that never was.
Words by Dean Newman
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