BOREDOM, DRINKING AND DARES: ROBERT SHAW ON MAKING JAWS
“Y'all know me. Know how I earn a livin'.” The first immortal words spoken by Quint, Amity Island’s resident shark hunter, played to perfection by Robert Shaw Steven Spielberg’s 1975 shark thriller ‘Jaws’.
While the Jaws went on to become not only the highest grossing movie of all time ($100million in just 38 days), it also went down in cinematic folklore as one of the toughest shoots ever. Feuding actors, broken sharks and a budget spiralling out of control, it’s a miracle Jaws was ever finished.
Robert Shaw, cast as Quint just 9 days before principle photography was due to start, had a tougher time making the movie than his fellow leading actors Roy Scheider (Chief Brody) Richard Dreyfuss (Matt Hooper).
The day the Shaws arrived on Martha’s Vineyard, their rental home was shot at; Robert had to continually travel out of the US whenever he wasn’t filming as he had ongoing tax issues with the IRS (he didn’t earn any money from Jaws). As if that wasn’t enough, Robert had to spend hours in the cold water, in the jaws of Bruce the animatronic shark.
However, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for Robert; his constant goading of Richard Dreyfuss was a great source of amusement. Shaw’s teasing of Dreyfuss is said to have lead to outrageous bets - including daring Dreyfuss to jump from the top of the mast of the Orca.
“I do tend to drink when totally bored. Roy does exercises.... and sunbathes. And Dreyfuss talks. Dreyfuss just talks.”
The tension between the two actors came through on screen, adding to the dramatic and comedic tone, but also lead to Dreyfuss doubting himself as an actor. However, in 2014 Dreyfuss made an emotional appearance on Irish chat show on RTE where he met Robert’s grand daughter and deeply praised his Jaws co-star.
When working to bring Quint to life on screen, director Steven Spielberg paired Robert Shaw with Martha’s Vineyard local Craig Kingsbury. Not only was Kingsbury part of the model for Shaw’s Quint, he also played doomed Amity Island fisherman Ben Gardner.
The two got on famously, and were often seen walking together down Main street in Edgartown like two drunken sailors “laughing like hell.”Some of Mr. Kingsbury’s more unusual turns of phrase were incorporated verbatim by screenwriter Carl Gottlieb (“It looks like a kiddy’s scissor class has cut it up for a paper doll.”)
“There’s probably more incest going on in Martha’s Vineyard than probably any state in the United States.”
In some interviews, Robert Shaw had speculated that islanders were inbred. Much to the comical love of the locals, who had dared Kingsbury during his coaching of Shaw to say it! Watch the Robert Shaw’s full interview below.
Words by Ross Williams
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