Steven Spielberg reveals first test of Jaws shark was 'total disaster'

The making of Jaws is acknowledged to be one of the toughest movie productions ever attempted. Feuding actors, unbearable sea sickness and an ever changing script were just a few of the challenges faced by the cast and crew. However, one problem threw the project into serious doubt…. the star of the show couldn’t perform.

Once the suggestion of training a real-life Great White shark was quickly abandoned, Universal Studios greenlit the construction of a fully functional, animatronic. Designed and created by BAFTA nominated Production Designer Joe Alves and retired SFX legend Bob Mattey, it was the first movie monster of it’s kind.

Collectively named ‘Bruce’ (after Jaws director Steven Spielberg’s lawyer Bruce Ramer), the 25ft long creatures were built, tested and transported to Jaws shooting location Martha’s Vineyard for prinicpal photography. However, when it came to first testing the shark in the open ocean, things do not go well.

During a 1981 appearence on ‘The Dick Cavett Show’, Jaws director Steven Spielberg was asked about the making of Jaws, specifically the problems with the shark. Spielberg explained that the “first… big mistake…” was that Bruce the shark had been bult for fresh water but not salt water. He went on "“They all knew we were going to the Atlantic ocean… but for some reason they built it for fresh water”

“Electrolysis is a major problem when you get salt water in all the machinery.”

— Steven Spielberg, Director of Jaws

When the day came for Bruce’s first on-location test, the plan was to have him rise up out the water head first but instead he sank and came up tail first!

“The shark came up tail first. It was like a 25 foot moon!”

— Steven Spielberg, director of Jaws

Describing the test a “total disaster” Spielberg and his crew knew this was the moment they were in big trouble.

However, with complete faith in their young director, Jaws producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown encouraged Spielberg to trust his creative instincts and find a way to work around the shark. This lead to the shark being only being on screen for 4 minutes but also meant Jaws became one of, if not the greatest, character driven thriller ever made.

You can watch Steven Spielberg discussing the making of Jaws with Dick Cavett below:

Even though Bruce may have misbehaved while shooting Jaws, a newly restored Bruce shark now resides at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.