Seth Rogen saw Steven Spielberg “cry dozens of times” while filming ‘The Fablemans’.
The ‘Knocked Up’ star shared that the 75-year-old director “would cry a lot” during the production of the movie - which was co-written by Steven and his ‘West Side Story’ collaborator Tony Kushner - based on the ‘Jaws’ filmmaker’s own life growing up after the Second World War with Gabriel LaBelle’s Sammy Fabelman discovering a family secret and his love of movies.
The 40-year-old actor - who plays family friend Bennie Loewy in the flick out on Friday (11.11.2022) - told the Hollywood Reporter: “He would cry a lot, openly. We’d show up on set and he would just see a certain piece of wardrobe or a certain piece of set decoration] or everyone coming together to recreate a certain thing. I saw him cry dozens of times throughout filming the movie which was actually very beautiful and I think made everyone want to really honor what he was doing. You saw how much it meant to him and how truthful he was being.”
Seth found working with Steven as “a singular experience”, something he knew his co-star Michelle Williams agreed with.
He said: “I have friends who have worked with Steven Spielberg and it’s been surreal for everyone I know, but also, the added layer of it being such a deeply personal film, it was something that was not lost on anybody. There was a point that I went up to Michelle and was like, ‘You’ve worked with Scorsese, does this seem different than that?’ And she’s like, ‘Oh this is way different. This is a singular experience.’ Which I was glad she verified my feeling that that’s what was happening.”
Michelle found it “dreamy” to be cast to play Mitzi Fableman -a character based on the ‘Jurassic Park’ director’s mother, Leah Adler - opposite Paul Dano, who played Burt Fableman, a role based on Steven’s father, Arnold Spielberg.
The 42-year-old actress said: “It took me a minute to realize what he was asking. It’s still taking me a minute to realize where I am and what’s happening, it’s pretty dreamy.”
