World needs to rediscover empathy: Steven Spielberg in interview with Shoojit Sircar
Acclaimed filmmaker Steven Spielberg, who is currently promoting his new film, a reimagining of the evergreen iconic musical, ‘West Side Story’, told Bollywood director Shoojit Sircar that he finds Indian filmmakers “very smart” for using music and dance in all their films.
“I will tell you why it is smart. It is because it is selling a story through the fastest way to our hearts. What is the fastest way into our hearts? It is music. Nothing reaches us more profoundly than a piece of music and it carries us somewhere where we never expected to go,” said Spielberg.
This dialogue between the ‘Piku’ and ‘Sardar Udham’ director, Shoojit Sircar and the legendary Hollywood filmmaker, Spielberg, was part of a 10-minute virtual conversation between the two, which was released through a video by 20th Century studios. Sircar, who was clearly having a fan moment while interviewing the ‘Schindler’s List’ director, revealed that he had performed ‘West Side Story’ as a play in his theatre days, and was ostensibly filled with nostalgia after watching Spielberg’s celluloid adaptation of the 1957 Broadway musical.
Spielberg, who has produced and directed ‘West Side Story’, has gone on record to state that this has probably been “the most daunting” film of his career. Describing the musical as “arguably the greatest score ever written in the theatre”, he had felt very intimidated to take on such a masterpiece. But he believed that “great stories should be told over and over again, in part to reflect different perspectives and moments in time into the work”.
While Sircar confessed his fears about doing musicals since it required one to be musical, Spielberg pointed out that he had been raised with music. “My mother was a concert pianist and so I was raised with music. But not popular music, I was raised on Chopin, Beethoven, Brahmns and classical music,” said the director with candour.
Sircar felt that one had to shed all fear to take on a musical, especially to undertake such a ‘big scale production’ in New York city like the one Spielberg has done with his new movie. And, he observed that Spielberg seemed to have become ‘fearless’ while doing this musical.
To which the 74-year-old director responded: “I think everybody, when they’re older, gets more fearless. Maybe not everybody, but I certainly needed to be fearless in order to take this on. Because this is obviously based on the great Broadway musical, but it will be liberally compared to the 1961 film. Both the 1961 film and the Broadway musical owe a huge debt of gratitude to William Shakespeare, and Romeo and Juliet.”
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Spielberg went on to add, “So I didn’t feel like I was violating anything because I don’t really necessarily love remakes. But I didn’t consider this a remake. I consider this a reimagined, more authentic and more contemporary version of the original musical.”
“I’ve been banking my courage, letting every movie I’ve made give me a little more courage until finally I could pop the question… And be able to reimagine the work of those four geniuses – Robbins, Bernstein, Sondheim and Laurents,” he asserted. The original musical, inspired by William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, was conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents.
According to Spielberg, who had brought such delight to children with his most lovable alien in ‘ET’ and resurrected dinosaurs like no scientist could have done, felt that ‘West Side Story’ is the greatest American musical ever written and it has been performed 1000s of times.
Though it was liberally produced again and again, each cast had their own reinterpretation, he said. “They would say the same lines because the contract would insist on that but interpret it in their own way,” he said, adding that he didn’t feel like he was violating the great classic that the original ‘West Side Story’ film was by telling this 2021 version of a 1957 story,” he defended himself.
The new version comes 60 years after the original movie (itself adapted from the 1957 Broadway show) and features Rachel Zegler and Ansel Elgort as star-crossed lovers. Their new romance fuels the rivalry between warring street gangs, the Jets and the Sharks. The cast also includes Ariana DeBose as Anita, David Alvarez as Bernardo, Mike Faist as Riff, and Rita Moreno (who won an Oscar for portraying Anita in the 1961 adaptation) as Valentina.
Spielberg said that though he never attempted a musical before, the genre was always close to his heart.
“It just took ‘West Side Story’ to get me to do one to do a musical. I don’t think there’s any other musical I would have done except for this because it’s been relevant in my life since my parents bought the original Broadway cast album when I was 10 years old…”, he said. “I wouldn’t have done it if I did not love the musical idiom as I do,” added the director.
During the conversation, Sircar, who has posted the interview on his Instagram page, commented on how the film was making a ‘big statement’ in a world plagued by ‘xenophobia and racism’ by showcasing a talented Hispanic and Latino community. To which, Spielberg said that it was important for him that the film represented the Latinx community.
“There’s not a single Puerto Rican character that is not played by a Latin X performing artiste,” he said. Moreover, he wants the film to start a direct conversation and dialogue with the young people all over the world today since he felt that this generation is going to determine the fate of all of us. “And it’s how they’re influenced and what influences them,” he said.
“If they can start a conversation with people, who are different than they are, if xenophobia someday can be in our rearview mirror and not in our present day vernacular… All of that is going to be accomplished by several new generations of young people who really care about each other,” he said.
Spielberg pertinently concluded, “If empathy continues to die, then everything dies along with it, including democracy. I really feel that the secret ingredient in all of this is trying to find or rediscover empathy,” he pointed out.
The film, which has been banned in a few Gulf countries reportedly due to the portrayal of transgender character, will release in India on December 10.
