Steven Spielberg discusses his emotional reaction to seeing Michelle Williams and Paul Dano in costume for the first time. While the protagonists had a different surname, Spielberg based The Fabelmans on his own life and early filmmaking career, with Williams and Dano playing semi-fictionalized versions of the Oscar-winning director’s own parents.
As the picture prepares for its Oscar season run, Steven Spielberg spoke with The Late Show with Stephen Colbert about The Fabelmans. While addressing the process of transferring his family’s tale to the cinema, Spielberg admits that the first time he saw The Fabelmans actors Williams and Dano in costume, he sobbed, experiencing an emotional flashback to his real-life parents and being blown away by how closely they resembled each other. Check out Spielberg’s whole account of the experience:
“Mark Bridges [The Fabelmans costume designer] came over to me and said, ‘I’ve got Paul and Michelle here in their hair and makeup and costumes. I turned around and there was my father and mother, and I just burst into tears. Just like that. I didn’t even think about it. It just happened. Michelle ran to me, hugged me. Paul came around the back of me — he’s really tall — hugged me around the shoulders and just held me.”