Schindler’s List on Prime Video: How did Robin Williams help Steven Spielberg keep his spirits up while making the film?

He is considered the king of entertainment, but many forget that Steven Spielberg is first and foremost a very talented filmmaker. Throughout his career, the American director produced more intimate, sometimes autobiographical works alongside his blockbusters.

In the early 1990s, Steven Spielberg began filming one of his most famous films, Schindler’s List. This feature film tells the true story of German industrialist Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), the Righteous Among the Nations, who saved over a thousand Jews from deportation by employing them as laborers needed to keep his factories running.

Making the film allowed the director to reconnect with his Jewish origins, which he had rejected as a child because of the anti-Semitism of his classmates. Therefore, out of an entirely personal ambition, Spielberg decided to tell this story and show the horrors of the Shoah in the most authentic way possible.

HBO Spielberg’s documentary about the filmmaker’s career features behind-the-scenes footage of the film’s production. The latter ended each day of filming Schindler’s List in a state of intense mental exhaustion, but his determination to bring the story to life allowed him to continue and see the project through.

“I was laughing hysterically because I had so much to say”

But Steven Spielberg was also able to count on the unexpected support of his friend Robin Williams. The actor, whom he had directed in Hook a few years earlier, made a habit of calling the director every week of the shoot. These phone calls, which lasted about fifteen minutes, consisted of meaningless improvisations.

More often than not, Robin Williams would end his conversation – or rather his monologue – with Spielberg without saying goodbye, and the latter would burst out laughing. This ritual, which boosted the director’s morale, gave him the idea to share this moment with the entire film crew through speakers. Those phone calls — along with watching episodes of Saturday Night Live — gave the filmmaker the most grueling shoot of his career.

And his work has been amply rewarded, as Schindler’s List has won many prestigious awards, including Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director. The film was also recorded in 2004 National Film Registry from the Library of Congress and ranked eighth in the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time. American Film Institute.

Schindler’s List, directed by Steven Spielberg, will leave the Prime Video catalog on January 31.

Discover the list of movies currently available on the platform!