8. As for Roy Scheider, he landed the part of police chief Martin Brody after meeting Spielberg at a party.
“I was sitting there and somebody walked over to me and introduced themselves to me and said, ‘Youโre sitting here all alone. Are you OK?'” Spielberg recalled in Jaws: The Inside Story. “And it was Roy Scheider.”
Spielberg began lamenting to Scheiderโwho at this point had starred in The French Connectionโabout how he couldnโt find an actor to play Chief Brody.
“I told him the whole storyโI even told him the five or six actors I had talked to that I decided that I didnโt want to go with,” the Oscar winner continued. “Roy looked at me and he said, ‘What about me? Iโm an actor. Iโd love to be in Jaws.'”
9. While Scheider got the part,ย Charlton Heston had also been vying for the role. However, Spielberg was concerned Hestonโwhoโd starred in The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, and The Agony and the Ecstasyโwas too big of a star and that the audience wouldnโt relate to him.
“I thought for Charlton Heston to play that part would be a little bit not fair for the shark,” he added in Jaws: The Inside Story, “because the shark wouldnโt last through the first act.”
10. And you’re gonna needโฆto thank Scheider for this iconic line.
“One of the oft-quoted lines in the movie is Roy Scheider saying, ‘We gotta get a bigger boat,’ which he improvised on the set,” Gottlieb said in 1995โs The Making of Jaws. “I acknowledge that as a writer. I’m pleased that he said that.”
