‘The Fabelmans’ Star Paul Dano On The Emotional Journey He Took To Portray A Fictional Version Of Steven Spielberg’s Father
11.01.2023 - 23:05
/ deadline.com
Paul Dano The Fabelmans star reveals the emotional connections he made in portraying a version of Steven Spielberg’s father
Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans is a semi-autobiographical account of the director’s upbringing, co-written with Tony Kushner. It’s a deeply personal film following Sammy — a proxy for the young Spielberg — a Jewish American boy who, after discovering a shocking family secret, uses his filmmaking dreams to explore the truth about himself and the world around him via the power of movies. In the film, Paul Dano plays Sammy’s father, Burt Fabelman, the fictional version of Spielberg’s father Arnold, a groundbreaking electrical engineer. Here, Dano reveals his deep research and close work with the director to capture the true essence of a life well-lived.
DEADLINE: Steven Spielberg reached out to you personally about the possibility of playing his father in The Fabelmans. How did that go?
PAUL DANO: During the pandemic, I got a text saying, “Steven Spielberg wants to meet with you,” which is not a text you’re expecting on your average day. It was nice to receive, but I was nervous about meeting him because I knew nothing about this movie. I looked up ‘unmade Steven Spielberg films’ to try and guess what he was making. Then we met on Zoom, and he was really easy to talk to, which I was surprised by. I think sometimes we project onto people who are that culturally iconic, but he was very open to me and emotionally available and intuitive. He told me what this film was going to be about, and I had this immense feeling. In terms of what I saw in his eyes, his father had passed about eight months before we first spoke, and it was hard for me to process that in real-time. But once he told me about the
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