"You Must Leave": 51 Years Ago, This Cinema Legend Kicked Steven Spielberg Off His Set

Steven Spielberg was turned away by one of his childhood idols, one of the directors who inspired him to pursue filmmaking: Alfred Hitchcock.

It can be difficult to approach your idols, even when your name is Steven Spielberg. During the early 1970s, the young director tried several times to get in touch with one of the most famous filmmakers in cinema history: Alfred Hitchcock. To no avail. But in 1975, he would have one last chance to meet him.

"We Were Kicked Off the Set"

At the time of the release of Jaws, Alfred Hitchcock was filming what would be his last movie, Family Plot. Meanwhile, young Steven Spielberg was beginning to make a name for himself thanks to the phenomenal success of his shark film, and he made one final attempt to approach the British director.

"I was accompanied by a journalist from the Washington Post who was doing a profile on me," the director of Jurassic Park revealed during a Vanity Fair roundtable (via Slash Film). "I said to him: 'Let’s see if we can meet Alfred Hitchcock.' I arrived on set, Hitchcock was there, sitting with his back to me in a director's chair, cameras on either side. A camera and all the lighting equipment… They were shooting something in his direction, and he had no way of knowing I was there."

"I noticed that Hitchcock made a hand gesture, and an assistant director rushed to his side. He whispered something to him, and the assistant turned his gaze directly to me, approached, and said: 'You must leave.'"

Hitchcock is Everywhere in Spielberg

Youtube / Joel Gunz

Even today, Spielberg does not know how the director of Psycho was aware of his presence: "There might have been a mirror on set, he might have seen my reflection, but we were kicked off the set."

What would the two filmmakers have talked about? Cinema, of course. According to Spielberg himself, he had "tons of questions" to ask him. But the meeting never took place, and Spielberg continues to cite one of his masters in his work, for example in Jaws (the dolly shot taken from Vertigo), Raiders of the Lost Ark (the plane rushing from North by Northwest), or War of the Worlds and Jurassic Park (The Birds).

Steven Spielberg's new film, "Disclosure Day," is currently in theaters: