Steven Spielberg

But I don't set out, unless it's consciously to make a film like The Fablemans or even help design the story of Last Crusade, I don't set out

to practice self-therapy.

I set out to tell a really good story that's going to get people really excited and make them want to go to the movies to see it.

But you have said before that you've tried to, in some of your films, you have recreated trauma as a way to maybe get power over it.

Am I describing that correctly?

I think what you're referring to is sometimes

things that terrified me as a kid, I can almost, I can make a really scary movie like Poltergeist, right, which I produced and wrote.

I can make a really scary movie like that because of all the things that go bump in the night that terrify me.

And then suddenly I feel really good that I got some control over my fear.

But now I've disseminated my fear on a lot of people I'll never get to meet.

And like with Jaws, you know, I didn't mean to make a movie that scares people out of the water, but it did.

I've always been afraid of the water, and I think I wouldn't have said yes to direct Jaws had I not had such a fear of the water.

And did Jaws help you with your fear of the water?

No, I'm just afraid now.

But it sure didn't help a lot of other people that saw the movie.

Watch it!

Stop watching!

Stop!

One of the reasons why I think this is so interesting is I happen to be in the middle of Lena Dunham's memoir, and she talks about something very similar, about how basically traumatic things happened to her, and she felt if she could recreate them on screen, she would get some kind of control over it in a way that would help her work through it, if you will.

And I wondered, is this something that, I mean, you must have had so many interesting conversations with other filmmakers, artists.