Interview With Bruce

Interview with a famous movie star.


Mindes: You’ve starred in quite the summer blockbuster back in your day, what was it like to make such a film?

Bruce: It was wonderful. Everyone involved was just wonderful to work with.

Mindes: In that movie you play a bloodthirsty serial killer that has no remorse for what you have done. Was it difficult to get into character for such an extreme roll?

Bruce: Not at all. I have always wanted to play such a role and when this part was offered to me, I had to take it. It was practically written for me, something I could sink my teeth into.

Mindes: In the opening scene it shows you taking your first victim, did you know that scene would be the one to set the tone for the movie and your part?

Bruce: You would have to be an idiot to not have seen it. I mean, from the way the scene read, I knew that this would be such a great opening scene, that would set the pace for the rest of the movie.

Mindes: What was it like working with Susan Backlinie in that opening scene?

Bruce: She was an absolute dream and one hell of a trooper with the many takes it took to get it down perfect.

Mindes: It has been documented that a fellow co-star was shocked and terrified at the brutality that was displayed in that scene once he saw it.

Bruce: Absolutely he was. Do you blame him? To watch this poor woman just going about her business and then in the shadows I stalk her waiting for that perfect moment to strike. Then when I do…BAM! Her struggling was what I believe to what put that scene over the top.

Mindes: It was. That particular scene scared the hell out of me when I first saw it. For years I was afraid of the dark just waiting for you to strike out of nowhere. Still gives me goose bumps.

Bruce: I get that all the time. From longtime fans to people just discovering this film for the first time.

Mindes: What was it like working with the late Roy Schneider as your nemesis?

Bruce: We didn’t have much screen time in the film, but what we did have was just classic.

Mindes: You’re referring to the one scene where you come out of nowhere to scare the bejesus out of him.

Bruce: Yes! I think I took a couple of years off of his life with that one.

Mindes: As with anyone that watches that scene.

Bruce: Hahaha. I agree.

Mindes: It’s been 15 years since the movies release, are you happy with the final result of the film and what has become what everyone calls a classic?

Bruce: Of course. While making the movie, we knew that it would be big but we had no idea how big. As far as thinking that in 15 years that it would be number 48 in AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies, not at all. When making this movie or any movie for that matter, you don’t think beyond that moment to the future wondering where it will fall in the history of cinema, you just film for the moment and hope everyone that watches it falls in love with it.

Mindes: No truer words can be said. Well, that does it for our time together. I would like to thank Bruce for this interview and recollecting working with some great people during the filming of the 1975 thriller Jaws.

Bruce: You are quite welcome. It was my pleasure.