Steven Spielberg Weighs in on Timothée Chalamet’s Controversial Ballet and Opera Comments
Steven Spielberg wasn’t always living in sugarland.
Indeed, the legendary director shared he made his 1964 debut film Firelight—a science-fiction film following an alien encounter he made at the age of 17—with a budget of $500, which he earned through working odd jobs alongside the support of his late father Arnold Spielberg.
“I earned it,” Spielberg exclusively told E! News in a May 29 interview. “I used to whitewash citrus trees in Scottsdale, Arizona, to earn money. I did a lot, but my dad always said to me, ‘If you go out and earn money to finance some of your films,’ which some of them cost $25 [or] $30, ‘I will match you.’”
“‘So, if your film cost $50 to buy the film and processing for eight millimeter, if you earn $25 I will match it with $25,’” he recalled. “And so I had earned about $250 and my dad matched that, and I had enough money to make my little two-hour, eight-millimeter film.”