Richard Dreyfuss Expresses Disappointment With Robert Shaw’s Son’s New ‘Jaws’ Broadway Play

It has been almost five decades since Stephen Speilberg’s movie, Jaws, hit the screens in the summer of 1975, putting viewers on the edge of their seats. The thriller film starred Richard Dreyfuss as a marine biologist and Robert Shaw as a professional shark hunter who aids a police chief in hunting down a man-eating great white shark terrorizing beachgoers at a summer resort town.

Recently, Robert Shaw’s son, Ian Shaw, released a new play on Broadway, The Shark Is Broken, which evokes memories of the mid-70s Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster movie. The new release got the attention of Richard Dreyfuss, who shared his insights on the latest Broadway adaptation of the timeless 1975 cinematic masterpiece.

Richard Dreyfuss says he is not impressed with ‘The Shark Is Broken’

Dreyfuss attended the premiere of the new play, however, despite the public display of radiant smiles as he posed for the cameras, the 76-year-old actor candidly expressed his discontent with the production in an interview with Vanity Fair.

RELATED: Son Of ‘Jaws’ Star Robert Shaw Speaks About Portraying His Late Father In ‘The Shark Is Broken’

“It was pretty awful. Ian [Shaw]—who has more than any right to write whatever he wants—never called me and said, ‘Give me some background,’” Dreyfuss admitted to the news outlet. “Or, ‘Give me your take on this and this.’”

Richard Dreyfuss says his character was poorly represented in ‘The Shark Is Broken’

Dreyfuss stated that although certain scenes in The Shark Is Broken may have been inspired by the film, he emphasized that some portrayal within the play creates a misleading impression. He specifically expressed his dissatisfaction with the way his character was depicted, highlighting it as one of the key issues he had with the project.

“And they just decided to make my character a big jerk,” Dreyfuss confessed. “The problem is that they made my character the fool. They didn’t do that to Roy, and they didn’t do that to Robert. And that hurt because it wasn’t true.”