Steven Spielberg is one of the most important directors in the history of cinema while Julia Roberts is one of the most beloved actresses. However, they only worked together once, and things did not end well.
In 1991, the fantasy adventure film Hook was released. It was directed by Steven Spielberg and featured a luxury cast, headed by Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, and Maggie Smith, among others.
It works as a continuation of the story Peter Pan and Wendy and shows us a Peter Pan, who never left and lives his life as a corporate. However, when the children of Wonderland are kidnapped by Captain Hook, he must once again join forces with Tinker Bell and resume his old identity to save them.
Although the film did well at the box office and even received five Oscar Award nominations, it received very poor responses from critics. It even came to be rated as one of Spielberg's worst films to date.
And the truth is that the director does not have good memories of the film, mainly because of all the inconveniences he had to face. The project was paused for a long time due to Spielberg's lack of motivation when reading the first draft of the script. In addition, the film's budget was raised because of the large sets that had been planned. But without a doubt, what affected the filmmaker the most was the bad relationship he had with Julia Roberts.
Apparently, when the filming of Hook began, the interpreter was going through a separation. The Pretty Woman actress was engaged to actor Kiefer Sutherland, but the relationship ended abruptly days before her wedding when she discovered the actor was cheating on her.
For this reason, the actress's humor on the set was not the best and she ended up earning the hatred not only of her co-stars but also of the director. Such was her bad relationship with the team that Roberts earned the nickname 'Tinker Hell', changing Bell to Hell.
Spielberg opened up about it and confessed that “It was an unfortunate time for us to work together. Julia probably went through one of the worst times of her life and it was just a bad time for her to find herself working at Hook. But I think Julia is a great actress." However, despite being sympathetic to the situation, he did not hesitate to say that he would never work with her again.
The Oscar-winning actress also had comments on the situation, but compared to the director, she didn't have such good words to say. When asked about the nickname she had earned, she declared that she did not know anything about it. "I am a normal person. But if I sit in my trailer for six hours doing nothing, I'm going to say 'What the hell is going on?' ended.
As for Spielberg's comments, Julia Roberts confessed that she was very disappointed to learn that the director had her doubts about supporting her during such a hard time. She was also greatly affected by the good relationship the filmmaker had with the rest of the cast, especially Robin Williams.
Of course, neither of them have fond memories of the film. And it is to this day that they have not worked together again and everything would seem to indicate that they have not made the passes either, since they never spoke about it again. However, Julia recovered and found love again, and continued to focus on her career, which led her to win the Oscar Award. Like Steven Spielberg, she took the reins again and continued directing great critically acclaimed movies.
