10 Fascinating Behind The Scenes Facts About Jaws

Spielberg originally wanted to use real sharks for the film, but they're a little hard to come by when doing casting calls. Eventually, they decided to go with the mechanical shark, which ended up being just as dangerous for fellow filmmaker George Lucas (more on that later). However, the shark everyone believes to be the 'man-eater' at the start of the film was very real and had to be shipped in from Florida for the scene.

They did end up using real sharks while filming the cage scene with Richard Dreyfuss. While attempting to lure some sharks to the cage for a few action shots, they discovered that not only would they need a bigger boat, but they will also need a bigger shark or smaller actor. The Sharks weren't as big as Spielberg had hoped, so they found a stuntman with a smaller stature to be in the shot and make the shark appear bigger. Before the stuntman had entered the cage, the shark attacked the empty cage on the boat and pulled it into the water. This was after a week of attempting to get a shark to attack the cage, and as a result, Spielberg locked himself in his room on the boat out of pure frustration.

Poor Spielberg is definitely no shark whisperer.