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Nancy Spielberg: Finding Your Own Lane in a Famous Family · All in the Family Office

0:12
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Danny Charod and welcome to All in the
0:15
Speaker 1: Family Office. This is a podcast dedicated to pulling back
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Speaker 1: the curtains and giving you an inside look at the
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Speaker 1: families and the fortunes that are impacting our lives and
0:26
Speaker 1: making a difference. We're all familiar with family businesses, but
0:30
Speaker 1: family offices are becoming an increasingly influential presence in modern economies.
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Speaker 2: Yes, I couldn't agree more.
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Speaker 3: I'm David Alberts. And Denny, I don't have near the
0:41
Speaker 3: experience you have around family officers.
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Speaker 2: But they're fascinating.
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Speaker 3: The legacy, the pressure of carrying on something with so
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Speaker 3: much history. And of course, carving your own lane while
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Speaker 3: staying true to that family story. Because all of these
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Speaker 3: families have such rich stories. I'm excited to get a
1:01
Speaker 3: peek behind the curtain. Or should I say, a peek
1:03
Speaker 3: behind the office door.
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Speaker 1: And the stories are amazing, I mean, of how some
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Speaker 1: of these families build themselves, the challenges they were dealing with.
1:13
Speaker 1: And those that are willing to share information, some of
1:17
Speaker 1: them are fascinating.
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Speaker 4: Sometimes these families are really kind of isolated and we
1:25
Speaker 4: know the names, we don't know the stories. And I
1:28
Speaker 4: think what to me is so interesting is the backstories
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Speaker 4: to all these families that to let people know the
1:35
Speaker 4: journey they've been on.
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Speaker 2: One of the things about Nancy's story to me.
1:40
Speaker 4: Is the kind of the myth in the family, the
1:43
Speaker 4: myth story in the family. And I love that she
1:45
Speaker 4: talked about Steve rather than our Steven Spielberg, but Steve
1:52
Speaker 4: and his ability right from day one and as something
1:57
Speaker 4: in the family of even when his father had a camera,
2:02
Speaker 4: it was the fact that And I loved when she
2:06
Speaker 4: said he looks at the world through a different lens
2:09
Speaker 4: and he had the ability to give us different angles.
2:13
Speaker 4: And I thought that was just so interesting as part
2:16
Speaker 4: of the Spielberg family.
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Speaker 2: It was looking at things differently, different angles. I don't
2:21
Speaker 2: know if you've seen that, something that comes out in Nancy.
2:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you can even see how maybe the former
2:29
Speaker 1: generation impacts the next. Because if you remember, she mentioned
2:33
Speaker 1: that the father used to take them at night to
2:38
Speaker 1: look at the stars. It would just stop in the
2:40
Speaker 1: middle of the desert, right? So maybe that also shows
2:43
Speaker 1: you how he planted seeds of imagination and what's out there.
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Speaker 4: The other thing I thought Nancy spoke about in a
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Speaker 4: really interesting way, and I don't know if you see
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Speaker 4: this in many families, but she was very conscious of
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Speaker 4: finding her own lane within the family story. She wanted
3:04
Speaker 4: to make something that was different and own her own.
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Speaker 4: And is this something that you see in generations or
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Speaker 4: siblings within a family?
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Speaker 1: Absolutely. So it's something you definitely see that many next-gens
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Speaker 1: want to build their own path, even if it may
3:22
Speaker 1: be easier for them to open some doors, but still
3:25
Speaker 1: do their own thing.
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Speaker 4: And, yeah, we talk about it a lot as part
3:28
Speaker 4: of the show, the whole idea of affluence to influence.
3:33
Speaker 2: And Nancy, she had a great.
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Speaker 4: Line, Steve's movies make money.
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Speaker 2: I make the movies that make a difference. She asked for.
3:45
Speaker 1: People to help her make her movies happen because she
3:48
Speaker 1: cares about them. She wants people to care and invest
3:51
Speaker 1: in them, not for, again, she's no profit. It's for
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Speaker 1: the sake of making, like you say, a difference.
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Speaker 2: I think that's so true.
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Speaker 4: And then I think, but one thing that does come out,
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Speaker 4: and again, I wonder if you see this, there is
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Speaker 4: something that unifies them and other members, because I think
4:11
Speaker 4: another sibling was a multi-award winner as well, is their
4:15
Speaker 4: family values, that their values are ingrained in them and
4:20
Speaker 4: seems to be passed from one to the other. And
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Speaker 4: is that something that you see in many families that
4:26
Speaker 4: you work with, this idea of family values, is something
4:30
Speaker 4: as a glue?
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Speaker 1: Absolutely. They have books, they have stories and films they
4:37
Speaker 1: make within the family to keep the tradition and the
4:39
Speaker 1: values that the first generation had.
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Speaker 2: Very good. So As we said, every family has a story.
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Speaker 2: Every story has a lesson. They all seem to have
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Speaker 2: a myth story.
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Speaker 4: Yet each individual member and generation needs to find their
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Speaker 4: own lane. They look at their affluence they've done and then,
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Speaker 4: you know, particularly in the latest generations, how that influence
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Speaker 4: can be made. But it's all based around family values.
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Speaker 4: And really, these are all things that when we talk
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Speaker 4: about large corporations or large brands, All of them need
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Speaker 4: a myth story.
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Speaker 2: All of them need to find their own lane and relevance.
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Speaker 4: All of them have an influence in the wider world,
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Speaker 4: but it's the values of those brands like these families
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Speaker 4: that really make a difference over time. So I'm really
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Speaker 4: excited for everyone to hear Nancy's story and your conversation
5:34
Speaker 4: with Nancy.
5:36
Speaker 2: So, yeah, so another episode of All in the Family Office, Denny.
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Speaker 2: Super exciting.
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Speaker 5: Yep.
5:42
Speaker 1: Check it out. Thank you, Deggit.
5:43
Speaker 2: Thanks, Denny.
5:48
Speaker 1: So today I have the privilege of sitting down with
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Speaker 1: Nancy Spielberg, award-winning producer, humanitarian, and a powerful voice of
5:56
Speaker 1: the intersection of storytelling and global impact. As a producer,
6:01
Speaker 1: she's been involved in projects that do more than entertain.
6:04
Speaker 1: They educate, challenge assumptions, and bring complex historical and social
6:08
Speaker 1: issues to the forefront. Nancy has produced a string of
6:12
Speaker 1: impactful documentaries that bring history and human experience into sharp focus.
6:16
Speaker 1: Her 2014 film, Above and Beyond, about the American pilots
6:20
Speaker 1: who helped found the Israeli Air Force, won audience awards
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Speaker 1: at more than 20 film festivals. And she has executive
6:27
Speaker 1: produced critically acclaimed films, many of which have been celebrated
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Speaker 1: for illuminating overlooked stories and cultural legacies. Beyond cinema, she's
6:36
Speaker 1: a passionate advocate for preserving history and fostering understanding across generations.
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Speaker 1: And I'm so excited to have Nancy here today because
6:45
Speaker 1: I've known her for quite a while. And besides leaving
6:48
Speaker 1: messages at questionable hours, this is the first time I
6:51
Speaker 1: get to interview you.
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Speaker 5: I know, in person. We have so many voice chats.
6:57
Speaker 1: Yeah.
6:57
Speaker 5: You're up all the time or I'm up all the time.
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Speaker 5: I'm not sure.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, both of us. Yeah. So we have so many questions.
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Speaker 1: So I wanted to start with, before we dive into
7:05
Speaker 1: the business, what was it like to grow up as
7:08
Speaker 1: a Spielberg, one of the most prominent families in film history?
7:12
Speaker 5: We weren't always the prominent Spielbergs.
7:16
Speaker 6: We started off as a typical middle-class family, a little
7:20
Speaker 6: struggling financially. My dad was a computer engineer before computers
7:25
Speaker 6: were even, he was like a pioneer in the industry.
7:27
Speaker 5: And my mom was this.
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Speaker 6: Very colorful, artsy, free-spirited mom, very different personalities. And we
7:36
Speaker 6: grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, where there was very little
7:40
Speaker 6: to do. But my brother was always interested in filming.
7:45
Speaker 6: From the time maybe he was 12 years old, my
7:47
Speaker 6: dad had the camera because my dad was really into
7:49
Speaker 6: technical things. And my dad used to film our camping trips,
7:54
Speaker 6: but they were so very boring. My dad was just
7:56
Speaker 6: like everything very lineal. And Steve at one point said, Dad,
8:01
Speaker 6: just give me the camera. And when Steve started to
8:04
Speaker 6: film our camping trips, every angle was really unique. He
8:09
Speaker 6: had a different eye, a different vision. And that started
8:12
Speaker 6: to influence our lives. And when he got a little
8:15
Speaker 6: bit older, he turned to the three younger sisters and
8:18
Speaker 6: the baby. and said, we're making a movie. And, you know,
8:21
Speaker 6: there was no saying no to him. But there was
8:24
Speaker 6: nothing else to do in Arizona in the summer. It
8:26
Speaker 6: was 118 outside. We didn't realize when people say, did
8:31
Speaker 6: you know your brother was a genius?
8:32
Speaker 5: We were like, no, we didn't know he was a genius.
8:35
Speaker 5: He wasn't a great student.
8:37
Speaker 6: But he just had a different angle in life and
8:41
Speaker 6: was able to share that.
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Speaker 1: And you were acting in his films, right? You got
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Speaker 1: all these roles.
8:45
Speaker 6: Listen, we were cast and crew. So Anne was script girl.
8:49
Speaker 6: Sue and I were both special effects and I was acting.
8:52
Speaker 6: We all acted in different parts, but I was in
8:55
Speaker 6: one of his first big films. He was like 17
8:58
Speaker 6: years old and it played in Arizona at this little
9:02
Speaker 6: theater for one day, you know, because we rented the theater.
9:05
Speaker 5: And I played a girl named.
9:06
Speaker 6: Lisa who gets abducted by aliens. He started early with aliens,
9:11
Speaker 6: but they weren't friendly back then. It wasn't like E.T.
9:13
Speaker 5: Later.
9:13
Speaker 1: And then how did the relationship with Bernie influence, do
9:16
Speaker 1: you think, you guys growing up?
9:18
Speaker 6: Little did we know that my mother and my dad's
9:23
Speaker 6: best friend, Bernie, who worked with my dad in the
9:26
Speaker 6: computer world, Bernie was secretly in love with my mom.
9:30
Speaker 6: He was a bachelor, always stayed a bachelor, and they
9:32
Speaker 6: were always going places together.
9:33
Speaker 5: Bernie was at our house.
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Speaker 6: When I was born, there were three adult faces looking
9:38
Speaker 6: down at me in the crib. So I don't know
9:40
Speaker 6: my life without Bernie. When the marriage of my parents
9:44
Speaker 6: fell apart, And Bernie was in the picture in a
9:47
Speaker 6: different way. At first, I was, hey, he's my friend.
9:50
Speaker 6: And I understood enough that things were changing if he
9:53
Speaker 6: was interested in my mother. But it actually was an
9:57
Speaker 6: okay transition. The divorce was tough.
10:00
Speaker 1: How old were you?
10:01
Speaker 5: I was 10 years old.
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Speaker 6: But the divorce was tough because my dad was always
10:04
Speaker 6: in love with my mom and there was a lot
10:06
Speaker 6: of pain. But it was a story that was unique
10:09
Speaker 6: because we did not know until my brother sent my
10:14
Speaker 6: sisters and me the script for Fablements, until he called
10:18
Speaker 6: and said to me, it was during COVID, I want
10:20
Speaker 6: to tell their story. Dad's gone. Mom's gone. Bernie's gone.
10:24
Speaker 6: Now's the time. How do you feel about it? And
10:28
Speaker 6: we three sisters didn't know that Steve had seen anything.
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Speaker 6: He never shared that before.
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Speaker 5: That was the first time when he said he saw
10:35
Speaker 5: in some of the camping films that there was a
10:39
Speaker 5: connection between them. That was really a shocker.
10:43
Speaker 6: But it was also the entire film and You feel
10:47
Speaker 6: an outpouring of love throughout the film. There's no bad
10:50
Speaker 6: guy in it. I think that's such a recent film,
10:54
Speaker 6: but it was probably the film that brought we siblings
11:00
Speaker 6: closer than we have ever been. You know, we're without
11:03
Speaker 6: our parents, and your parents are sort of the grounding
11:05
Speaker 6: force in a family's life. They're the ones that bring
11:08
Speaker 6: everybody to the table, Thanksgiving, Passover, whatever. And when they're gone,
11:12
Speaker 6: siblings scatter a lot of times. And we instead... really
11:16
Speaker 6: cling to each other.
11:17
Speaker 5: And that experience of the dump of memories and putting
11:22
Speaker 5: the film together the way we did, really, we all
11:25
Speaker 5: got super tight. And there we should stay until death
11:29
Speaker 5: do us part.
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Speaker 1: PlayMount Productions was started by your father when Stephen was
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Speaker 1: a teenager. What do you remember about those early days
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Speaker 1: when filmmaking first became something of a business interest in
11:41
Speaker 1: your family?
11:43
Speaker 5: Steve was a Boy Scout. So.
11:45
Speaker 6: Really, that's when the filmmaking took a more serious turn.
11:49
Speaker 6: But there was a challenge that the Boy Scouts had
11:52
Speaker 6: to pull themselves up on a bar, chin up, to
11:55
Speaker 6: earn a certain badge.
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Speaker 5: And my brother had no arm muscles.
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Speaker 6: So he went to the scoutmaster and said, instead, what
12:02
Speaker 6: if I make a film and I'll use all the
12:04
Speaker 6: troop and we'll make a film? And the scoutmaster said, OK.
12:08
Speaker 6: And then Steve was very popular because everybody wanted to
12:10
Speaker 6: be in the films. And he got his badge. And
12:13
Speaker 6: that was one of the first films, a Western. And
12:16
Speaker 6: we grew up in Arizona. So in Arizona, there were
12:18
Speaker 6: these cowboy towns, fake cowboy towns with a stagecoach and
12:23
Speaker 6: a fake jail. So it was a perfect location. And
12:27
Speaker 6: my dad, my mom, everybody was involved. And even to
12:31
Speaker 6: the point once Steve did an army film and he
12:34
Speaker 6: was too young to drive and all of his friends
12:36
Speaker 6: were too young. So my mother had very short hair
12:39
Speaker 6: and our family car was a 1950 Willys Army Jeep.
12:44
Speaker 6: And my mother put on an Army helmet and dressed
12:47
Speaker 6: like a guy, and she would drive them in the
12:49
Speaker 6: movie because none of them could. So really, it was
12:52
Speaker 6: a family affair. And my dad came up with Playmount,
12:55
Speaker 6: which is the translation of Spiel from German.
12:59
Speaker 5: Spiel is play, and Berg is mountain. So Playmount Productions.
13:03
Speaker 6: Steve used it for very early films and then just
13:06
Speaker 6: abandoned it.
13:08
Speaker 5: So many years later, I went, Mine. That's mine. I'm
13:13
Speaker 5: taking it.
13:13
Speaker 1: And then you took it towards documentary storytelling with Above
13:17
Speaker 1: and Beyond.
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Speaker 5: Right.
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Speaker 1: What drew you to that direction instead of traditional narrative films?
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Speaker 5: First of all, I never really wanted to get into
13:26
Speaker 5: the film business. And I loved writing stories. And I
13:29
Speaker 5: used to write stories from the time I was eight
13:30
Speaker 5: years old. And the bigger my brother got, the more famous.
13:36
Speaker 6: the more I said, there's no way in hell I'm
13:38
Speaker 6: entering into that field because there's no way that I
13:41
Speaker 6: can meet the public's expectation.
13:44
Speaker 5: They will be looking for me to fail. And I
13:46
Speaker 5: was so intimidated by that.
13:48
Speaker 6: My sister Anne's a screenwriter and she wrote the movie Big,
13:51
Speaker 6: which was her Oscar nomination.
13:53
Speaker 5: But I went, nope, not for me.
13:55
Speaker 6: And then everybody was sort of hitting me up with, well,
13:58
Speaker 6: what about, can you give the script to your brother?
14:01
Speaker 5: And can you give this project? And it was, no,
14:03
Speaker 5: that's sort of the rule in the family.
14:05
Speaker 6: This is how we stay, keep our peace, is we're
14:08
Speaker 6: not pushing things on him.
14:10
Speaker 5: But then they'd say next, can you help me?
14:12
Speaker 6: So I started off by helping people reading scripts and
14:15
Speaker 6: guiding them with just structure, story structure, a little bit
14:19
Speaker 6: of advice.
14:20
Speaker 5: And then I worked on a film.
14:21
Speaker 6: I helped them raise money called Elusive Justice, The Search
14:25
Speaker 6: for Nazi War Criminals. It was directed by Jonathan Silvers,
14:28
Speaker 6: an incredible filmmaker. And after that film, somebody sent me
14:33
Speaker 6: an email, and the email had an obituary of this
14:37
Speaker 6: man named Al Schwimmer. And the title of the obituary
14:40
Speaker 6: was Father of the Israeli Air Force Dies at 94.
14:44
Speaker 6: And the person who sent this to me, and I
14:46
Speaker 6: don't even remember who it was, I keep looking for
14:47
Speaker 6: that email, said this should be your next film. And
14:50
Speaker 6: I read about this American World War II vet that
14:55
Speaker 6: decided after World War II, when he saw that Israel
14:58
Speaker 6: was going to become a state and would be attacked
15:00
Speaker 6: by all the five surrounding countries, Al Shremmer helped to
15:04
Speaker 6: liberate the camps in World War II, but all these
15:07
Speaker 6: survivors were now in Israel. And he thought, we didn't
15:10
Speaker 6: finish the job. They're facing another genocide. And he got
15:13
Speaker 6: his buddies together. Just such a crazy, it's sort of
15:16
Speaker 6: an Indiana Jones kind of story, because they smuggled airplanes
15:19
Speaker 6: out of the U.S.
15:20
Speaker 5: They created fake airlines.
15:21
Speaker 6: They had all kinds of crazy antics, smuggled airplanes and
15:25
Speaker 6: weapons to Israel. And then they actually flew and fought
15:28
Speaker 6: in Israel's War of Independence. And it was something about
15:32
Speaker 6: the story that I said, this is my time.
15:36
Speaker 5: This is the time. I'm going to do it.
15:38
Speaker 6: And it's a documentary. It's not a feature film like
15:41
Speaker 6: Stevie does. You know, let's leave that to him. I'm
15:43
Speaker 6: just going to do this really meaningful story because people
15:46
Speaker 6: don't know this story. These guys never spoke. They thought
15:49
Speaker 6: the FBI was still after them. So they just never
15:52
Speaker 6: talked about it. Only one guy was a boaster. Everybody
15:54
Speaker 6: else shushed it. They figured one day somebody was going
15:57
Speaker 6: to come and arrest them. That was the time that
16:00
Speaker 6: started this whole shebang of, making the films.
16:03
Speaker 5: And I met you right after that, right?
16:05
Speaker 4: Oh, really?
16:06
Speaker 1: Yeah.
16:06
Speaker 5: We know each other for 10 years.
16:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. And then when suddenly in the middle of
16:12
Speaker 1: your life, you suddenly start this career.
16:14
Speaker 6: I know.
16:14
Speaker 1: And then you do your first film and it's successful.
16:17
Speaker 1: I mean, the awards, the critical. I mean, were you like, gee,
16:20
Speaker 1: I'm good in the film industry by my own?
16:24
Speaker 6: Well, I will say, gee, I picked a great team
16:28
Speaker 6: to work with. on my first film, which it is.
16:32
Speaker 6: It's all very collaborative. I hired Roberta Grossman, who was
16:36
Speaker 6: so patient with me. Sometimes I say, just because my
16:39
Speaker 6: name is Spielberg doesn't mean I know as much as
16:42
Speaker 6: my brother. And yes, I grew up making films with him,
16:45
Speaker 6: but things change. There's a little bit of an innate
16:49
Speaker 6: sense that comes to you. I think our family anyway,
16:52
Speaker 6: our storytellers, everything is a little bit embellished in our family.
16:56
Speaker 6: But if it had failed, I probably would have said,
16:59
Speaker 6: One and done. But it gave me such encouragement. Plus,
17:03
Speaker 6: the pilots in the last chapter of their lives were
17:07
Speaker 6: crying with gratitude that they were sitting in theaters at
17:12
Speaker 6: film festivals or in their own hometowns where they were
17:14
Speaker 6: never honored and they received standing ovations. It was like
17:19
Speaker 6: the recognition was so late, but it changed their lives.
17:24
Speaker 6: There's one guy, Harold Livingston, he was a screenwriter after this.
17:27
Speaker 6: He wrote Star Trek and all kinds of stuff. And
17:30
Speaker 6: he's a sassy short guy. And I remember he wrote me,
17:33
Speaker 6: he always wrote me, darling child. He said, I came
17:37
Speaker 6: into this story as a Schmendrick, but I'm going out
17:41
Speaker 6: as a star.
17:42
Speaker 1: And do you think the point where you decided you're
17:44
Speaker 1: going to do documentaries and in this world, Do you
17:47
Speaker 1: think Schindler's List had something to do with it? And
17:50
Speaker 1: how did it affect the rest of the family?
17:52
Speaker 5: Yes.
17:52
Speaker 6: So when we were still filming Above and Beyond, Roberta Grossman,
17:56
Speaker 6: who directed it, was in pre-production for Who Will Write
17:59
Speaker 6: Our History. And she says, you've got to hear this
18:02
Speaker 6: story about this secret group that met and they wrote
18:07
Speaker 6: 30,000 pages of documents in real time of what the
18:11
Speaker 6: Nazis were doing. And they buried these documents in milk cans,
18:15
Speaker 6: hoping somebody would survive until the story of the truth
18:19
Speaker 6: to future generations. So which reminded me of Show Off Foundation,
18:23
Speaker 6: which my brother started after Schindler's List, taking testimonies of survivors.
18:29
Speaker 6: And which, of course, those testimonies are told with memory.
18:33
Speaker 6: And these documents were written in real time with anger
18:37
Speaker 6: and frustration and fear.
18:39
Speaker 5: It was a different feeling. So yes, it affected me.
18:42
Speaker 6: And it really then cemented that I need to do
18:47
Speaker 6: this more. I need to preserve these stories. And I
18:50
Speaker 6: started to go mostly down the Jewish path. It's not
18:53
Speaker 6: that I won't do other films, but this is where
18:58
Speaker 6: things were leading me. And when projects came to me
19:00
Speaker 6: or I heard a story, that's sort of what the
19:03
Speaker 6: song I wanted to sing. And how did my family react?
19:07
Speaker 6: I will tell you the cutest thing is my brother.
19:10
Speaker 6: Steve has a lot of things in the pipeline in
19:13
Speaker 6: the family. We call him Steve, not Steven, but anyway.
19:16
Speaker 6: And I didn't want to head down this road with
19:18
Speaker 6: Above and Beyond and find out that he's in production
19:22
Speaker 6: for the feature film of the same topic. So I
19:25
Speaker 6: just had to make sure. I go, Steve, I want
19:27
Speaker 6: to do this documentary. I just don't want to be
19:29
Speaker 6: competing with you in a movie theater.
19:31
Speaker 5: Big marquee, little marquee.
19:33
Speaker 6: And he said, I'm not doing that. It's a great idea.
19:36
Speaker 6: And you have my blessing. And a great documentary will
19:41
Speaker 6: make a great feature film. So that's how I started out.
19:45
Speaker 6: And as I was filming, I didn't ask him for anything.
19:48
Speaker 6: Also because I really am very independent. But he tried
19:52
Speaker 6: to help me. He goes, I have somebody to do
19:54
Speaker 6: your score. And I went, no, I've got somebody. It
19:57
Speaker 6: turned out both of them were in Hans Zimmer's camp.
20:00
Speaker 6: So we weren't far off from each other. And he
20:03
Speaker 6: had this little smile. So very proud. And after he
20:06
Speaker 6: saw it, he said to me that I made him cry.
20:10
Speaker 6: I said, honey, you made me cry lots of times
20:12
Speaker 6: when I was a kid too. And then my dad,
20:15
Speaker 6: who was 96 years old, the pride that he felt,
20:21
Speaker 6: my father, it's like we gave him another decade to live.
20:26
Speaker 6: He was always proud of us, but he was bursting
20:28
Speaker 6: with pride because he served in a bomb squadron. He
20:31
Speaker 6: was in the army, but served in the bomb squadron.
20:33
Speaker 6: So films like Saving Private Ryan and Above and Beyond...
20:37
Speaker 6: really spoke to him about the camaraderie, the brotherhood of
20:41
Speaker 6: the Brothers in Arms.
20:42
Speaker 1: I think there was also an interesting story there. I
20:44
Speaker 1: think Stephen took it very hard, that journey into Schindler's List.
20:49
Speaker 6: Originally, Steve was handed Schindler's List, the book, by Sid Sheinberg,
20:53
Speaker 6: the head of Universal. And Steve said, this is sacred.
20:58
Speaker 6: And if you mess this up, there's no coming back
21:01
Speaker 6: from that. It took about 10 years for him to
21:03
Speaker 6: finally get to the point where he.
21:05
Speaker 5: said, yes, I'll do it. But he had no idea
21:08
Speaker 5: what to expect.
21:09
Speaker 6: You can tell just because we got to Poland and
21:13
Speaker 6: everything about his big color, special effects kind of film
21:18
Speaker 6: was all stripped away. And it went to black and white,
21:20
Speaker 6: which the studio really was against. They said no black
21:25
Speaker 6: and white films make money. But Steve was not about
21:28
Speaker 6: the money. And everything was very, you know, handheld cameras,
21:33
Speaker 6: very down to earth. And Steve, he went into a
21:37
Speaker 6: depression over it. It was tough because he was surrounded
21:40
Speaker 6: by survivors. And every day they would tell him stories.
21:44
Speaker 6: And we grew up in Arizona. So we didn't have
21:47
Speaker 6: survivors around us. He knew a little bit from, he
21:50
Speaker 6: was born in Cincinnati. My grandmother taught survivors English. So
21:54
Speaker 6: he had met some survivors, but he was a young kid.
21:57
Speaker 6: He didn't understand it. So this was an awakening. And
22:01
Speaker 6: he told us that he was so drained so depleted
22:06
Speaker 6: and he was so depressed that he would call Robin
22:10
Speaker 6: and just sit on the phone and Robin would do
22:12
Speaker 6: these like 20 minute monologues and.
22:15
Speaker 5: Would bring him back to life.
22:16
Speaker 6: And he would laugh hysterically and he would just fill
22:19
Speaker 6: the coffers with the energy that he needed to face
22:22
Speaker 6: the next day.
22:22
Speaker 1: And then is there a project you believed in that
22:26
Speaker 1: failed or never got made?
22:28
Speaker 5: Not yet.
22:29
Speaker 1: Not yet.
22:29
Speaker 2: But there may be. You know what?
22:31
Speaker 5: Every single film is a risk.
22:34
Speaker 6: I think the film that I have out now is
22:37
Speaker 6: problematic because it's an Israeli production and there's so much
22:42
Speaker 6: anti-Israel sentiment and the banning of Israeli artists. So we
22:47
Speaker 6: are finding that we are being dismissed, not just passed over.
22:53
Speaker 6: It's not a good film, but literally being dismissed and canceled.
22:56
Speaker 6: Like we were invited to a festival, canceled from the
22:58
Speaker 6: festival because it's an Israeli production. So I'm feeling it personally,
23:04
Speaker 6: but I'm still going to keep trying.
23:05
Speaker 1: And it's a film about October 7th events and it
23:08
Speaker 1: got amazing reviews.
23:10
Speaker 4: Yeah.
23:11
Speaker 5: And it's called Letter to David.
23:12
Speaker 6: And it's the story of the connection of two brothers
23:15
Speaker 6: that said, we'll never be apart, that were torn apart.
23:19
Speaker 6: So it's really a story about getting to know a
23:22
Speaker 6: human being, not as a country or a politician. But
23:26
Speaker 6: as a guy you want to be friends with because
23:28
Speaker 6: he's really a nice guy. And even a film like that,
23:32
Speaker 6: it's an October 7 film that focuses on humanity is
23:35
Speaker 6: getting banned. But Berlinale, the festival in Berlin was incredibly
23:41
Speaker 6: good to us. And just now they premiered Letter to
23:44
Speaker 6: David with a new ending because David is home and
23:48
Speaker 6: his younger brother Ariel.
23:49
Speaker 5: So the brothers were there. The family was there as well.
23:56
Speaker 1: So everybody, as you mentioned before, asks you about your brother.
23:58
Speaker 1: Before you started doing films, can you pass this to him?
24:02
Speaker 1: And nobody asks about the burden, maybe sometimes, of legacy
24:04
Speaker 1: in practical terms, right? Sometimes to be the next generation
24:07
Speaker 1: of a big family, everybody are looking at you, oh,
24:09
Speaker 1: you're here because of that. You need to prove yourself.
24:12
Speaker 1: And you almost didn't even go into films because of that.
24:15
Speaker 1: Was there a moment when carrying the Spielberg name, I
24:17
Speaker 1: don't know, I wouldn't say closed doors, but you didn't
24:21
Speaker 1: feel like using it or it made you feel uncomfortable? And...
24:25
Speaker 1: I know your daughter is a very talented person herself.
24:29
Speaker 1: She's not using this public name, which is interesting, right?
24:32
Speaker 1: Because it could have opened many doors. Her name, you
24:34
Speaker 1: would never know she's related.
24:37
Speaker 6: So first of all, and you must be dealing with
24:39
Speaker 6: this with a lot of the families you deal with.
24:42
Speaker 6: There is tremendous burden and pressure to, first of all, behave.
24:48
Speaker 6: Because you do one thing wrong, you're definitely the headline.
24:52
Speaker 5: And balance.
24:53
Speaker 6: what somebody's intentions are. When I first moved to LA,
24:58
Speaker 6: my brother was already there in 1974. And I was
25:01
Speaker 6: going to UCLA. My brother said to me once, listen,
25:05
Speaker 6: when guys ask you out, they don't really want to
25:07
Speaker 6: go out with you.
25:08
Speaker 5: They really just want to get to me.
25:10
Speaker 6: So I was like, well, thanks, Steve. That really gives
25:12
Speaker 6: me so much confidence as a young dating person. But
25:16
Speaker 6: I found out soon enough, living in LA, if my
25:19
Speaker 6: name is Spielberg, that the guy bagging your groceries stuck
25:23
Speaker 6: his photo in there or a script in there that
25:25
Speaker 6: there was no escaping it. You have to be very careful.
25:29
Speaker 6: You have to weigh your friendships. And after a while,
25:33
Speaker 6: you grow antennae. You have a radar. And you go, nope,
25:38
Speaker 6: that one's just trying to ride the Spielberg train and
25:41
Speaker 6: that one's intentions.
25:42
Speaker 5: There's something coming. Everybody has an agenda, whether.
25:45
Speaker 6: They're raising money or business-wise and charity-wise and everybody. But
25:50
Speaker 6: There's a way you develop relationships where sometimes you can
25:54
Speaker 6: have an agenda, but a relationship is formed.
25:57
Speaker 5: It is a burden.
25:58
Speaker 6: I used to say when I call the plumber or
26:01
Speaker 6: the electrician for a quote, my last name is Katz.
26:05
Speaker 6: When I want a reservation at a really hard to
26:08
Speaker 6: get into restaurant, my name is Spielberg. But I'm very
26:11
Speaker 6: cautious about using it. And my kids never told anybody.
26:15
Speaker 6: And they used to say they went to a Jewish
26:17
Speaker 6: school and they go, how come people already know about it?
26:19
Speaker 3: And I go, honey.
26:20
Speaker 6: It's the elephant in the room. It's tight-knit community. People talk.
26:24
Speaker 6: But with Jessica, she was on The Voice in Israel.
26:29
Speaker 6: And when they first were trying to sign her, she
26:31
Speaker 6: kept trying to write into the contract, you will not
26:34
Speaker 6: mention my uncle, because she didn't want to be the
26:38
Speaker 6: catalyst to drive marketing and Or promos like Spielberg's niece
26:43
Speaker 6: is coming, you know, tune in. Also, Spielberg's niece has
26:47
Speaker 6: voted off the island. So she didn't win, but they
26:50
Speaker 6: limited it. So yes, the headlines still came out when
26:53
Speaker 6: she was off the voice. But both of my kids
26:58
Speaker 6: are very cool.
27:00
Speaker 2: They're cool.
27:00
Speaker 5: I'm so glad they don't use it.
27:02
Speaker 6: And we've had plenty of people that have faked it
27:06
Speaker 6: and have used it. And I, of course, won't mention names,
27:09
Speaker 6: but they use the last name Spielberg. to get front
27:11
Speaker 6: row tickets at fashion shows, to get into all these
27:15
Speaker 6: exclusive things. And eventually we find out and there's a
27:19
Speaker 6: cease and desist that goes out.
27:22
Speaker 1: How has your business decisions been influenced by carrying such
27:27
Speaker 1: a gigantic name as Spielberg?
27:31
Speaker 5: Again, I am careful. I really am careful.
27:33
Speaker 6: But I needed something and I decided to use my name.
27:38
Speaker 6: And I needed to do CGI work of flying scenes
27:43
Speaker 6: because we're a low budget film, a million two, which
27:47
Speaker 6: went up a little bit. I rented some old Spitfires
27:51
Speaker 6: to fly, but they were like thousands of dollars an hour.
27:53
Speaker 6: And then one time we flew and it was cloudy,
27:55
Speaker 6: so I missed a dive shot. So I needed CGI
27:58
Speaker 6: work and I went to Industrial Light and Magic. They're
28:02
Speaker 6: the best and they're the most expensive. And I knew
28:06
Speaker 6: that Kathy Kennedy, who worked for my brother for years,
28:09
Speaker 6: she started off as his secretary, his assistant. She ended
28:12
Speaker 6: up with Disney, obviously. And she was Lucasfilms. And she
28:16
Speaker 6: and Frank Marshall, like the biggest producers. And so one
28:20
Speaker 6: night I drank a glass of wine and then I
28:23
Speaker 6: pulled out my laptop and I was like, okay, I'm
28:25
Speaker 6: going to write the chutzpah email. And I was like,
28:27
Speaker 6: dear Kathy, I'm making this film. I don't have any money,
28:30
Speaker 6: but I need CGI work done. And I wanted to
28:32
Speaker 6: know if ILM will help me. And she didn't answer me.
28:37
Speaker 6: But the next day, the head of ILM called me
28:40
Speaker 6: and said, what do you need? We do pro bono work.
28:44
Speaker 6: And I was like, oh, my God. So I had
28:47
Speaker 6: to then go, oh, look what happened when I used
28:49
Speaker 6: my name. But I also had a relationship with her.
28:51
Speaker 6: So it wasn't just because sometimes you say Spielberg and
28:54
Speaker 6: I can get through to somebody and sometimes it doesn't
28:58
Speaker 6: get through and you can't. I'm still the little sister,
29:01
Speaker 6: but that was one of the times where I was like, oh,
29:04
Speaker 6: thank you. I owe her big time. And that really
29:07
Speaker 6: helped me. So then I am careful. And when I
29:11
Speaker 6: sometimes I write an email and I'll get through to
29:15
Speaker 6: the person that I need to get through to.
29:16
Speaker 5: And sometimes I won't.
29:18
Speaker 6: I have to say that I think with some of
29:20
Speaker 6: the work I've done, and I'm not a filmmaker for
29:22
Speaker 6: years and years. I'm like a 12 year filmmaker that
29:26
Speaker 6: I'm actually able on my own worth to connect to
29:32
Speaker 6: people without saying, hi, I'm Nancy Stevens' little sister.
29:35
Speaker 5: I don't do that.
29:36
Speaker 1: And what do your siblings do? You're in the film world,
29:39
Speaker 1: and then... what do the others, did they end up
29:42
Speaker 1: anywhere close?
29:43
Speaker 6: Anne still, Anne wrote a lot of things. Big was
29:45
Speaker 6: her big hit and she was a script doctor. So
29:49
Speaker 6: she wrote for years and she's actually now coming out
29:51
Speaker 6: with a children's book. It's about a penguin and an iceberg.
29:56
Speaker 6: And my sister, Sue, doesn't do films. So she was
29:58
Speaker 6: the actress in the family in the earlier days, but
30:02
Speaker 6: now not so much.
30:03
Speaker 1: And then as Playmount evolved, did your family have to
30:06
Speaker 1: get clearer about what you say no to or what
30:10
Speaker 1: you want to invest in? And you've spoken about protecting
30:13
Speaker 1: sibling time as something sacred and separate from work. Why
30:19
Speaker 1: is that boundary being so important in keeping both the
30:21
Speaker 1: family and the business healthy?
30:23
Speaker 6: I think mostly because my brother has millions of people
30:28
Speaker 6: tugging on him. And we as family are.
30:34
Speaker 5: The safe space.
30:35
Speaker 6: We always say we don't walk into the room together
30:38
Speaker 6: with an agenda. Let him let his hair down. Let
30:42
Speaker 6: him understand whatever he wants to say. It's not repeated.
30:45
Speaker 6: This is a safe space. And it's hard to understand
30:48
Speaker 6: what his life is like, really, because He's so in
30:52
Speaker 6: demand in so many ways. And he's very much about
30:55
Speaker 6: his filmmaking and his family. And for him to preserve
30:59
Speaker 6: some sense of normalcy in his family, they have to
31:03
Speaker 6: have very strong boundaries.
31:05
Speaker 5: And we respect those. We uphold them also.
31:08
Speaker 1: So how did it look like to work in a
31:09
Speaker 1: business that's actually so tied to the family?
31:12
Speaker 5: I actually love it.
31:14
Speaker 6: And you have to manage it so that you're not
31:17
Speaker 6: overstepping or leaning on somebody when it just doesn't feel appropriate.
31:22
Speaker 6: I really believe that everybody has to, in some way,
31:26
Speaker 6: carry their weight. And being around my brother, I see that.
31:31
Speaker 6: I see that there is no free ticket. When Jessica,
31:34
Speaker 6: my daughter, wanted to act and she was applying to
31:37
Speaker 6: college and she said, I want to be an actress,
31:39
Speaker 6: I said, Uncle Steve's not giving you a job unless
31:42
Speaker 6: you earn it.
31:43
Speaker 5: There is no free ride.
31:44
Speaker 6: And that means you need to find your passion and
31:48
Speaker 6: you need to be a productive person. And if it
31:52
Speaker 6: means starting at the bottom and working your way up,
31:53
Speaker 6: so be it. Everybody needs humility, 100%. I really have
31:59
Speaker 6: a problem with people that act very entitled. I dismiss
32:02
Speaker 6: them in many ways because... Again, I keep saying my brother,
32:05
Speaker 6: but I don't want you to think like it's all
32:06
Speaker 6: about him. But I watch how his family works. And
32:11
Speaker 6: during COVID, Kate was cooking for everybody. They have a
32:14
Speaker 6: lot of kids. They don't drive around in limousines. They
32:18
Speaker 6: live like sort of normal humans with fancy toys sometimes,
32:22
Speaker 6: but normal humans that do good in life.
32:27
Speaker 5: And I think that's like something to hold on to. Plus,
32:31
Speaker 5: when I am.
32:32
Speaker 6: on set just to watch my brother, I watch him
32:35
Speaker 6: listen to some of his creative people on the set.
32:39
Speaker 6: He doesn't say, no, my way. He's a listener and
32:43
Speaker 6: he will take suggestions if they fit in, maybe not
32:46
Speaker 6: all the time. So I think I learned that from
32:49
Speaker 6: him as well.
32:50
Speaker 1: And I wanted to ask about your philanthropic vision for
32:52
Speaker 1: the company. I think in a sense, everything you do
32:54
Speaker 1: is philanthropic because it's a nonprofit. So how do you
32:57
Speaker 1: select causes to support? How does that fit into the
33:00
Speaker 1: broader vision of the company?
33:02
Speaker 6: Sometimes the film topic itself is the drives you to
33:08
Speaker 6: the cause, whether picture of his life about polar bears
33:12
Speaker 6: and about global warming and wildlife is one thing, about
33:16
Speaker 6: if a close circuit, which is a story of the
33:19
Speaker 6: terror attack at Sirona Marketplace in Israel in 2016, that
33:23
Speaker 6: then you think about terror victims and trauma. Of course,
33:27
Speaker 6: I do a lot for terror victims and a lot
33:31
Speaker 6: for children. and now really a lot for fighting anti-Semitism.
33:36
Speaker 6: And I started with Roberta Grossman and my brother's foundation,
33:40
Speaker 6: Jewish Story Partners, which we started a film fund because
33:44
Speaker 6: it's so difficult to raise money for documentaries, mostly for
33:49
Speaker 6: Jewish ones, because there's just not a lot of sources.
33:52
Speaker 6: And so my brother's foundation started us off and we
33:55
Speaker 6: are funding incredible documentaries. And many of them have been
34:00
Speaker 6: Oscar nominated. We have shortlisted now have premiered in Sundance
34:04
Speaker 6: and Tribeca. They are really incredible films. And I feel
34:08
Speaker 6: like we are creating an archive of Jewish stories. And
34:13
Speaker 6: right now with the anti-Semitism and being shut out globally
34:19
Speaker 6: just about, it's hard to, we don't find a lot
34:23
Speaker 6: of audiences, but we still have to preserve the stories
34:26
Speaker 6: for generations to come. And with survivors no longer, practically
34:30
Speaker 6: no longer with us, We still need to tell those stories. People,
34:33
Speaker 6: there are deniers everywhere. And the more something is said
34:37
Speaker 6: out loud with a megaphone on social media, people believe it,
34:40
Speaker 6: even if it's not true. You know, and it's that
34:43
Speaker 6: repetition that can rewrite history. So we have to really
34:46
Speaker 6: fight against that, against history being altered by the insanity
34:54
Speaker 6: of social media and some of the people that are
34:57
Speaker 6: just really polarized.
34:58
Speaker 1: And looking to the future, do you have any projects already,
35:01
Speaker 1: ideas that you're about to work on?
35:05
Speaker 5: So we all keep toying.
35:07
Speaker 6: When I say we all, I had DreamWorks at one
35:10
Speaker 6: point took the option for Above and Beyond because the
35:12
Speaker 6: story of those airmen is just the greatest story. And
35:17
Speaker 6: there's another group that may be working on that that
35:19
Speaker 6: I'm talking to. But I just don't know whether any
35:25
Speaker 6: studio will make a film about where it shows Israel
35:27
Speaker 6: being the victor, even though it was the war of
35:31
Speaker 6: independence and it was about independence and they had nothing.
35:35
Speaker 6: They had no guns. They were attacked by every surrounding army.
35:41
Speaker 6: It's going to be hard. So Hollywood looks at the
35:43
Speaker 6: box office. Documentaries don't always make good box office. I
35:47
Speaker 6: joked around with somebody the other day. I said, Steve
35:50
Speaker 6: and I have a division of labor. He makes big
35:52
Speaker 6: films that make money. I make little films that don't
35:55
Speaker 6: make money because I'm not a good business person.
35:58
Speaker 5: But we'll see. I'm toying around with doing more on
36:01
Speaker 5: that story because I loved it.
36:03
Speaker 1: And if someone takes one thing away from our conversation today,
36:06
Speaker 1: when hoping to potentially work with you, what would that be?
36:09
Speaker 1: If somebody wants to get to you and gain your attention?
36:14
Speaker 5: That's interesting.
36:15
Speaker 6: Because a total stranger reached out to me, and I
36:19
Speaker 6: get a lot of that, but one caught my eye.
36:22
Speaker 6: And she was a first-time director, and she made a
36:25
Speaker 6: student film, and it was about Sirona. about this closed circuit,
36:29
Speaker 6: the terror attack. Now, why did that one catch my eye?
36:33
Speaker 6: Why did I decide to answer a cold call email?
36:38
Speaker 6: Because I was in Israel on that day in Jerusalem.
36:44
Speaker 6: I was celebrating my birthday, which was the next week.
36:49
Speaker 6: And so I felt an immediate connection. So I can't
36:53
Speaker 6: say that there's a way to get to me unless
36:55
Speaker 6: the topic just sings to me. And I can't even
36:59
Speaker 6: tell you what that is. I know when I read it,
37:01
Speaker 6: I feel it. But I'm not searching it out right now.
37:04
Speaker 6: A lot of stuff is coming to me. Plus, it
37:06
Speaker 6: really depends who the people are. I do look at that.
37:09
Speaker 6: I look at who's behind it. And also, because things
37:15
Speaker 6: are so political, I don't want to do something that
37:18
Speaker 6: just rubs me the wrong way politically.
37:21
Speaker 1: What motivates you in life? What inspires you?
37:26
Speaker 6: Goodness, let's see. Coffee in the morning, wine in the evening.
37:33
Speaker 6: What motivates my life? I love my family first. And
37:40
Speaker 6: I'm basically an upbeat person. I'm a people pleaser.
37:44
Speaker 5: I like people.
37:47
Speaker 1: I really do.
37:47
Speaker 5: I like to talk. I talk to fucking everybody. Every
37:52
Speaker 5: cab driver.
37:53
Speaker 1: My husband's like, why?
37:54
Speaker 6: I go, I'm interested in people. I'm interested in their stories.
37:58
Speaker 6: I want to peek into the windows. You know, when
38:01
Speaker 6: you're on a road trip and you're driving through little
38:03
Speaker 6: towns and I see lit windows of houses, I just
38:06
Speaker 6: want to say, what's happening there?
38:08
Speaker 5: Are they happy? Are they struggling? Is somebody sick?
38:11
Speaker 1: I don't know.
38:12
Speaker 5: I think I'm motivated by a love of life.
38:17
Speaker 1: That reminds me a little bit of your mother, I think,
38:19
Speaker 1: in a way.
38:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, definitely.
38:21
Speaker 6: I'm marked by my mother. My mother was Peter Pan.
38:24
Speaker 6: She said, never grow up. And so we make a point,
38:26
Speaker 6: we siblings, of being still kids. And I'm not going
38:32
Speaker 6: to mention how old I'm going to be in a
38:33
Speaker 6: couple of months, but I'm like shocked. Because if I
38:37
Speaker 6: don't look in the mirror, I still think I'm 30.
38:40
Speaker 6: And I think we hold on to that. We hold
38:42
Speaker 6: on to this, a little bit of a childlike innocence.
38:45
Speaker 6: You definitely see it in my brother's films. Because the
38:48
Speaker 6: way he films with children and even adults, in Close Encounters,
38:53
Speaker 6: there's a shock. When the spaceship is coming down and
38:57
Speaker 6: everybody is surrounding it, one of the technicians, and his
39:00
Speaker 6: eyes are wide in child's eyes. Really, he is in awe,
39:04
Speaker 6: like a child experiencing something new. And I think that's
39:08
Speaker 6: how we get excited about the little things in life.
39:12
Speaker 5: We get very excited about the big things in life.
39:14
Speaker 5: And it's probably a healthy attitude.
39:17
Speaker 1: And I have to ask you, what's your favorite film?
39:19
Speaker 1: Maybe one of Steve's and one in general.
39:24
Speaker 6: Okay, so of my brothers, Schindler's List.
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Speaker 5: Oh, shit.
39:29
Speaker 6: Then i was gonna say et but fableman's fableman's is
39:32
Speaker 6: so personal to me but it hurts so much to
39:34
Speaker 6: watch parts of it the divorce scene's really tough for
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Speaker 6: me schindler's list et fableman's and i can go on
39:44
Speaker 6: and on In the other world, I have a lot
39:47
Speaker 6: of films I like. The films that I would watch
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Speaker 6: 20,000 times, and not because they're so spectacular, but they're
39:53
Speaker 6: just my go-tos. I love Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley.
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Speaker 6: I loved all the Mel Brooks films. I watched them
39:59
Speaker 6: multiple times growing up. I know every single line. And
40:03
Speaker 6: I watch them now and I think, oh my God,
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Speaker 6: they're so politically, he would be slammed. They are so
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Speaker 6: politically not correct. which maybe I like things that aren't
40:14
Speaker 6: always politically correct. You know, we're over-censored these days. We're
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Speaker 6: definitely over-censored. Oh, gosh, there's a lot.
40:21
Speaker 3: I don't know.
40:21
Speaker 1: Nancy, thank you so much for being here, and it's been,
40:24
Speaker 1: as expected, fascinating.
40:26
Speaker 5: Oh, thank you, Danny.
40:27
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
40:30
Speaker 6: All in the Family Office is a Bubbler Media iHeart
40:33
Speaker 6: Podcast production.
40:35
Speaker 5: If you're not in the conversation, you're not in the game.