If you thought the shark was the scariest part of JAWS, you were not there when Robert Shaw’s mother visited the set !

JAWS & Mrs. Shaw

What really happened on the set of JAWS
when the cameras were not rolling.

In the summer of 1974, Robert Shaw was in trouble: his role as Quint was supposed to be his break into stardom, but the production was “going down with the ship.”  Even worse, Shaw’s drinking had become so bad that it was ruining both the movie… and himself.

Shaw asked his sister, Joanna, for help – when he learned their mother would have to join them on the set, he groaned: “Now I’ll really have to cut down on the drink!”

True to form, Mrs. Shaw embarrassed her son in front of the cast and crew.  When the cameras were not rolling, the skeletons in Shaw’s closet were exposed, dissected, and analyzed by three generations of women who knew him better than anyone.

Despite the family turmoil – or perhaps because of it – Shaw pulled himself together and helped turn JAWS around: in addition to his brilliant performance, he also wrote the USS Indianapolis speech, now considered one of the greatest scenes in movie history.