Steven Spielberg 'burst into tears' seeing Michelle Williams and Paul Dano as his parents on The Fabelmans set

Steven Spielberg wasn't prepared for just how well art could imitate life on the set of his semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans.

The legendary director revealed that he found himself getting unexpectedly choked up after seeing Paul Dano and Michelle Williams transform into the spitting image of his late mother and father on the Oscar-nominated movie's first day of shooting.

"[Costume designer] Mark Bridges came over to me and said, 'I've got Paul and Michelle here in their hair and makeup and costumes,'" he said on Thursday's episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. "I turned around and there was my father and mother, and I just burst into tears. Just like that. I didn't even think about it. It just happened."

Dano and Williams instantly stepped into their roles and comforted him. "Michelle ran to me, hugged me," Spielberg recalled. "Paul came around the back of me — he's really tall — hugged me around the shoulders and just held me."

Earlier, Spielberg told host Stephen Colbert that he'd assumed The Fabelmans' introductory set day would be a "routine" one, adding, "I know what a first day of shooting is like." He noted that he'd previously seen both Dano and Williams in various costume tests beforehand but had "never seen them together" before their emotional reunion.

"I had given them speeches long before the first day of shooting. I got all my tears out writing the scripts with Tony Kushner," Spielberg said. "I'm a professional. [I said,] 'Don't worry about me. You don't have to take care of me. My job is to take care of you and guide you to giving some great performances.' And it wasn't to be."

Williams recently told EW that she wanted her performance as Spielberg's late mother, Leah Adler, to be "as close as possible" to her real-life counterpart without becoming a "photocopy."

"To recreate something exactly might not be as interesting as it is to gather the essence and see how that moves you and how that works through these given circumstances — this dialogue, this interaction with other characters and other actors," she explained. "So it's as close as it can be, but it also isn't a documentary."

Instead, Williams found a personal connection with Spielberg's mother through the music she enjoyed. "She so completely inhabited the space around her, in front of her, above her, behind her, which feels like the movement of a piece of music," she said. "She felt like she was always in motion and she was careening through these ecstatic states from high to low. And I think that's what the great things make us feel."

Watch Spielberg discuss The Fabelmans — which is nominated for seven awards, including Best Picture, at the 2023 Oscars — in the clip above.

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