Steven Spielberg’s late parents encouraged him to make a movie about their family.

Speaking toThe Hollywood Reporterabout his personal new film, Spielberg said his parents had been “nagging” him to put them on the big screen prior to their deaths.

“They were actually nagging me, ‘When are you going to tell that story about our family, Steve?’ And so this was something they were very enthusiastic about,” he said.

He also shared what finally prompted him to makeThe Fabelmans: “I started seriously thinking, if I had to make one movie I haven’t made yet, something that I really want to do on a very personally atomic level, what would that be? And there was only one story I really wanted to tell.”

Steven Spielberg (far right) with his parents in 1989.Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty

Director Steven Spielberg and parents Arnold Spielberg and Leah Adler attend the American Jewish Committee’s 83rd Annual Executive Council - Presentation of the American Liberties Medallion to President Ronald Reagan on November 4, 1989 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

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Spielberg — known for classics likeE.T., Jaws, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s Listand many more — saidThe Fabelmansis “the first coming-of-age story I’ve ever told.”

“My life with my mom and dad taught me a lesson, which I hope this film in a small way imparts,” he toldTHR. “Which is, when does a young person in a family start to see his parents as human beings? In my case, because of what happened between the ages of 7 and 18, I started to appreciate my mom and dad not as parents but as real people.”

The Fabelmans(2022).Merie Weismiller Wallace/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment

(from left) Burt Fabelman (Paul Dano), younger Sammy Fabelman (Mateo Zoryan Francis-DeFord) and Mitzi Fabelman (Michelle Williams) in The Fabelmans, co-written and directed by Steven Spielberg.

Cast member Seth Rogen recently told reporters thatSpielberg often became emotional on the setduring production.

“It was a very emotional experience. He was crying a lot on set,” he said. “It’s very directly based on his life and pretty much everything that happens in the movie is something that happened to him. As we were shooting, I’d be like, ‘Did this happen in real life?’ and the answer was ‘yes’ a hundred percent of the time.”

The Fabelmansis in select theaters Nov. 11, and opens nationwide this Thanksgiving.

source: people.com