Richard Dreyfuss got it wrong about 'Jaws,' he says: 'I was a jerk'

People have found "Jaws" scary, exciting, gripping, funny.

They've found it a superlative example of actors, writers, cinematographer, editor, composer and − of course − director, all working at the height of their powers. Very few people have found it boring.

Except for Richard Dreyfuss. He finds it boring.

Not the movie. The subject.

"Very," he told the USA TODAY Network last summer, speaking by phone from Europe. "No, I'm serious. I don't want to talk about it."

Still, the Oscar-winning "Goodbye Girl" actor did answer questions about "Jaws" ahead of his speaking engagement in Englewood, New Jersey, which included a screening of the blockbuster movie. (A subsequent "Evening With Richard Dreyfuss" appearance in Beverly, Massachusetts, ended in controversy.)

Does Dreyfuss have a favorite moment? Yes. The Robert Shaw speech about the U.S.S. Indianapolis. "That is without a doubt my favorite scene," he said.

Did he have a "feud" with Shaw? No. That's one reason he disliked "The Shark Is Broken," a Broadway play about the behind-the-scenes drama of the production, written and starring Shaw's son Ian. "I did not like the play because it based itself on a feud that never happened," Dreyfuss said.

Was it a difficult shoot? Yes. Though not so much for the widely publicized "problems": the mechanical sharks (there were three) that didn't work, the difficulties with the weather, the (supposed) clashes of ego on the set.

The biggest issue, Dreyfuss said, was boredom.

"You spend most of your time waiting, and doing nothing but waiting," he said. "If there's a sailboat in the background, you have to wait until that sailboat is gone, and that usually takes about an hour and a half. There's just nothing going on except waiting, and then if you finally wait that out, another sailboat pops up. ... It was just waiting it out, waiting it out, waiting it out."

To the people making "Jaws," during an arduous summer on Martha's Vineyard in 1974, it was a series of delays, frustrations, cost overruns and mechanical problems, embodied by the sharks that kept breaking down. (Steven Spielberg's inspired idea to keep the shark mostly offscreen was born of necessity). No one, least of all Dreyfuss, could see how lemonade could be made from such a lemon.

"I thought it was going to be a disaster," he said. "Because I couldn't imagine how Steven was going to overcome all of the problems that he faced every day. I know I went on at least one talk show where I said this is a total disaster. And then I went back on that same show and pronounced myself the stupidest actor in America.

"When I saw the film all put together, I realized I was a jerk."