Steven Spielberg discusses his dyslexia for the first time ever, on 12 September, 2012

oh are you guys ready yeah we're roll we're going all right so Stephen what was and is the number one difficulty that you have had with your dyslexia even though you've just been diagnosed only a few years ago yeah five years ago I was diagnosed as having been dyslexic for my entire life and um which explained a lot of things it was like the last puzzle part MH and a tremendous mystery that I've kept to myself all these years that basically started with just things that happened when you're a kid in school and you're a slow reader yeah and in my case I was actually um in unable to read for for at least two years uh I was two years behind the rest of my class and of course I went through what everybody goes through is teasing yeah and I had to go through that for a long time and so the teasing you know led to a lot of other problems I was having in school but it all stemmed from the fact that I was embarrassed to stand up in front of the class and and and and and read so you have always kind of known that you were a little different than everybody else yeah how has making friends been for you when you were a kid and what was that like well I could make friends in in sort of my own you know social social uh Circle you know and and my Social Circle was probably a pretty big Social Circle because it was a lot of kids who had you know you know let's put it this way my friends couldn't throw a football they they couldn't catch a baseball like The Goonies you got it that's why I made The Goonies that's why I wrote the story because because I was a member of of of the Goon Squad when I was a kid growing up but all of my friends as it turns out as we all grew up they all had different kinds of of um disabilities they they had they had different kinds of disregulation and we all had a lot of stuff in common not the least of which several of us were dyslexic and dyslexia of course was the first thing that led me to realize that I was different although I didn't have a name for it I just knew that um I I dreaded going to school because if I was called on sure and I was told to stand in the front of the class and open my book and read from the book in the third grade it would that day would be another long day in a long series of the worst days of my life was there ever a teacher that said You know cuz normally the curing of Dyslexia or the coping starts with a caring teacher saying you know there's something a little different about you and I would like to help you was there ever a teacher that said you know we we should work on this together yes there was there there were teachers that didn't quite understand why I I I was I was so behind the rest of the class and my reading skills and talk to my parents about it but there was there there was nothing you know we're talking about the 1950s yeah and there was there was not a program that was there there were not books written about dyslexia nobody diagnosed me as being dyslexic and so all they could do was assume that I wasn't studying hard enough that I wasn't reading hard enough that I was perhaps uh lazy yes and which one of your parents was uh were more involved in helping you in school my mom your mom yeah my mom was involved in things like you know English and and and uh you know and my dad was very involved with me with math and history but they were both really really caring parents terms of of my keeping up with my studies and they were very very strict about the homework and they're very very strict that the television set was not to go on until they check my homework yeah you know that's same old same old right yeah um so when you got bullied how did you deal with that I got bullied I dealt with it by making movies yeah I mean making movies was my that was my cover up what was the hardest time for you uh in school that you remember well you it it was just that period I think of probably junior high I would say in about seventh eth grade and then and Al also some high school I think Junior High you know kids before they start to see themselves from you know the point of view of others can be really really harsh really really mean yeah and and and they don't they can't help it and they don't even know they're being mean exactly yeah you know so as an adult I can look back and and I don't have any they don't realize the damage they're doing I have no resentment or anything to what I went through as a kid because I kind of understand it sure but at the same time I think it was those Junior High School years that were the hardest for me yeah well I think that's just the hardest time for every kid cuz every kid is crazy while than you have dyslexia dyslexia or not well we all have a lot of energy growing up you know that that energy could be could be put to constructive use and sometimes it can be put to damaging use when when you bully someone else when you tease someone else when want to feel like you have absolute power they don't know how to handle it very very hard to you know when you have that much uh to say and sometimes what is what you have to say is being said against others to make yourself feel Superior and and and other times and and but I never felt like a victim that was the important thing I never felt like a victim I think movies really helped me kind of save me from shame from from guilt from putting it on myself when it wasn't really you know you know my own burden it wasn't my burden and I think making movies was my Great Escape that's really how I was able to get away from all of that and you think that can kind of show through your movies you show like how you felt or you know just what you felt about the world or what you felt about uh people teasing you I guess or what you were going through not really my first movies didn't do that my first movies were just basically imitations of movies I was going out to theaters to see so they were pure you know genre movies you know war movies Western science fiction and and there were no statements I made no statements I'm talking about my 8 millimeter movies I'm going way back before I became a director and uh and I'm just saying that in in in light of feeling a little bit like an outsider movies made me feel inside my own skill set do you wish that you were diagnosed earlier than you were yes why cuz I wish I had somebody helping me to understand that there were many many others like me mhm and even my own friends who we weren't even able to articulate what was going on in our lives I I know several of my friends were just like me but we didn't have the skills to talk to each other about it sure and I wish I had somebody in my life then that was really able to do an intervention and get me through those rough years because I know the only reason why I ask you is because sometimes when kids are diagnosed um they don't want anything to do with it and you know it sounds like you would you know go out to get help immediately yeah because you know I I don't want to put a Band-Aid on something I want to you know figure out how to make a go away forever and uh and the other thing is I'm in a business right now where reading is very important you know it's it's of critical importance to me that I read books and and scripts and and and and uh and so I've been able to overcompensate and I just basically with no with never feeling ashamed of myself will take you know 2 hours and 45 minutes to 3 hours to read 120 Pages takes me about 2 hours 45 minutes to read what most people can read in about an hour and 10 minutes and I just know I'm still slow at reading but I've learned to um adjust I just don't I read often but I'm I'm very and here's a great thing also I have great comprehension in what I read because I do read slowly I retain almost everything I read I don't just skip over things yeah and I'm able to appreciate the writing I'm able to kind of really Savor good writing because I really take my time going through a book or a script I read that you dropped out of high school but you went back to high school is that right I dropped out of college you dropped out of college and then you were honored by the same college that well I yeah I was what happened was my you know my I began having children of my own I dropped out of college to be a director when I was 21 or 22 years old and I was I still had a couple of uh years left and I think I was a sophomore when I really dropped out and I started having kids and my kids started growing up and they began saying well Dad never went to college yeah and so I went back to Long Beach State and I was able to get the the the credits that I was never able to achieve then because my career got in way of my education and I was able to go back into school again and I was able to graduate with the graduating class with the Mortar board and the and and the whole regalia that was an amazing experience had my mom and dad with me all my kids came to the graduation yeah and they all realized that when you start something you should finish it um was there a specific reason other than your kids that you left uh College I left College because I got a job directing television yeah in 1969 and it was a it was just a great opportunity and I I I didn't just leave College I fled from school to be a director yeah so one of the things I really want to know is what was it like getting honored by the Queen of England that it was a great honor it wasn't it it was the the queen uh you know selected me to be become a a honorary KN uh of the British Empire called kbe and uh it was presented to me by the British Ambassador wow in Washington DC a number of years ago and it's a great honor so if you had um any advice to give for young kids who have dyslexia and who are just finding out what they're going through now um what would you tell them just that it's more common than you than than than you've ever could could imagine and that you're not alone yeah and that uh there are ways to uh accelerate your reading skills to accelerate your comprehension and there are ways to deal with it it's not an incurable thing it's something you're going to have the rest of your life but you can sort of you know Dart Between The Raindrops to get where you want to go yeah and it will not hold you back thank you very much Quinn thank you my friend good to talk to you you too as always that was awesome great

Channel: Félag Lesblindra Á Íslandi

Views: 229,818

Keywords: Steven Spielberg, Quinn Bradlee, Dyslexia lesblinda

Id: 4N6RKHOHMJQ

Length: 10min 33sec (633 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 27 2012