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Without question, Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans (originally titled ‘Meet The Fabelmans’) is his most personal movie yet.
Since his career changed after making 1975’s Jaws, the acclaimed director/writer/producer has been constantly wowing audiences with critically acclaimed, box-office smashes. Sure, not every one of his films has been as successful as Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, or Raiders of the Lost Ark, but Spielberg has been one of the most consistent filmmakers in the business.
The director may have found a way of topping his outrageously successful career with a semi-autobiographical narrative about his journey to become a filmmaker as well as his complicated childhood. In order to bring The Fabelmans to life, Spielberg needed to find the right actors to play his mother, father, sisters, and, of, course, himself…
While Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord also plays Sammy Fabelman (code for Steven Spielberg) at a younger age, it’s newcomer Gabriel LaBelle who assumes the role for the majority of the film. Here’s how the biggest filmmaker in the world found the right actor to play a younger version of himself…
How Steven Spielberg Cast Gabriel LaBelle In The Fabelmans
Steven Spielberg has been very clear, Sammy Fabelman isn’t a younger version of himself, but he’s incredibly close. And this is something that Vancouver-born Gabriel LaBelle found out fairly late into the casting process.
In a tremendous interview with The Hollywood Reporter, LaBelle explained that his manager asked him to put himself on tape for a very mysterious project.
“I knew that it took place in the ’60s, and I knew that my character’s name was ‘Teenage Sammy,’” Gabriel LaBelle, who’s the son of executive producer and Watchmen star Rob LaBelle, explained. “I taped it with my dad, just like any other thing, and I throw it out there. And then my manager tells me, ‘Yeah, I think it’s a Spielberg movie. And Teenage Sammy actually means teenage Steven.’ At first I felt like, ‘Oh, well, why wouldn’t you tell me that?!’ But obviously, it was better I didn’t know.”
Months went by before LaBelle received an invitation for a callback audition. This is because Spielberg and his team were looking at over 2,000 different people to take on the coveted role.
Two days after LaBelle received the invitation, he hopped on a Zoom call with Steven Spielberg himself.
“There were 40 people on the call with their cameras off, but it was just him and I talking,” Gabriel LaBelle explained in an interview with Vulture, “I felt in my bones it was the best performance I’d done in my life.”
Clearly, Spielberg and his team were wowed by what LaBelle did over Zoom as he was asked back a third time to speak privately with the director. By then, the role was already his.
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“It was no longer me interviewing you, you were interviewing me,” Steven Spielberg said to LaBelle, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I was your subject, and I was going to answer anything you asked me because this was your research.”
How Gabriel LaBelle Got Into Acting
It seems natural that the Vancouver, British Columbia-born actor would find a career in Hollywood a worthwhile pursuit. After all, his father, Rob LaBelle, is a working actor and a successful television producer.
According to Vulture, the star of The Fabelmans (as well as the television adaptation of American Gigolo) first started acting at the age of 8. Theater productions at his summer camp are where he really first started to find his voice.
His very first role was a bit part in an episode of Motive, a Canadian crime series executive produced by his father. From there, he was cast in a couple of other smaller projects until he earned the part of Johnny and Colin Stratton in Jon Bernthal’s American Gigolo. Around the same time, LaBelle was cast in The Fabelmans.
Are Steven Spielberg And Gabriel LaBelle Close?
It’s safe to say that The Fabelmans will catapult Gabriel LaBelle into a level of stardom that few ever achieve. But the film appears to be far more important to the young actor than bringing him more career opportunities. It was a chance to work with some of his heroes, including Paul Dano, Michelle Williams, and Seth Rogen. Most importantly, it built a connection between him and the acclaimed director. This includes bonding over their shared experience of being the only Jewish person at their school and dealing with antisemitism.
According to Steven Spielberg, the two grew fairly close while making the film. Particularly because LaBelle needed to study the man he was sort-of, kind-of, mostly playing. But even still, the director (who co-wrote The Fabelmans with Tony Kushner) needed to keep his guard up around LaBelle.
While making the film, Speilberg fell back into challenging moments from his childhood, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Those were the hard moments,” Steven Spielberg admitted. “Those were the moments where after I said ‘Cut,’ I’d have to leave the set. And inevitably, I’d suddenly see Paul [Dano] coming around the corner, and he would just grab me and hang onto me. And the same thing with Michelle [Williams].”
But with Gabriel LaBelle, it was different.
“I didn’t want to put too much burden on Gabe because he’s new to making movies,” Spielberg said. “Suddenly, he’s got a director that he can look over to, hoping for some kind of confidence and experience. And the director’s eyes are filled with tears and he’s just trying to keep his lower lip from bobbing up and down too much. And I felt bad for Gabe to have to throw him into that little bit of self-indulgence.”
The Fabelmans will have a limited release on November 11th, 2022, and go wide across The United States and Canada on November 23rd.
