Vanessa Redgrave is making her directorial debut at 80 with the timely refugee documentary “Sea Sorrow.”
But years ago, she helped boost the career of one of the world’s most famous filmmakers — Steven Spielberg — when she asked him for a dance at a premiere party a year before he made “Amblin,” the film that landed him a contract at Universal. Redgrave last week attended the premiere of HBO doc “Steven Spielberg,” where the director told friends that back when he was 21 years old, he was a huge fan of Redgrave’s and managed to attend the premiere of her 1967 classic “Camelot” with a pal.
At the after-party, the young Spielberg found himself chatting with Redgrave. “She was very kind,” a spy says Spielberg recalled, “and gave him a lot of encouragement about his career.”
Then, “she asked him to dance. He was this young kid, and all of a sudden he’s dancing with Vanessa Redgrave.”
We hear Spielberg last week asked Redgrave for a copy of her first film, which had its own premiere on Sunday at the New York Film Festival.
In celebration, Redgrave’s son-in-law Liam Neeson and CAA power agent Chris Andrews held a VIP dinner at Atlantic Grill for guests including Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, James Earl Jones, Jon Hamm, Rebecca Miller and Griffin Dunne.
Said a guest, “Vanessa’s film is timely and heartbreaking.”