{"id":455196,"date":"2026-06-01T09:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T09:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/455196\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T09:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T09:17:13","slug":"steven-spielberg-says-his-wife-had-one-rule-when-he-set-up-dreamworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/455196\/","title":{"rendered":"Steven Spielberg Says His Wife Had One Rule When He Set up Dreamworks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steven Spielberg<\/a>, 79, said he only agreed to start DreamWorks<\/a> if it would be a 9-to-5 job<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson on the latest episode of the “IMO” podcast<\/a>, Spielberg said that balancing family life with filmmaking was difficult.<\/p>\n

“One of the biggest challenges is just running out of excuses why I can’t get home for dinner. Because it’s my loss. It’s their loss, but it’s also my loss,” Spielberg said.<\/p>\n

The filmmaker married the actor, Kate Capshaw, in 1991. Together, they raised seven kids, including four children they had together, Spielberg’s son from a previous marriage, and Capshaw’s two older children.<\/p>\n

That family-first mindset even influenced one of the biggest business decisions of Spielberg’s career.<\/p>\n

When Spielberg was considering joining David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg to launch DreamWorks, his wife wanted to ensure the new venture wouldn’t keep Spielberg away from their children.<\/p>\n

“When we formed DreamWorks, Kate said, the only way I’m really going to say this is OK with me is if you get home every night by 6 \u2014 5:45 is better \u2014 and have dinner with the family,” Spielberg said. “Don’t go to work at 6 or 7. Unless you’re shooting, you can get up at 5:30, which we usually do. When you’re not, when you’re running a studio, you’ve got to have a 9-to-5 job.”<\/p>\n

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The filmmaker said he made that “a condition” of his involvement with DreamWorks.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to be a real time drain for me, and I need to be with my family,” Spielberg said.<\/p>\n

It’s not the first time Spielberg has discussed the role parenting plays in shaping his career decisions.<\/p>\n

In a 2023 interview<\/a> with Indian filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli, Spielberg said he “chose to turn down the first ‘Harry Potter'” in order to spend time with his kids.<\/p>\n

“So I sacrificed a great franchise, which today, looking back, I’m very happy to have done, to be with my family,” he said.<\/p>\n

At the 2026 SXSW Conference and Festival in March, Spielberg said his children had become a bigger priority than his career.<\/p>\n

“Directing, actually, has, in the last 20 years, taken second position to my parenting and to all their needs,” he said, per People<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The filmmaker isn’t the only prominent figure to draw firm boundaries between work and family life.<\/p>\n

Fashion designer Tory Burch<\/a> has said she would “never trade off” being a good mom for her career. “I guess the only thing that was sacrificed is my sleep,” she said during an April episode of the “Aspire with Emma Grede” podcast.<\/p>\n

Netflix cofounder Marc Randolph<\/a> has also spoken about the importance of protecting time outside of work. In a 2024 post on X<\/a>, he said weekly Tuesday night dates with his wife remained nonnegotiable throughout his career.<\/p>\n

“For over 30 years, I had a hard cut-off on Tuesdays,” he wrote. “Rain or shine, I left at exactly 5 p.m. and spent the evening with my best friend.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steven Spielberg, 79, said he only agreed to start DreamWorks if it would be a 9-to-5 job. Speaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-455196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}