Mike Faist Caught Steven Spielberg ‘Sweating’ on ‘West Side Story’ Set: ‘He Was Stressing Out’
Though Mike Faist may be blowing up screens lately with performances in “Challengers” and “The Bikeriders,” his big break in movies came at the hands of none other than cinematic maestro himself, Steven Spielberg. Faist was asked to audition personally by the director for his remake of the Leonard Bernstein and Steven Sondheim musical “West Side Story” and wound up landing the part of Riff, leader of the Jets and best friend to main character Tony, played by Ansel Elgort. Known for his elaborate oners, Spielberg brought all of his expertise and more to his first musical production (not counting the opening scene of “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”), pairing choreography and visuals seamlessly.
“The truth is that we had four months of rehearsals prior to day one of shooting,” Faist said in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “So we were all kind of living in it, and what we were rehearsing during that time was all the music sequences and dance numbers. Steven was there to witness what we were doing, and from time to time, he would pull out his iPhone and have someone push him around in a computer chair or something like that. So I think there were things that were shot listed prior to [shooting] — probably those larger sequences where you have to.”
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Though Spielberg was mostly prepared, during production, Faist did catch him in one moment where he seemed to be struggling for inspiration.
“I was chain-smoking at the time. And Steven, whenever he is on set, he carries around a cigar, but he never smokes it. He just kind of holds it. It’s like a weird security blanket or something like that. He just always had it for some reason,” Faist said to The Hollywood Reporter. “So I remember we loosely blocked one of the scenes that we were about to shoot that day, and I went out to have a cigarette. And then Steven came up to me and asked me to light his cigar. And I thought, ‘OK, I’ll light your cigar.’ So I lit his cigar for him, and I was like, ‘Steven, I’ve never seen you smoke that thing. What’s going on?’ And he said, ‘Well, I haven’t figured out how I’m going to shoot the scene yet.’ (Laughs.) He was stressing out, and I caught him sweating.”
If he was, it certainly didn’t show in the end result.
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