26. 10. 11. - 16:09

Spielberg on Austrian namesake and crying Reagan

Steven Spielberg has disclosed the secret of his alleged Austrian roots.

Rumour has it that Spielberg’s ancestors originate from Spielberg, a town in the Austrian province of Styria. The three-time Academy Award for Best Director laureate told Austrian magazine News: "Fact is that my family come from Ukraine. They once cultivated agricultural estates in Austria and then accepted the name – which was not unusual in those days."

The filmmaker said he was "confused" about a metal plate he was sent from the town which bears the same name as his family. "My sister had to explain to me that it is a place-name sign from Spielberg. I have never visited the town but I want to catch up on that," he said.

Spielberg refused to reveal whether he could imagine shooting a movie in Austrian capital Vienna, but explained: "I love Vienna because my son, Max, said his first sentence there. He must have been 19 months old. (...) We were standing at our hotel window overlooking a busy road when he suddenly said ‘I see a bus’ after not having muttered a word ever before."

The American director of "Saving Private Ryan" and "Catch Me If You Can" also told News that he neither uses social networking site Facebook nor instant short message service platform Twitter. "But I send texts and I have an iPhone and an iPad," he added.

Spielberg – whose latest project is a 3D movie based on popular comic book series "The Adventures of Tintin" – stressed rumours that late US President Ronald Reagan assumed that his film "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" was based on a true story. However, Spielberg disclosed that Reagan had tears in his eyes when the science fiction flick was screened at the White House. He said: "I was sitting right next to him among 50 people in the room. (...) At the end, he got up and said to me: ‘I’m certain there are 11 people in this room who know that this (the film’s plot) is the whole truth.’"