During Sunday’s 60 Minutes, viewers learned that director Steven Spielberg was bullied growing up in Phoenix, Arizona.
According to the Huffington Post Spielberg’s mother, Leah Adler, told 60 Minutes, “People used to chant, the Spielbergs are dirty Jews.”
Not allowing the bullies to get to him, he got his revenge by smearing Skippy peanut butter on the windows of the anti-Semites. Spielberg noted during the interview that “we’re beyond the statute of limitations so I can’t get sued for vandalism.”
The bullying did affect him to the extent that he’d deny that he was Jewish.
“I often told people my last name was German, not Jewish. I’m sure my grandparents are rolling over in their graves right now, hearing me say that,” the director said, according to E! News.
Finally the Oscar winner found a way he could express himself. Spielberg began creating movies and put the bullying in the past.
“I had found a way to accept myself in my own life by making movies. I found that I could do something well,” Spielberg said.
Fans can look for his upcoming movie, Lincoln, opening November 16.