Richard Dreyfuss takes a bite out of Broadway’s “The Shark Is Broken,” saying acting makes him look like a “big idiot.”

Jaw Actor Richard Dreyfuss recently saw a Broadway show The shark is brokenthe comedy-drama about the making of Steven Spielberg’s 1975 blockbuster. Despite the smile on his face in the cast photos, he wasn’t very happy.

On an exclusive Vanity Fair In the interview, Dreyfuss criticizes the play – written by and with Ian Shaw, the son of the deceased Jaw Actor Robert Shaw – because what he says are inaccuracies and because it makes him look like a “big idiot”.

“I started looking at it to see if it would really hurt,” says Dreyfuss FFby Chris Murphy. “And that is exactly what happened.”

Based in part on Robert Shaw’s diary, the comedy recounts the long-publicized feud between Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw during the movie’s hasty filming on Cape Cod, while the cast – Dreyfuss, Shaw and Roy Scheider – are all but isolated on the floating Orca- set is Dreyfuss, played by Alex Brightman, is portrayed as neurotic and insecure, while Shaw’s incessant drinking constantly slows down an already difficult shoot.

Dreyfuss denies a feud FF“When we were surrounded by many other people, Robert rushed at me and I would attack him.” But it was just to make the hours pass better and faster. We didn’t take it all seriously.”

Stories about a troubled couple date back to the 1970s Jaw Co-screenwriter Carl Gottlieb published The Jaws protocol He addressed what he portrayed as personality conflicts within the cast. An expanded edition was published in 2005 to celebrate the film’s 30th anniversary.

“Thirty years after the end of the film,” says Dreyfuss, “I hear of a feud. I didn’t pay too much attention to it.”

But the ongoing feud rumors seem to have turned sour: Dreyfuss has some harsh words for both Gottlieb and Spielberg because Vanity Fair says “what he sees as her role in spreading the story about his relationship with Shaw.”

“I don’t think they just thought it would hurt me, and it did,” he says. “I have to say that Carl and Steven knew better and knew there was no feud. There was a constant sense of humor between us. If you saw us alone on set, you might think there was something there – a feud – but it was never real. Never. And I blame Carl and Steven for that.”

The play began previews for a limited run at the Golden Theater on July 25 before opening in theaters on August 10, closing on November 19. And perhaps not too soon for Dreyfuss.

“It was pretty terrible,” he said after seeing the play earlier this month. “Ian [Shaw] – who has more right than anyone else to write whatever he wants – never called me and said, “Give me background information.” Or: “Tell me your opinion about this and that.” And they just decided to make my character a big idiot.

“The problem is that they made fun of my character,” Dreyfuss continues. “They didn’t do it to Roy, and they didn’t do it to Robert. And it hurt because it wasn’t true.”

Deadline has reached a program spokesperson for comment and will update this story if necessary.