It wasn’t just the Lost Boys stirring up trouble behind the scenes of Hook—tensions reportedly ran high between Steven Spielberg and Julia Roberts during production, and the fallout appears to have lasted decades. The 1991 fantasy adventure, which featured Roberts as Tinker Bell, marked a rare sour note in Spielberg’s long directing career.
According to long-standing reports, Roberts—who filmed most of her scenes solo against green screens—clashed with Spielberg, leading some crew members to nickname her “Tinker Hell.” When asked about the moniker at the time, Roberts denied hearing it, but admitted to being frustrated during filming. “If I sit in my trailer for six hours doing nothing, I’m going to say, ‘What the f**k is going on?’” she told Entertainment Weekly.
Spielberg later acknowledged the strained dynamic in an interview with 60 Minutes, bluntly stating, “It was not a great time for Julia and I to be working together.” When asked if he would ever collaborate with her again, he dodged slightly, saying, “This is a 60 Minutes question, isn’t it?”—suggesting the answer was likely a no.
Roberts later expressed surprise at Spielberg’s guarded tone, telling Vanity Fair she was taken aback. “Is this the same man who had whipped-cream fights with me on set?” she asked, implying their relationship hadn’t always been so contentious. “I guess sometimes it’s just too tempting to be in the majority.”
Meanwhile, Julia’s niece, actress Emma Roberts, recently reflected on the pressures of Hollywood lineage, saying her family name has cost her more roles than it’s gained her. For Julia, it seems the legacy of Hook lives on—but not in the way she, or Spielberg, may have hoped.
