Exclusive: Ian Shaw Talks Playing His Father Robert Shaw in Jaws-Inspired Play

Recently we talked with actor Ian Shaw, son of late actor Robert Shaw, before a performance of the hit Jaws-inspired stage play The Shark is Broken, playing in Toronto, Ontario.

One of the show’s three stars (and co-writer), Shaw, discussed his life as an actor, his father, Jaws, and The Shark is Broken, which ends its six-week run on November 6th, 2022.

Horror Geek Life: Was a career in acting something you always wanted to do, or did you come to it later?

Ian Shaw: No, it was something I always wanted to do. I felt because my parents were actors, it wasn’t an unnatural thing to do, but it was really my drama teacher at school and doing plays that were big influences. It was after both my mom and dad had died, and I actually remember the specific moment it happened.

I was doing a play, I must have been about nine, and our drama teacher really pushed us, too. I was playing Alexander the Great and had to have a nervous breakdown. I remember the joy of trying to create a scene, rehearsing the scenes with my other school friends, and just sat down after one rehearsal and thought, this is all I want to do. I was acting like an old man but I was thinking, it was going to be really hard and you might have to struggle, but persevere. The words of that nine-year-old boy have definitely stuck with me. So yeah, it’s a vocation for me.

Horror Geek Life: Why theater? Did you always have a love for it?

Ian Shaw: There is a love for theater, but the practical aspects of it are as an actor, you can’t always pick and choose what you do. If people were offering me lots of film work, I would be very interested. What actor wouldn’t be? But I do love theater very much; there’s a real camaraderie in the theater.

When you’re working in film and television there’s quite a lot of ego and the same people will behave differently in these different contexts. The atmosphere in theater is much more egalitarian and I think the scripts for me have been better in theater, I’ve done all the classics, Shaw, Wilde, and Shakespeare and when I’ve done television and film it’s been more variable because I’m not the star.

Horror Geek Life: Ok, let’s talk about the play you are currently in, The Shark is Broken. You co-wrote this with Joseph Nixon but where did the idea for this show originate from?

Ian Shaw: I had the idea. The first moment I thought about it was when I had a mustache and looked in the mirror and looked like Quint. It just set me thinking, I’d always loved Jaws, then I remembered that I had been auditioned by Richard Dreyfuss for Hamlet and I introduced myself as Robert Shaw’s son. I thought he would be delighted to see me. I don’t know, it felt like I had punched him or something. Like he was reliving some trauma, so I thought that was odd.

Then I read Carl Gottlieb’s The Jaws Log, which was excellent. You think, well, this was an extraordinary film anyway, and then you’ve got this incredible backstory. I then played Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay, who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, and I thought that was weird. My father gave this wonderful speech in Jaws about the U.S.S. Indinapolous being torpedoed, having delivered the bomb, and here I am playing a character that’s picking up the bomb.

At this point, I thought well, I look like him, I’ve got all these connections, I love Jaws, it’s an extraordinary story, so I sketched out a few ideas about it but I shoved it in a drawer. I thought it was silly. You can’t play your father. You can’t expose to the world his secrets to some degree, his inner psyche. It’s too embarrassing and risky and you’d look like a fool, so I didn’t do anything about it. I ended up having a drink with a dear friend of mine, who ended up being one of the producers but sadly passed away in 2020, my old mate Dave, and he thought it was a great idea, as did Duncan, who designed the set, and Joseph, the co-writer, so we wrote it.

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In the process of writing it, I became excited because it stopped being about just me and my dad and became about something bigger. Lots of interesting issues, besides my dad’s alcoholism and whatnot, relationships between fathers and sons, and the nature of making a movie, how unglamorous and boring, especially in those circumstances, and then all the fun of Jaws. Paying homage to Jaws and in many ways the tone of Jaws, the comedy, then veering off into something slightly darker, I found that wonderful as a viewer so we tried to emulate that in the play.

Horror Geek Life: You expanded the length of The Shark is Broken to ninety minutes instead of its original sixty minutes. What was the reason behind this?

Ian Shaw: In Edinborough, you have a slot, generally speaking. We were at the Assembly Rooms, so we cut a bit but we expanded the play, and added more, when we came back to the ninety minutes, sort of movie length. Joseph and I talked and said look, what do we want to watch? We want to watch something entertaining first, hopefully (laughs), and then you can put in something slightly deeper as well.

Basically, you come in, the show is at eight o’clock, watch it, then go and have a drink. We didn’t want a long four-hour show; we wanted to avoid an intermission if possible, which we hope people enjoy.

Horror Geek Life: Do the cast and crew change things up during its run?

Ian Shaw: I think the script is pretty tight but because it’s live, there are subtle differences every night. Because I’m the co-writer of the show, it is an unusual thing to be in the piece and writing it as well. You essentially have a box seat. It’s different than just watching it; you can feel whether something is working or not so if something wasn’t working. I’d go away and rewrite some small things, snipping things out or adding little bits.

Horror Geek Life: I can imagine being the co-writer and one of the leads was a lot to take on. How did the casting process for the show go?

Ian Shaw: We did go through quite a few people; it was quite an extraordinary process. I’ve learned a lot doing this whole thing and just coming back to your point about writing, as an actor you’re kind of trained, quite rightly, to never criticize the writer. Your job is to make what they’ve written work. However, as an actor/writer, the actor in me was allowed to criticize the writer and say what I’ve written isn’t working, it needs something else. So there was a curious dialogue between wearing those two hats.

The casting itself was also a bit weird because I had another hat on as the producer, which I had never been before. I felt enormous sympathy for the actors coming in. I saw myself coming in the door and this is a segway, but you realize how quick you are to judge someone coming through the door. I was always just trying to pull back and say no, no, no, don’t decide too quickly whether they are able to do this, really give them a proper chance. I left having a high opinion of actors because a lot of good people came through the door. They really tried, and it takes guts to just walk in and do this. I thought some of them deserved the work but weren’t quite right for one reason or another.

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Horror Geek Life: What have you learned about yourself, from where the idea for this play first originated to where you are today?

Ian Shaw: I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned is that tomorrow is another day. I would wake up at three o’clock in the morning petrified that I was making a huge mistake. My humble career was going to be trashed. Following the advice from my friends was a wise thing to do because it’s only until you’ve finished the script that you know what you’ve got.

It was a tough journey, but I think it’s been really worth it. I am very proud of what we’ve achieved and the point we have got to. I would have never dreamed I’d be flown across the Atlantic to perform a work I’d had a big hand in. That to me seems incredible and I feel very lucky to have been given that opportunity. Perseverance and staying calm are two of the biggest things I will have taken away from this experience.

Horror Geek Life: The show began before COVID and then everything everywhere was shut down. Did you think the show was finished at that point?

Ian Shaw: I did to an extent, yeah. We didn’t know how things were going to go, it felt like the world was ending in 2020. I was only one of the millions of people whose hopes and dreams seemed to be coming to an end but I’d never been offered a West End theater. The spring of 2020 idea was shot out of the sky, obviously, but to be fair, Sonia Freeman (of Sonia Freeman Productions) had such confidence in the play and told me, it’s not time-dependent, don’t worry, we’ll get there.

We ended up doing it a year later but we still were dealing with COVID, Boris Johnson had shut London down while we were running, and people were told to stay home. It was disastrous as a lot of shows closed but we kept going, made a profit, which was incredible.

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Horror Geek Life: The run in Toronto for The Shark is Broken ends soon. What’s next for you and the show?

Ian Shaw: There are a few conversations to have once I get home. I’ll meet with Sonia and discuss it, but it definitely will have a future life. I’m just not sure where yet. This will probably be my main focus, but I’m always interested in other projects. In between London and here [Toronto] I did a horror film in Serbia and that was great fun.

Horror Geek Life: Finally, how have the audiences been in Toronto?

Ian Shaw: It’s interesting. They are very warm but they do laugh at different things. There is a noticeable difference in characteristics between a London audience and a Toronto audience. I think the English laugh more at the darker, crueler humor. This is generalizing because it’s not always true. of course. The Canadians seem to laugh more at the bureaucracy/red tape jokes. They seem to identify with logistical difficulties, bullshit basically, but they are very appreciative and generous.

I want to thank Ian for taking the time to talk with us.