The youngest boy in jaws says he “did not go back into the water” for several years after filming (exclusive)

While he was only 6 years old when he was thrown like Sean Brody in JawsJay Mello remembers “everything” about making the movie – including the animatronic sharks, which scared him so much that he would not go into the water for several years after.

Mello appeared in the classic in 1975 as the youngest son of Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), police chief for Amity Island, a fictional coast in New England who is plagued by a monstrous large white shark at the height of the tourist season.

“I remember the first time I saw it,” Mello told People about one of the animatronic sharks that dreamed Production designer Joe Alves and cemented in film history. “It was only the majority of the shark. I questioned type Shari Rhodes, who was the casting director. I said:” Where is the rest of the shark? “

As Alves explained to people, there were actually three sharks – “one that went right to left, one that went left to right and another on a crane that could be tilted.”

“I worked with the marine biologists to make the shark look exactly like a big white-but larger,” he said, leaving that he modeled it after a 12-foot shark, but doubled the size to create a 25-foot villain.

And while Alves remembers the animatronic sharks (nickname “Bruce” on set) as just “props”, Mello remembers them very differently – especially after he first saw them on the big screen.

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“I did not go back in the water for about two years after the film was made,” he told People, telling how his parents forced him to duck his head during the most frightening parts of the film.

“It was strange to see myself on the screen,” he added and admitted, “I couldn’t see the whole thing because my mom and dad continued to duck my head under the seats.”

The first time he saw the scene where the local fisherman Ben Gardner’s head is in a ruined boat – which made Gardner the third victim – was not until the year later.

“That kind of haunts me,” he said with a laugh.

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Mello got the role on a roundabout road, after his mother brought him to an open casting call with the intention of getting his older brothers audition. But it was Young Jay who caught director Steven Spielbergis attention.

“My older brothers Tom and John were actually the ones who tried,” Mello told People. “I had a habit of copying people. So when Steven Spielberg interviewed them, I copied him when he gave direction. When the interview was over, he said:” You boys can go, we are ready. But the youngest can stay. “

While the first film was taken into place in Martha’s vineyard in 1974, near Mello’s childhood home, the latter versions were filmed elsewhere, and Mello abandoned the role of focusing on a normal childhood.

His character, however, remained part of the franchise – and finally killed (in a shark attack, of course) in 1987 Jaws: Revenge.