The Sunday Times - UK (2022-05-22)

T

hirty years ago Steven Spiel-

berg called Sam Neill and

Laura Dern and asked them to

be the leads in his pioneering

dinosaur blockbuster Jurassic

Park. They would play Dr Alan

Grant, a palaeontologist, and Dr Ellie

Sattler, a paleobotanist. What was it

like, I ask the pair, to be stars of a film

where the real star was a livid tyranno-

saurus? “I’m going to stop you right

there,” Neill interrupts. “That is a mis-

conception. These films have always

been about people. The dinosaurs are

bigger than us, but they’re just bloody

bit players, thank you.”

Dern agrees and cites Jaws, a film

about a shark remembered for its peo-

ple. It was the same deal with Jurassic

Park and that’s why Dern and Neill are

back, for Jurassic World Dominion.

This is the sixth film in the franchise

— an adventure 65 million years in the

making, plus an extra 29 years since the

first film. To catch up, the park that

John Hammond (Richard Attenbor-

ough) wanted to open in the 1993 film

was operational by the time of the fran-

chise reboot with Jurassic World in

2015. That’s when everything went
      wrong and the dinosaurs broke out —
      which leads us to the new film, in which
      these brutes are all over the world.
      Neill, who usually lives in his native
      New Zealand, is in his flat in Sydney. It is

7am. “I’ve already been to morning Mass

twice,” he jokes. The 74-year-old is a

blast — he named a ram on his farm after

Jeff Goldblum, who played the sleazy

brainiac Dr Ian Malcolm and also returns

for the latest film. For Dern, 55, it is 9pm.

She is in Marrakesh on a shoot. “I’m so

jet lagged I don’t know where I am.”

When Jurassic Park came out I was

12, the perfect age for gawping at effects

on a huge screen. The mosquito in sap.

Velociraptors eating Bob Peck (“Clever

girl!”). Samuel L Jackson’s arm. The

characters were as much in awe of the

park as the viewers — that was the trick.

Why, I ask Dern and Neill, did Spiel-

berg want you two? “Let me talk for

FILM

Laura, because this is what men do in

the patriarchy,” Neill says. He cackles.

“Laura was a tender age. I’m guess-

ing... 23?” “Yep,” Dern says, smiling.

“And she was already an exciting actor

— she had done David Lynch films. It

was no surprise she was asked. But I

was completely baffled to be called by

Steven. I didn’t get it.”

Yet there was something off that nei-

ther realised at the time. “I am 20 years

older than Laura!” Neill blurts out.

Dern laughs. “Which at the time was a

completely appropriate age difference

for a leading man and lady! It never

occurred to me until I opened a maga-

zine and there was an article called ‘Old

geezers and gals’. People like Harrison

Ford and Sean Connery acting with

much younger people.” In Six Days,

Seven Nights, Ford, then 55, starred

opposite Anne Heche, 29; and in

Entrapment there was a 39-year age gap

between Connery and Catherine Zeta-

Jones. “And there I was, on the list. I

thought, ‘Come on. It can’t be true.’ ”

Dern takes over: “Well, it felt com-

pletely appropriate to fall in love with

Sam Neill. And it was only now, when we

returned in a moment of cultural aware-

ness about the patriarchy, that I was,

like, ‘Wow! We’re not the same age?’”

In other ways, though, Jurassic Park

was ahead of its time. Dern’s Dr Sattler

was a rare bold and independent female

protagonist — a scientist and a fighter.

Dern compares her to Ripley in Alien

and believes such characters changed

our view of what female action heroes

can be capable of. Think of Sattler’s

line while sparring with male col-

leagues: “Woman inherits the Earth.”

“It’s really moving,” she says, smiling.

“A lot of women in tech and science

point to a similarity between Ellie’s

heroism and women in their field.”

Neill thinks blockbusters are smarter

than they are given credit for being. He

cites the author of the original novel,

Michael Crichton, who through books

such as Jurassic Park and The Androm-

eda Strain showed a keen eye for how

Laura Dern was 23

when she starred in

Jurassic Park with Sam

Neill, who is 20 years

older. Now the duo

are back, they tell

Jonathan Dean about

patriarchy, politics

and palaeontology

‘LOOKING BACK,

OUR AGE GAP

WAS COMPLETELY

INAPPROPRIATE’

Jurassic Park (1993)

Spielberg’s original still

thrills, even if its special

effects are a bit less

impressive by today’s

standards. Sky/Now

The Lost World:

Jurassic Park (1997)

Julianne Moore joins

the cast, but this

Spielberg sequel is far

too long. Sky/Now

Jurassic Park III (2001)

Joe Johnston directs

and, in a bid to be

different, the T. R e x

is usurped by a

spinosaurus. Sky/Now

Jurassic World (2015)

Twenty-two years after

the original, dino-land

has been transformed

into a Disneyesque

theme park. Chris Pratt

and Bryce Dallas

Howard take the reins

as the franchise roars

back to life. Sky/Now

Jurassic World: Fallen

Kingdom (2018)

Rather than parks, this

film has a mansion

that’s home to a man

on a mission to sell

dinosaurs as weapons.

Buy on Amazon

WHAT CAME BEFORE — THE JURASSIC PARK FILMS

6 22 May 2022