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According to actor Sam Neill, the original marketing for Jurassic Park frustrated the film’s actors. Based on the 1990 novel by Michael Crichton of the same name, Jurassic Park was adapted into a film by Steven Spielberg in 1993, and is currently the 43rd highest-grossing film of all time. Jurassic Park‘s massive success would go on to win it three Academy Awards in 1994, and would spark a franchise that consists of six Jurassic movies, theme park attractions, and several spinoff games, books, and other merchandise.
In Neill’s new memoir titled Did I Ever Tell You This? (via IndieWire), the actor recalls the Jurassic Park leads feeling slighted by the film’s marketing, as Universal was attempting to prove that Spielberg could make a blockbuster film “without ‘movie stars’.” Neill says that it “irked” the actors for the studio to say that they weren’t “real stars,” especially considering Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Richard Attenborough’s lengthy and well-respected careers. Read Neill’s full comment below:
I was racked by the usual insecurities. Why me? I’m certainly not an action hero. The idea of me going hand to hand with Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger is simply absurd. I’m more of the ordinary guy on screen. If indeed I was supposed to be that sort of action guy, I was already, I think, forty-five years old, and as always had left things about ten or fifteen years too late.
The impostor syndrome would be enhanced later on when we were out and about promoting the movie. The more or less official line from Universal Pictures was that, with ‘Jurassic Park,’ they had set out to prove that they, with Spielberg, could make huge blockbusters without ‘movie stars’. This was true enough, but I think it slightly irked us, the actors, to be reminded from time to time we were not real ‘stars’. It also rather overlooked the well-established and highly respected careers of Laura, Jeff and Dicky.
As it turned out, we know now that Harrison Ford turned down the part, so the ‘no movie star’ plan may be not entirely true. I emphasize the word ‘slightly’, because more than anything we were all delighted to be working with Steven. And to be working on something that would be absolutely groundbreaking, as it turned out.
Jurassic Park’s Three Decade-Long Legacy
Neill also goes on to reflect on the fact that Harrison Ford turned down a role in Jurassic Park, and that clearly the ‘no stars’ line didn’t apply to the film if Spielberg wanted a star like Ford on-board with the project. While Neill admits that he understands the dinosaurs were meant to be the ‘real’ stars of the film, discounting the successful careers of established actors like Neill, Dern, Goldblum, and Attenborough would be enough to upset anyone. Despite this, however, Neill recounts being thrilled to work with a director like Spielberg, and as it would turn out, Jurassic Park would become one of the most successful films in history.
While Jurassic Park had two sequel films, The Lost World in 1997 and Jurassic Park III in 2001, both were met with mixed-to-negative responses, as neither of the sequels managed to get Neill, Dern, and Goldblum all back together in the same film. It wasn’t until 2015 that the franchise saw a revival with the release of Jurassic World, starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. Jurassic World even surpassed the release of Jurassic Park, and the reboot film is currently the eighth highest-grossing film of all time. Its sequel, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom stands at number 18.
Though Universal attempted to discount its leads, Neill, Dern, and Goldblum have since become pop culture icons for their work in Jurassic Park. The trio even reunited for the third Jurassic World movie in 2022, where Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler’s three-decade-long romance finally came to fruition. While Universal might not have considered its Jurassic Park actors to be stars at the time, there’s no doubting that all four have since become massive Hollywood stars in the decades since.
Source: IndieWire
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