One of the great stars of Steven Spielberg’s film has recognized it 30 years later in his recently published memoirs
jurassic park It hit movie theaters around the world in 1993 and, although it is now part of popular culture and part of the nineties nostalgia of several generations, then no one could imagine that the moviestarring Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, would become a benchmark in the science fiction and adventure genre of such scope. Not even his director, Steven Spielberg, who had successes like Shark (1975), ET the alien (1982) and three films in the franchise Indiana Jones.
However, jurassic park It would become one of the masterpieces of the famous director’s filmography and a true blockbuster that would give rise to two sequels: one in 1997 and another in 2001, in addition to the spin-offs. Jurassic World starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.
Now the film is part of history, but Sam Neill, the person in charge of playing Alan Grant, would acknowledge that was a little upset with the film’s marketing campaign. The 75-year-old actor spoke about it and his long career through his memoirs Did I Ever Tell You This?in which he explained that at the time he felt a little insecure about his leading role in the film.
“I was tormented by the usual insecurities,” Neill writes in his book. “Why me? I’m certainly not an action hero. The idea of comparing myself to Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger is just absurd. I’m the most normal guy in the world. I was already 45, so if I was supposed to be an action hero, he arrived about 10 or 15 years late.
AND, According to the interpreter, that kind of “imposter syndrome” increased with the film’s marketing campaignmore focused on the dinosaurs than on any of the actors who appeared in it.
The imposter syndrome would intensify later, when going out to promote the film. The more or less official line from Universal Pictures was that, with ‘Jurassic Park’, they had set out to demonstrate that they, with Spielberg, could make big box office hits without ‘movie stars’.
“This was quite true, but I think “It slightly bothered us actors to be reminded from time to time that we weren’t real ‘stars.'”, he admitted. “It also overlooked Laura’s well-established and highly respected careers.” [Dern]Jeff [Goldblum] and Dicky [Richard Attenborough]. As it turned out, now that we know Harrison Ford turned down the role, the ‘no movie star’ plan might not be entirely true.”
Despite his words, the actor said he was absolutely grateful, then and now, for having the opportunity to star in the film and has never hesitated to highlight that he was only “slightly” upset: “I emphasize the word ‘slightly’ because above all we were all delighted to work with Steven. And to be working on something that would be absolutely groundbreaking, as it turned out to be.”
With a budget of $63 million and an additional $65 million invested in the advertising campaign, the film turned out to be a success. It raised more than 402 million in the United States, while worldwide it raised more than 643 million, thus exceeding $1 billion in total.
