Laura Dern Cites Filming An All-Time Classic Jurassic Park Scene As The Most Fun She Had On-Set With Steven Spielberg
"Jurassic World: Dominion" followed a common strategy that movies like "Spider-Man: No Way Home" had previously seen success with — bringing back characters from the old movies. This meant fans of the original "Jurassic Park" series got to see the characters they grew up watching, like Sam Neill's Alan Grant, Laura Dern's Ellie Sattler, and Jeff Goldblum's Dr. Ian Malcolm. Although it's interesting to see the dynamic between them and the current "Jurassic World" cast, the movie received poor reviews. Many critics had issues with the writing, and most agreed that it was a far cry from the greatness of the original "Jurassic Park."
To be fair, Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" was a remarkable achievement for the time and a tough act to follow. Its financial success was formidable, earning almost $1 billion worldwide in 1993 on a $63 million budget (per Box Office Mojo). That would seem to be great motivation for the star to all return, but "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" only featured Goldblum of the core three. Neill later returned to star in "Jurassic Park 3," which also features a brief cameo from Dern.
Needless to say, reuniting for "Dominion" was fun for the three actors. But while Dern enjoyed returning to her old role, her reprisal likely doesn't hold a candle to her favorite moment from filming the original "Jurassic park."
The escape from Jurassic Park's raptors was especially fun to film
During an interview with Vanity Fair alongside Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern revealed her favorite moment from filming "Jurassic Park" with Steven Speilberg. She explained that Spielberg is a big fan of choreography, and he gave her thorough notes during the iconic scene where her character narrowly escapes a raptor who'd just killed Samuel L. Jackson's Arnold. Dern recalled that Spielberg was very animated and passionate about how her character would think she was safe from danger, only to discover her ordeal was far from over.
"That whole sequence, it was the most fun I had with Steven," Dern explained. "He loved choreographing, this idea of, you're in this circumstance, it's gonna be really terrifying, really scary, and then the climax is, you succeed, and then you fall back and something terrifying happens." Dern even confessed that there was a darkly hilarious early take of the scene where Arnold's fake severed limbs got caught on her dragging flashlight while she was running, leading to laughter from the crew.
It will be interesting to see if Dern ever returns for future "Jurassic" projects. "Jurassic World: Dominion" is the end of the trilogy, but that doesn't mean it's the end of the franchise.