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Jurassic Park has become a multi-billion dollar franchise and birthed a spin-off series, Jurassic World. But when it was new in cinemas, nobody knew how incredibly successful it would become. In the picture, Steven Spielberg pitted Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern and Sam Neill against a zoo of escaped dinosaurs, but behind the scenes, Neill was struggling with an even bigger demon: himself.
Neill recently opened up about experiencing “imposter syndrome” in his recently released book, Did I Ever Tell You This?
While he felt he was not the perfect fit for the iconic role of Dr Alan Grant, things got worse once the film’s promotional campaign began.
He wrote: “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’.”
Although – at the time – Neill was not a household name, he had starred in numerous movies over the years, including Evil Angels, The Hunt for Red October and Memoirs of an Invisible Man.
Despite this, Neill confessed these comments cut him deep. (Via Independent)
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“This was true enough,” Neill admitted. “But I think it slightly irked us, the actors, to be reminded from time to time we were not real ‘stars’.”
Neill also expressed discontent with how his co-stars were being treated during this marketing campaign, as well.
“It also rather overlooked the well-established and highly respected careers of Laura [Dern], Jeff [Goldblum], and Dicky [Richard Attenborough],” he said.
He went on to add: “I emphasise the word ‘slightly’, because more than anything we were all delighted to be working with Steven [Spielberg]. And to be working on something that would be absolutely groundbreaking, as it turned out.”
Niell later prodded fun at the film company, Universal, adding: “As it turned out, we know now that Harrison Ford turned down the part.”
He said: “so the ‘no movie star’ plan may be not entirely true.”
That didn’t stop him from being a little insecure about his profession while he was filming the now-groundbreaking movie.
“I was racked by the usual insecurities,” Neill confessed. “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.”
Neill said he was more of an “ordinary guy on screen”. He also pointed out his age, at the time: “If indeed I was supposed to be that sort of action guy, I was already, I think, 45 years old, and as always had left things about 10 or 15 years too late.”
Despite feeling this way, he made a triumphant return to the series last year in Jurassic World: Dominion.
He confessed: “Well, mostly his great and abiding affection for those characters and how he wanted them to be completely integrated into the Jurassic World world. And so that persuaded me. And also the idea of hanging out with Jeff and Laura again which, of course, is an attractive one in itself.”
Jurassic Park and Jurassic World: Dominion are available to watch on NOW.
