In Jurassic World Dominion, Jurassic Park stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum will each reprise their respective roles for what's shaping up to be an epic event movie. During an interview with The Sunday Times (via SFFGazette.com), Dern looked back at her time working on the 1993 classic and opened up on the significant age difference between Dr. Alan Grant and her character, Ellie Sattler.
In Jurassic Park, the two found romance in the midst of all that dino danger, and while the script pointed to Ellie being in her late 20s and Alan in his mid-30s, the reality was actually a little different.
Neill was 43 years old when they shot the movie, while Dern was 20 years his junior. "At the time, [that] was a completely appropriate age difference for a leading man and lady! It never occurred to me until I opened a magazine and there was an article called 'Old geezers and gals,'" she says.
"Well, it felt completely appropriate to fall in love with Sam Neill. And it was only now, when we returned in a moment of cultural awareness about the patriarchy, that I was, like, 'Wow! We're not the same age?'" Dern continued. "Our age gap in Jurassic Park was completely inappropriate."
Dern didn't return for the Jurassic Park sequel, The Lost World, but had a brief role in 2001's Jurassic Park III. In that, we learned that she had married someone else, so it will be interesting to see whether this former romance is referenced in some way or even reignited when Alan and Ellie reunite.
From Jurassic World architect and director Colin Trevorrow, Dominion takes place four years after Isla Nublar has been destroyed. Dinosaurs now live - and hunt - alongside humans all over the world. This fragile balance will reshape the future and determine, once and for all, whether human beings are to remain the apex predators on a planet they now share with history’s most fearsome creatures.
Jurassic World Dominion will roar into theaters worldwide on June 10.