Chris Pratt’s Best On-Screen Kiss Was A Complete Surprise To His Co-Star
By now, most fans of the Jurassic World film franchise are aware of the romance that grows between the two series leads, Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire Dearing. Throughout the three films, the two go from begrudging allies with conflicting worldviews to loving adoptive parents of Isabella Sermon’s Maisie Lockwood.
What may surprise fans, however, is that the pair’s first on-screen kiss completely surprised Bryce Dallas Howard, making the take seem incredibly spontaneous and romantic.
When Chris Pratt kissed Bryce Dallas Howard in Jurassic World, her surprise wasn’t acting, it wasn’t part of the script.
This reveal comes courtesy of an interview snippet available to view on YouTube, which features Chris Pratt and series director Colin Trevorrow describing how they achieved the perfect take. Chris Pratt described the filming process as a chaotic and action-fueled environment, which he didn’t initially consider ripe for romantic tension. Trevorrow, on the other hand, saw the potential for an adrenaline-induced kiss to take place, encouraging Pratt to go in for the embrace without Bryce Dallas Howard’s knowledge.
The resulting shot perfectly encapsulates the spontaneous dynamic brought to life on screen by the leading pair, though it does leave several questions as to why Trevorrow couldn’t trust Bryce Dallas Howard to perform this climactic moment without some forethought. The filmmaker clearly trusted Chris Pratt to hone his acting chops enough to appear spontaneous in the moment, providing him with the necessary information to perform the scene with no surprises.
Chris Pratt has had other on-screen kisses, but the shock nature of the one in Jurassic World helps make it his most memorable.
Bryce Dallas Howard was an accomplished performer long before she signed on for Jurassic World in 2015, with dozens of credited leading appearances on her IMDb to back up her ability to act in accordance with her scripted material.
This behind-the-scenes story seems to bring to mind a history of filmmakers trusting men to perform under pressure, while forcing women to react to seemingly real-life stimuli on camera. Chris Pratt seems to assert within the interview that he was unsure if the moment would even work until he had seen the footage after the fact.
Of course, Bryce Dallas Howard did not object to the take, leaving the climactic scene of her passionately embracing Chris Pratt in the final film, and ultimately following her instincts as a performer. Had she felt differently about the encounter, Trevorrow would likely have changed his approach to filming scenes in this capacity after the fact.
Bryce Dallas Howard knew she’d be kissing Chris Pratt at some point while filming Jurassic World, since the romance was always planned, it was the timing that caught her off guard.
Additionally, there was always a planned romantic element to Jurassic World, so Bryce Dallas Howard would have been well aware that she’d be sharing an on-screen kiss with Chris Pratt at some point in the shoot. Howard and Pratt then went on to perform in the following two films in the franchise as a committed couple, utilizing their character’s worldviews to inhibit conflict at the heart of the films, ultimately making their romantic relationship one of the most important aspects in the ladder half of the franchise.
All this is to say, the first kiss shared by the couple in the film, which is often regarded as Chris Pratt’s greatest on-screen kiss, was a complete surprise to his co-star. While we’re all happy that the moment worked out well for the shoot, we’re also sure Bryce Dallas Howard could have nailed the emotional impact if she had been given a heads up.
