Jurassic Park Star Says Steven Spielberg Sabotaged Him
Steven Spielberg is a legendary director that has some of the most iconic films under his belt. Jurassic Park is one film. A star from the film claims the director sabotaged him.
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In Hollywood, many celebs need to build a character by taking on accents other than their own. Nailing the task at hand is quite a challenge with a lot of actors receiving criticism for their takes on different regions and countries. One man who’s been boxed into the category of botched accents is Jurassic Park star, Sam Neill. A native Australian, Neill’s accent in the film franchise has been a thing of legend since his character, Alan Grant’s, first words were mumbled back in 1993. But, according to Neill, it wasn’t his fault.
During a recent interview with The A.V. Club alongside his co-stars, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, the actor revealed that it was actually Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg’s fault that his accent turned out the way it did. It seems that the legendary filmmaker couldn’t quite make up his mind as to what Alan Grant should sound like, first telling Neill to not worry about doing an American accent as he had been rehearsing the entire time, but instead stick with his Australian vocal flair. Not thrilled with the way the lines were coming across, Spielberg doubled back just a few days later and told Neill he wanted the actor to blend the two accents together. What came from this choice was an accent so legendary, it can hang on the same level as The Room’s Tommy Wiseau for the award of where are you even from? You can hear the man speak in the video below:
Fans of the prehistoric franchise are gearing up to hear Neill’s accent all over again when his character makes a comeback in Jurassic World Dominion on June 10. The film will mark a reunion for its three original characters, bringing Neill’s Alan Grant, Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm, and Dern’s Ellie Sattler back to the Jurassic Park franchise after not being seen together since the original film dropped almost 30 (wow!) years ago. While Goldblum appeared in 1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Neill and Dern reprised their roles for 2001’s Jurassic Park III, the dream team hasn’t taken on the dinos together since the groundbreaking 1993 film.
Jurassic World Dominion promises to combine the new and the old with the trio of Jurassic Park OGs appearing alongside new-to-the franchise characters including Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard). The feature will follow the events and fall out of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom after the island of Isla Nublar has been destroyed leaving dinosaurs to co-exist with humans. As you can imagine, the mingling doesn’t go so well, which is why our heroes are here to take on the prehistoric beasts and help wrangle them once and for all. After passing the torch to director J.A. Bayona for the second movie in the Jurassic World franchise, original director, Colin Trevorrow is back to put his vision and spin on what’s being claimed to be the last movie of the long-running fan-favorite film series.
Ridiculous accent or not, we’re thrilled to see Neill and the other Jurassic Park alums make their way back to the franchise. If this really is the last film as production is leading us to believe, the addition of the three original characters will be the icing on the cake of this action-packed ending. Steven Spielberg was likely just trying to get the best out of the actor at the time.
