With the June 10th release ofJurassic World Dominioncoming up fast, I got the chance to chat with the trilogy’s headliners,Chris PrattandBryce Dallas Howard.
The new installment of the franchise kicks off four years after the events ofJurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Claire (Howard) and Owen (Pratt) are largely living off the grid in an effort to protect Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), Benjamin Lockwood’s granddaughter who’s revealed to be a genetic clone of her mother. On top of that, dinosaurs are now living alongside humans throughout the world. There are some out there like Claire and Owen who are determined to protect the dinos and answer for the mistakes made at Jurassic World, but there are many others looking to exploit them and the associated genetic technology.
Yet another layer of theJurassic World Dominionstory? TheJurassic Parkbig three are back —Sam Neillas Alan Grant,Laura Dernas Ellie Sattler, andJeff Goldblumas Ian Malcolm. Given the fact that Owen can be considered the Alan of the new trilogy, I opted to ask Pratt if he discovered any new layers of his own character while sharing scenes with Neill. Here’s what he said:
“The major takeaways I would take from the person of Sam Neill versus Owen learning something from Dr. Alan Grant. We shot this under pretty tight COVID restrictions and we were all essentially living together for the better part of eight months, and so I took away from Sam a lot of really wonderful things and realized that we had a lot in common in our real lives. We both have farms on islands, we raise the same type of pigs, the same type of sheep. We literally have the same type of Suffolk sheep. It was a very strange mix of similarities and I just really, really adore him as a guy.”
One behind-the-scenes detail that might come as a bit of a surprise on such a massive blockbuster production? There was a significant amount of collaboration happening while developingJurassic World Dominion. Not only didJurassicnewcomersDeWanda WiseandMamoudou Athietell us all about how significantly their creative input influenced their characters, but Howard also discussed a running document she kept with ideas that she, Pratt, and the rest of the team came up with during the making ofJurassic WorldandFallen Kingdom, ideas that you’ll be able to see on the big screen inDominion.
“I like to kind of keep notes when I’m doing a movie because for situations like this with press so that you remember certain things. Pretty early on Chris would say stuff that I would just be like, ‘Oh my god, if there’s a chance to do another one of these movies, that’s such a good idea. That’s so fun.’ So I just kind of kept that running document and Colin [Trevorrow] asked me for it as he was writing the script with Emily [Carmichael]. I’m really happy, something that was definitely on that document was Blue having a baby. That was something that was very important. The underground scene in Malta. That was something that we talked about really wanting to see. There was a few really fun things in there.”
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Pratt then took a moment to highlight how that list emphasizes what a good team he and Howard make:
“I remember you sending that to me and I was like, ‘These are all great ideas. Wait. These are my ideas!’ You’re like, ‘I literally just told you that I wrote down your ideas.’ ‘Right, right. They’re really good though!’ I have about a four-second window of clarity around the moment that I’m in and she does a really great job of capturing [it]. We’re a good team, I think.”
If you’re looking for even more on the making ofJurassic World Dominionfrom that team, check out our full conversation in the video interview at the top of this article. Be sure to catch the movie when it hits theaters on June 10th.
