How Nicolas Cage convinced Laura Dern to star in ‘Jurassic Park’
As the daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, Laura Dern was always destined to follow in the family business, but she didn’t have any interest in becoming part of the blockbuster machine until she was actively encouraged by Nicolas Cage.
With roles in Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Rambling Rose, and Afterburn already under her belt, Dern was firmly established as one of the most gifted up-and-coming performers in the industry, with Oscar and Primetime Emmy nominations to go along with a Golden Globe win to prove it.
Regardless of how hard any actor resists the temptation to avoid effects-heavy adventures for as long as possible, it’s hard to say no when Steven Spielberg comes calling. Dern was always the director’s first choice for the role of Ellie Sattler in Jurassic Park despite both Robin Wright and Juliette Binoche turning it down beforehand, although she wasn’t overly enthusiastic at the prospect of working with animatronic dinosaurs.
Dern was only 26 years old when the revolutionary fantasy exploded into cinemas in the summer of 1993, and taking second billing behind Sam Neill in what was the highest-grossing movie ever made at the time did wonders for her standing and profile in the industry. As she reflected to Entertainment Weekly, though, it may not have happened at all were it not for Cage.
“I was talking with Nicolas Cage, and we had just done Wild at Heart together, and I said to him, ‘Nic, they want to put me on the phone with Steven Spielberg, but they want to talk to me about a dinosaur movie,'” she explained. “And he was like, ‘You are doing a dinosaur movie! No one can ever say no to a dinosaur movie!’ I was like, ‘Really?’ And he’s like, ‘Are you kidding? It’s a dream of my life to do a movie with dinosaurs!'”
More than 30 years later and Cage still hasn’t starred in a dinosaur movie, although he did buy one of their skulls and ended up having to return it to its rightful owners after discovering it was stolen. Still, Dern admitted “he was such an influence on me” when it came to swaying her decision to take on Jurassic Park.
Even Spielberg was aware that Dern was the fast-rising darling of independent cinema, but he didn’t even consider the prospect of being rejected. “Then I talked to Steven and he goes, ‘I know that you’re doing your independent films, but I need you to be chased by dinosaurs, in awe of dinosaurs, and have the adventure of a lifetime. Will you do this with me?,'” Dern recalled. “And I was like, ‘Sure.'”
If it wasn’t for Cage’s unbridled enthusiasm and borderline jealousy at his Wild at Heart co-star making a dinosaur flick with Spielberg, then Jurassic Park could have easily ended up with somebody other than Dern as Dr. Sattler.
