Sam Neill was “irked” by the marketing campaign for ‘Jurassic Park’
Jurassic Park star Sam Neill has reflected on the 1993 movie, revealing that he was “irked” by the marketing campaign. This comes as the 75-year-old looked back on his extensive career in his recent memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?
For Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, Neill starred alongside Richard Attenborough, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum. He has revealed feeling a little insecure about his leading part in the movie as palaeontologist Dr. Alan Grant.
“I was racked by the usual insecurities,” Neill wrote in the book, questioning why he was cast in such a role as he thought of himself as an “ordinary guy on screen”.
“Why me? I’m certainly not an action hero. The idea of me going hand to hand with Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger is simply absurd,” he continued. “I’m more of the ordinary guy on screen. If indeed I was supposed to be that sort of action guy, I was already, I think, 45 years old, and as always had left things about 10 or 15 years too late.”
He revealed that his “imposter syndrome” increased due to the marketing campaign for the film, which focused on the CGI dinosaurs instead of the actors. “The impostor syndrome would be enhanced later on when we were out and about promoting the movie,” Neill said. “The more or less official line from Universal Pictures was that, with Jurassic Park, they had set out to prove that they, with Spielberg, could make huge blockbusters without ‘movie stars’.”
“This was true enough, but I think it slightly irked us, the actors, to be reminded from time to time we were not real ‘stars’.” Neill continued: “It also rather overlooked the well-established and highly respected careers of Laura [Dern], Jeff [Goldblum], and Dicky [Richard Attenborough]. As it turned out, we know now that Harrison Ford turned down the part, so the ‘no movie star’ plan may be not entirely true.”
However, the Northern Irish actor maintained his gratitude to have featured in the film, emphasising that he was only “slightly” irked by the marketing. “I emphasise the word ‘slightly’, because more than anything we were all delighted to be working with Steven,” he concluded. “And to be working on something that would be absolutely groundbreaking, as it turned out.”
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