Sam Neill Says the Marketing for JURASSIC PARK "Irked" Him and His Co-Stars

Sam Neill is best known for his role in the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchises, so three decades after the first film was released, he can say that accepting the role was a good idea, although he didn’t think at first that he was exactly what the adventure film was looking for.

In the actor’s recent memoir, Did I Ever Tell You This?, he explained, “I was racked by the usual insecurities,” as he questioned why he was cast in such a role as he thought of himself as an “ordinary guy on screen.”

He added:

“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. 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 went on to talk about 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. 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’. 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.”

Neill made sure to emphasize that he was only “slightly” irked by the marketing, and he was overall very appreciative and happy to be involved in the film:

“I emphasise the word ‘slightly’, because more than anything we were all delighted to be working with Steven. And to be working on something that would be absolutely groundbreaking, as it turned out.”

It’s totally understandable that the actors would feel a little miffed when the studio was making such a huge deal about the actors being “less than” the bigger names in Hollywood. But the stars of the film obviously had the last laugh, as the film became one of the biggest and best of all time.

via: Far Out Magazine