Jurassic World star Bryce Dallas Howard speaks to Herald film writer Dominic Corry about the new film.
Bryce Dallas Howard talks about her boss lady role in the Jurassic Park reboot with Dominic Corry.
She's been in New Zealand to shoot Disney movie Pete's Dragon but that won't be Bryce Dallas Howard's first giant reptile movie. And the lizards don't come any bigger than they do in Jurassic World in which Dallas Howard plays the dino-park's woman-in-charge.
Like most people in their early thirties, Steven Spielberg's Sam Neill-starring original loomed large in Howard's childhood.
"I had to beg my parents to see Jurassic Park," she tells TimeOut.
"I was kind of sheltered when I was a kid, myself and my siblings. We didn't really watch TV. They weren't sure how scary it was." Her parents - Dad is Happy Days star turned-Oscar-winning director Ron Howard - eventually relented after seeing the film themselves, allowing their 12-year-old daughter to see the lifelike renditions of the prehistoric creatures.
"I will never ever forget the first time I saw a dinosaur. Now I think we're jaded in a way, we're exposed to special effects in almost every movie and it looks so real. But back then, I don't think anybody expected to see a dinosaur looking like that in a film. I remember distinctly, I had this emotionally overwhelmed reaction where it felt like my brain couldn't process what I was seeing."
In the new film, the people-eating of the past has been forgotten, and the dinosaur-stuffed safari park has been open for business for a decade.
"What I love so much about this movie is it's the manifestation of John Hammond's dream. It is Jurassic Park come to life, but Jurassic Park was a total PR nightmare so we're gonna call it something different - Jurassic World," she says, "This is a fully functional, fully operational, successful amusement park with 20,000 visitors every single day." That simply won't do for a major blockbuster - nobody pays money to see a film about a place like this run successfully.
Which is where Howard's character Claire Dearing comes in. She's an ambitious executive who comes up with a plan to bolster visitor numbers - invent a new bigger, badder dinosaur
"Much like 'Do we really need a new phone?', this is sort of 'Do we really need a new dinosaur?' The conceit of this film is that the answer is yes and then what happens because of that. I love phones. I should say that. Especially new phones."
Bryce Dallas Howard stars in Jurassic World.
With the dinosaurs simply doing what comes naturally to them (i.e. eating tasty humans), does that make Claire the villain of the film?
"She is flawed, absolutely. But no. What I admired so much about this character is that she is not the villain, but she has the dynamism and the complexities and the layered pathologies of a good person making decisions that are based on making a profit rather that what is important for the greater good. Or even just the safety of the 20,000 visitors per day. So it was fantastic playing a character like that."
Does Howard get to flex the same acting muscles working on a giant blockbuster like this as she does on a more intimate production like The Help?
"That's what's special about this movie because that's not always the case [with films of this scale]. Some of the scenes I've gotten to do in this film are some of the best scenes I've ever been a part of. And I also had the best scene partner in the world - Chris Pratt."
A scene from Jurassic World.
In an era when blockbusters often seem to exist entirely to serve the next film, Howard stresses that Jurassic World isn't worried about setting up sequels.
"I think the best movies are made when the filmmakers are really focusing on that one film and not 'Do we need to keep this open? How should we wrap this up?'. You want it all in that movie. You don't want to save anything. I want there to be more movies for sure, but the focus has always been on this story being a complete, standalone experience."
Howard's recent trip wasn't her first time in New Zealand - parts of her father's 1988 fantasy film Willow were shot in the South Island.
"I think I was five and I turned six during the shooting. I remember it really well. My dad, I think because he was a child actor, he thinks that children belong on set. So I was there what felt like every single day.
"It's interesting because I've been here in New Zealand for several months now on the North Island, and I just went to the South Island last week, and I was looking around and I was like 'This is what I remember!'
"So it's awesome to be back. I've always wanted to come back to New Zealand and now I don't wanna leave."
Earlier films in the Jurassic Park series reportedly considered using New Zealand as a shooting location before going with Hawaii every time.
"I've so fallen in love with New Zealand that I've been taking some pictures because I keep thinking there are areas that look like Hawaii. We were living in Mt. Maunganui. And I was always running on the beach and looking in the distance and thinking 'Why aren't we shooting Jurassic here?' In a perfect world I would be shooting in Hawaii and New Zealand."
What: Jurassic World, the revival of the Jurassic Park franchise When: Opens at cinemas on June 11
