Jurassic Park fans have been left shocked after finding out that there was a whopping twenty-year age gap between Sam Neill and Laura Dern.
Steven Spielberg’s hit franchise kicked off in the ’90s. The sci-fi adventure movie hit the box office on June 11, 1993, opening to a staggering reception.
If you somehow haven’t watched the originals, the movie tells the story of a group of scientists who visit an island theme park populated by dinosaurs.
The dinosaurs residing in the park (which, you guessed it, is named Jurassic Park) have been created and cloned using pre-historic DNA. The park’s billionaire mastermind, John Hammond, head of bioengineering company, InGen (aka the ones who created the theme park), appears confident in his creation.
But, of course, it doesn’t quite work out as it should…
A group of visitors as well as Hammond’s grandchildren are on a tour when the worst possible thing happens. A tropical storm on the island causes the tour to be cut short, but the park’s computer programmer begins to sabotage the security systems leading to a power cut… meaning the dinosaurs escape.
The group then has to try and escape the island while they’re being hunted.
It’s down to the group of scientists to try to protect the park’s founder’s grandchildren from getting in the path of the predators and make it to the mainland… alive.
To date, the movie has grossed an estimated $1.029 billion at the box office, making for pretty eye-watering figures.
But despite it’s success, there’s one thing that many fans don’t discuss, and that’s the age-gap between the two main characters, paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, and palaeobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler, played by Sam Neill and Laura Dern.
Decades after the first movie came out, Dern and Neill finally spoke out about their rather “inappropriate” age difference.
They opened up to The Telegraph last May, during an interview about the latest movie Jurassic World: Dominion, in which they both reprise their roles, and addressed the twenty-year age gap.
Discussing the casting choice, Neill says: “I am twenty years older than Laura! Which at the time was a completely appropriate age difference for a leading man and lady!
“It never occurred to me until I opened a magazine and there was an article called ‘Old geezers and gals.’
“People like Harrison Ford and Sean Connery acting with much younger people, and there I was, on the list.”
Dern added: “Well, it felt completely appropriate to fall in love with Sam Neill.
“And it was only now, when we returned in a moment of cultural awareness about the patriarchy, that I was, like, ‘Wow! We’re not the same age?’”
And it seems fans were just as surprised, with one writing: “I didn’t know they were in a relationship in the movie. I thought they were just 2 Dino lovers in their late 30s to mid 40s.”
While another said: “she wasn’t portrayed as 23…..I thought he might be around 50 and she was early 30s maybe in the film, though just a guess.
