Laura Dern and Sam Neill have reflected on their age gaps of 20 years during Jurassic Park, not realizing that it wasn’t “perfectly appropriate” until much later.
The pair thrilled fans as Palaeobotanist Dr Ellie Sattler and palaeontologist Dr Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster of 1993 when they were confronted with the animals whose remains they had built their prestigious careers researching.
But, Dern was only the “tender age” that she was at 23 in the year she was cast according to Neill whom was born two years prior to her in 1947. the actor confessed that it was only when he realized how strange it was after he saw them portrayed in an article about age gaps.
“I’m 20 years older than Laura! That was an incredibly appropriate age difference for a man who was a top woman,’ he stated.
“I didn’t think about it until I opened the pages of a magazine and saw an article titled “Old geezers and gals”. There were people who look like Harrison Ford and Sean Connery performing with younger people. I was in the middle of the line. It was like “Come on. It’s not true”.’
Indiana Jones star Ford appeared alongside Anne Heche in Six Days, Seven Nights in the year Ford was just 29 while he 55. Sean Connery’s Bond appeal was not enough for him to be as a character in Entrapment in 1999, alongside Catherine Zeta Jones, who is 39 years younger than him.
Big Little Lies Star Dern also spoke out about their age gap and said that it was only recently that she realized it was inappropriate.
In a letter to The Sunday Times that it had been ‘completely appropriate to be in love with Sam Neill’ back then and she continued: ‘And it was only later when we came back, to a point of cultural awareness of the patriarchy I thought, “Wow! We’re not exactly the same old?”‘
Other films that have shown huge age gaps between male and female protagonists includes Crazy Heart, where Maggie Gyllenhaal was paired with Jeff Bridges, who is 28 years older than her in 2013, and Third Person, which was released in 2013. Third Person, which paired with Liam Neeson and Olivia Wilde and has an age gap of 32 years.
Dern and Neill reprise the roles they played in the forthcoming Jurassic World: Dominion that is bringing the stars from the previous films in the series together for one final celebration.
The duo is together with Jeff Goldblum as Dr Ian Malcom for the second time and new lead actors Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.
After what happened in 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom The future of humanity is now in doubt since dinosaurs and humans must live together after the demise of Isla Nublar.