Sam Neill will be back as Alan Grant in Jurassic World Dominion, as he reunites with his Jurassic Park co-stars Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern. Ahead of the movie’s June release, the actor has been reminiscing about his role in Steven Spielberg’s classic film.
In particular, the star addressed a slight inconsistency of Grant's – his accent. Speaking to Vanity Fair, Neill admitted the issue of his shifting accent in the film actually stemmed from varying instructions from the film’s director Steven Spielberg.
On the first day of filming, which was the scene where young Tim Murphy gets electrocuted, Neill went with the American accent he had been prepping in rehearsals. However, he explained how Spielberg wasn’t so convinced by it.
"He came up to me halfway through the day and he said, 'Hey, Sam, you know the accent we were talking about?,'" Neill recalls. "I said, 'Yeah, I’ve been working on it for four weeks.' He said, 'Don’t worry about it, just use your own voice.' I said, 'That’s great, Steven, thank you so much.'"
However, this wasn’t the end of the conversation. Spielberg then approached him four days later with another request. Neill continues: "He came up to me and said, 'You know that voice you’re using now?' I said, 'Yeah, my voice?' He said, 'Somewhere in between.' It’s an actor’s nightmare!"
The actor then quipped this is why he still gets so much flak to this day about the accent. Although, Dr Ellie Sattler star Laura Dern couldn’t help but point out Neill’s generosity with the accent choice. She told him: "You give the fans everything they want. A little bit of you, a little bit American." Well said, Dern. Well said.
Jurassic Park Dominion is released on June 10, 2022. Check out our guide to everything you need to know about the Jurassic Park 3 release. While you wait, we’ve also got a round-up of all of the confirmed 2022 movie release dates so far so you can get planning your cinema trips
