Summary
- Welcome to a new episode of Collider Ladies Night with Jurassic World Rebirth star Luna Blaise.
- During her Ladies Night conversation with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, she revisits two of her first big credits – Fresh Off the Boat and Manifest.
- After that, she goes into detail on her experience making Jurassic World Rebirth and breaks down what it took to bring one of the most iconic scenes from the Jurassic Park book to screen.
As though starring in a new Jurassic World movie isn’t a big enough deal, Luna Blaise also boasts an especially exciting franchise achievement. She’s right smack in the middle of one of the most iconic set pieces from Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park novel, a set piece that was famously cut from Steven Spielberg’s original film.
In Jurassic World Rebirth, Blaise plays Teresa Delgado. Just before starting her first year at college, Teresa takes a boat trip with her father (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), her little sister (Audrina Miranda), and her boyfriend (David Iacono). Little do they know, they’re sailing through Mosasaurs territory. Fortunately, Scarlett Johansson’s Zora Bennett and her team swoop in to save them, but the Mosasaurs sets its sights on their boat instead and the entire group winds up stranded on Ile Saint-Hubert, an island that InGen once used to run a secret R&D facility.
While trying to make their way to a rumored village on the island, Teresa and her family are left with no choice but to steal an inflatable raft right out from under a sleeping T-Rex’s nose and ride it down river to get them closer to this supposed safe haven.
With Jurassic World Rebirth now playing in theaters nationwide, Blaise joined me for a Collider Ladies Night conversation to revisit her journey to the franchise, a journey that included two hit TV shows – Fresh Off the Boat and Manifest. She also recapped her Jurassic World audition, revealed her character’s backstory, explained why she thinks of Garcia-Rulfo and Iacono as family, and, of course, walked me through exactly what it was like to film that river raft scene.
The ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ River Scene Looks Real Because It Is
Minus that T-Rex …
Jurassic World Rebirth is a good looking movie for a number of reasons, but a big one is director Gareth Edwards’ choice to film much of it on location rather than work in green screen environments. Blaise recalled:
“I saw everything! I can actually say this – every single thing you see in that sequence was real, minus the T-Rex. Everything. We did everything. I was in that swamp. I did it multiple times. I remember it. It was so surreal. I remember driving to set that day. We were in Thailand, and it was so hot. It was halfway through the first two months of filming, and I was just like, ‘Oh my god.’ I was looking up, and I’m looking up now because I’m still seeing it all. It was like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re filming Jurassic now. This is what it’s all about. This is what it is,’ because you get there and you’re in untouched territory, which is the number one thing in this movie. The whole thing is untouched. You get to this remote place in Thailand that looks like it’s never even had a footprint near it, and you just feel so unbelievably blessed to even be there.”
When Teresa powers across the river to retrieve the raft, you can practically feel the force she’s carefully fighting through because there’s no pretense. That’s exactly what the location demanded of Blaise.
“Being in a swamp and trudging through this moss that’s all the way up to your knee, and doing that 100 times and crying on top of it and sweating, and having all of these things, but then at the same time, you’re looking everywhere around you and you’re just like, ‘Oh, this is super special. This is super real.’ It is the number one thing in this movie to me that you can see it. You can see how real it is.”
Yet another aspect of the production that heavily contributes to the believability of such a scenario? Edwards’ decision to shoot the movie on 35mm, a choice that gives the visuals an unparalleled texture.
“And how amazing that it’s all shot on 35 millimeter, as well, because you’re seeing the film pick up these actual beautiful locations that you can’t catch on a green screen, you can’t catch in a studio, or anything like that with a built set. This is the jungle. This is the water. This is all natural, untouched territory, which is where these people are going in this movie, and that’s what makes it so much more real.”
This Is the Only Scene in ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ With No Score
“It was even a detail that was in the script.”
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“Even though you might get eaten by a dinosaur, it’s an experience to tell.”
Yet another standout component of Jurassic World Rebirth is Alexandre Desplat’s score. It expertly weaves in components of the John Williams original, while knowing just when and how to enhance certain beats of the story. And sometimes, that comes down to choosing silence over music.
There’s a multitude of reasons why you’re holding your breath as Teresa attempts to get the raft without waking the T-Rex, but a big one is the choice to have the moment play out in silence.
“It’s the one scene in the movie that doesn’t have a score, which is really cool. I love that. It was even a detail that was in the script. It was like, ‘No music. Silence.’ It’s so effective, because it’s also in a part of the movie, sort of in the beginning of the middle area in the film, and you’ve just been doing all this stuff, and then you’re like, ‘Oh no, and now this is happening.’ But it is also such an amazing piece of silence. It’s your T-Rex scene in Jurassic.”
Looking for even more behind-the-scenes info from Blaise on the filming of Jurassic World Rebirth? How about some memories from making Fresh of the Boat and Manifest? You can find all of that and more in our full Collider Ladies Night conversation at the top of this article, or you can listen to the interview in podcast form below:
Jurassic World Rebirth is now playing in theaters nationwide.