Jurassic Park is one of the most iconic film franchises of our time, even more so now that it’s been rebooted in such a big and nostalgic way. It’s hard to imagine a film most of us know and love being different in any way but, apparently, one of the OG film’s stars, Sam Neill, almost had a completely different accent in the movie. Neill has now revealed the utterly honest reason for the odd accent he uses as Alan Grant.
When it comes to films, Steven Spielberg arguably has the title of most prestigious director locked down. It would seem that Sam Neill was so on board with working with him on Jurassic Park that he would have agreed to a lot of things out of his comfort zone and actually did when asked to do an American accent for the film. In Netflix’s The Movies That Made Us docuseries, Neill reflected on his decision to join the fan-favorite movie. Here's what he said exactly:
[Steven Spielberg] wanted an American accent for it, and I don’t particularly like doing American accents… Are you going to say ‘no’ to a Spielberg film? I don’t think so. … And it’s got dinosaurs.
The man has a point, as the combination of Steven Spielberg and dinosaurs turned out to be something pretty epic and iconic. While Jurassic Park did not launch Sam Neill’s career or put him on the map, it certainly helped him out a great deal and made his face one that generations would recognize for years to come. At this point, he's practically synonymous with brilliant paleontologist Alan Grant.
Sam Neill’s Alan Grant is pretty known for his odd hybrid-like accent. The actor, born in Ireland and having grown up in New Zealand, reasonably enough wasn’t awesome at taking on an American accent when playing the challenging character it would seem. But based on Neill's further comments during the Netflix docuseries, a decision was soon made that would change up things for Grant This is what Neill said, exactly:
Steven comes up to me... and says, 'You know, Sam, that American accent you're doing... Why don't we just forget it? Just do your own voice.' I said, 'Steven, that's great! I will! That’s terrific, thank you!’
It’s been a while since we’ve heard the accent that did end up making it on screen in the Jurassic Park franchise, but it would seem that’s soon to change. Sam Neill will be reprising his role as Alan Grant, which he played in both Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III, in the upcoming addition to the rebooted franchise, Jurassic World: Dominion. He'll be doing so alongside the other two OG franchise actors, Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern -- and it looks like their roles are not small ones, either.
The newest addition to the franchise is in post-production and is set to release next year on June 10th, and I honestly can’t wait to hear Sam Neill's accent emanating from the big screen again.
