The leading man in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom talks about fan expectations, how to survive a dinosaur attack and how he’s hustled his way to the top
I’ve described myself as a hustler. We didn’t have money when I was growing up and my mother taught me to work hard. I’ve been working hard since I was 10, and I worked really hard to get the roles that are coming to me now.
If I didn’t become an actor I might still be a waiter. [But] my mom instilled an entrepreneurial spirit in me – that if you wanted stuff you had to work hard. So I [also] think I would have tried something on my own.
I was in the gym six days a week for four hours at a time in the build-up to filming for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. [I also had] a nutritionist making sure I was eating right. The reality is you are never going to continue with that because you can’t spend 24 hours a week in the gym in the long term, but I try and go three or four times a week for an hour just to keep in good shape.
"I've been working hard since I was 10, and I worked really hard to get the roles that are coming to me now"
There is a lot more dinosaur interaction in Fallen Kingdom [compared to the first Jurassic World], so we changed the way we filmed with the dinosaurs. I don’t think people will have seen realism like this before.
There is always pressure with a franchise that fans love so much. We have gone bigger, we have gone better [and] there are more dinosaurs. I am really proud of what we have done and hope fans are going to love it.
If you encounter a dinosaur in real life, the theory is that you are not supposed to make any sudden movements; but of course, the reality might be very different. Though I once beat up the bully in elementary school, [I’m not] going to outrun a velociraptor!
I have loved so many of my roles – for a variety of different reasons – that it wouldn’t be fair to single one or two out [as my favourite], but long may they continue!
Denzel Washington is obviously a legend, so it was incredible to be able to work with him, and Jennifer Lawrence is one of the greatest [actors] of all time. [But if I could work with absolutely anyone, it’d be] Jessica Rabbit.
I may return to television in the future if the right thing came up. With TV, you have more time to develop the character and the story, but in a movie you have [around] two hours to do that.
The greatest lesson that parenthood has taught me is to have fun; they are not kids forever. [My son, Jack,] is already getting into fishing, and he likes basketball as well.
I love to go fishing and get away from it all. It’s a real time for peace and reflection. Hawaii is [also] a pretty special place. When I dropped out of college, I [lived] there and [slept] in a tent or a van – and it’s probably the best place in the world to be homeless. Now I go there for vacation – it’s a place that means a lot to me.
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This article was originally published in the June 2018 issue of SilverKris magazine.
