As Jurassic Park turns 30, Ariana Richards speaks exclusively to RadioTimes.com about one of the most influential films of all time.
Ariana Richards’s audition for Jurassic Park was intense to say the least.
At the age of 12, when auditioning for the role of Lex Murphy, the granddaughter of park creator John Hammond (played by the late Richard Attenborough), she wasn’t asked to read lines – simply to scream at the top of her lungs.
As the iconic film turns 30, the actress and artist tells RadioTimes.com: “I had been acting for a few years before Jurassic Park so I was pretty used to the audition process, but this was an unusual one because it was highly top secret. They were keeping everything under wraps so I was not given a script, I wasn’t even given a standard section of a script, called sides, to look over before I auditioned, so it was very much a mystery. I was just called in to do an audition and be put on tape screaming.”
She recalls: “The casting person just said to me, ‘So, Ariana, we’re going to put you on tape to share with Steven [Spielberg] and you’re going to act like a dinosaur is attacking you. You just have to imagine this is happening and we want you to let loose and scream.’ That was my entire audition, it was the weirdest audition I’ve ever done in my life!”
Clearly though, she smashed it, as weeks later, while planning a trip to Disney World, she was invited to meet Spielberg, who told her she got the role. Not long afterwards, she was surrounded by a cast of Attenborough (Hammond), Laura Dern (Ellie Sattler), Sam Neill (Alan Grant) and Jeff Goldblum (Ian Malcolm) – and, of course, a set full of dinosaurs.
“I enjoy the cast so much,” she recalls. “When it comes to dear Richard, I miss him so much. He was so special, just being on set with him. Richard was so grandfatherly as a person as well, just hanging out with him, hearing his stories, hearing what it was like for him directing, he was just happy to regale me with stories in between filming. There was always that time in between takes where we would get to spend time sitting with the other actors and we got to talking. It was really something else to talk with him. I just had such a blast.”
She adds: “Jeff Goldblum was an absolute hoot. He was so funny, he was always just goofing around, making us laugh. Even just being himself, he was so funny all of the time. I would sit next to him, preparing for a scene, and most actors I would hang out with would read their script silently or practice their lines – but not Jeff. He was just full colour. He was reading his lines, speed-reading them, out loud.”
As for Spielberg himself? “He’s a genius. Steven is so gifted when it comes to working with children – he made it fun, he made it feel like I wasn’t being directed.”
Richards also remembers the legendary director taking charge when the set in Hawaii was catastrophically hit by a hurricane.
!["Ariana]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2023/06/GettyImages-972830546-5cef67d.jpg?quality=90&resize=597%2C413" "\"Ariana")
“[We all] gathered at the ballroom at the bottom of the hotel and we just waited it out – it was literally about 12 hours. I remember the eye of the hurricane going over us. I think that one of the most interesting parts was Steven telling us ghost stories. I think I found the ghost stories more scary than the hurricane, honestly!”
The actress’s role itself also stands out 30 years later for all the best reasons. In the film, the roles of Lex and her brother Tim (Joseph Mazzello) are reversed from the novel, making Lex the clever older sister who saves the day by hacking into the systems and getting Jurassic Park back online.
“I was really touched that Steven gave me that opportunity as a young actor because I don’t think it was commonplace at the time for a young female actress to be given that type of role in a movie of this magnitude, and get the chance to show intelligence and technology and computer know-how. To actually be a hacker and be able to put her skills together, to show courage and save the day,” Richards points out.
Plus, she had some of the most iconic scenes in the film.
“There’s this one scene where I’m just about to go over the edge of a precipice and then screaming for my brother Timmy, and there’s the T-Rex. I jump onto Sam’s back and we’re ready to go down the precipice together. Steven had walked us through what was happening with the blocking for that scene prior to filming and I thought we were going to do it a certain way, we’ll see what happens.
“I hop onto Sam’s back, I lean back, and the look on his face in the monitor must have been really funny. We completely fell off the precipice onto this huge mattress below. I like to take credit for the fact that maybe Sam Neill’s amazing winery was down to the fact that I drove him to alcohol. In that moment I almost killed Sam Neill!”
She adds: “Filming the raptor scene was the best. I absolutely loved filming that scene. It was a long process, we were filming the scene with the raptor for probably a few days at Universal Studios. They were just so chilling to me, and in combination with seeing [special effects artist] John Rosengrant put on this suit and be the raptor sometimes with me and Tim, it was so interesting sometimes and other times you’d just be imagining – okay, the raptors are there and we’re hearing what they might be doing around the kitchen.
“It was also a challenge for me as an actress just to reach the depths of hysteria I needed to reach for that particular scene where the raptor’s about to kill my brother and I have to run at that freezer and save him. I did a couple of takes. Steven came over to me and talked to me about it and just shared ideas and he said, ‘You know, Ariana, what I’d love to see you do for this next take is completely let loose. I want to see you literally unhinged, go crazy. I want you to scare us.’ And that was nice for me as an actress to see, okay I could reach a new depth and just go for it.”
While Richards returned for the second Jurassic Park film, The Lost World, she hasn’t reprised her role as Lex on screen since – but she’s open about supporting the films from afar.
Asked if she ever wanted to return, Richards says: “Oh yeah. Jurassic is one of those things that’s so fun to be part of, so I would always want to enjoy being part of that as Lex, but it’s one of those things that has absolutely grown into a franchise. It’s amazing to see how it has affected people through the generations, how the stories have morphed and changed, how the main characters have been brought into the present time. Basically I just support the whole endeavour and I support the artistic vision behind it.”
As for any potential returns over the years, she explains: “It’s really up to the people at the helm when it comes to artistic vision. If they believe Lex and Tim can be part of the story, and they invite us in, but I would always want to be part of it again.”
More than anything, she’s so proud of the legacy of the film.
“I am absolutely in shock right now to be thinking we’re at 30 years now since the movie. I can’t even believe this right now. Looking back, I’m just really blown away to realise, ‘Wow, I was part of something so special and right there at the beginning of the whole thing when Jurassic Park was made.'”
She reflects: “I think one of the things I would hope is it stays alive in people’s imaginations, which it already is – it continues to live on. I think that people are thinking about the characters, and what might the characters be doing? What might these different storylines be rolling out to create? So who knows? The future’s not written.”
Ariana Richards can be found on Instagram at @ArianaRichards and you can check out her gallery at GalleryAriana.com.
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