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RUNNING FROM DINOS!: WE'RE HANGIN' WITH THE STARS OF... JURASSIC PARK III TEA LEONI, TREVOR MORGAN AND SAM NEILL In Los Angeles, recently, our AGW entertainment
reporter got to chat with three of the stars of the dino-mite hit Jurassic
Park III. Cute and upbeat 14-year-old actor Trevor
Morgan
Dr. Alan Grant (from the first dino-movie JP I) is back!
AGW: How did you all happen to end up in this film? Tea: It was like 'Do you want to be in Jurassic Park III?" Let me get over the fact that I'm such a loser that I wasn't in the first or second one. Then they told me that Sam Neill would be coming back and Bill Macy was coming onboard, that Michael Jeter was cast for a role and I know his work and thought that was such an interesting choice. Then Trevor Morgan (over there) who is this hot young actor, real talented kid and I knew this from others who worked with him and that Joe Johnston was doing to be directing and I sort of got the idea that they weren't gonna just make the third one. The studio was absolutely behind us that we were to make the best one. They could have done this with a much less expensive roster and probably a younger, prettier one. The buck's already made in an odd way. You've got Stan Winston coming back and he's got the awesome dinosaurs that have improved in ten years so we know we've got that handled. When I sort of got all that together, I thought, oh my God, yeah I do want to be a part of this. Sam: Me and the T-Rex are really the only two "dinosaurs" that have been resuscitated (from the first film). Well, I wanted to get it right. I wasn't right in the first one. I could have done it better. Almost always at the end of movies you think, I wish I'd done that a bit differently. It's not often you get a chance to do things over in life. When they persuaded me to do this they said this will be bigger and better than the one you did before. I said I need to pay more attention to the character this time. Some reviews the first time said the dinosaurs are more interesting than the actors. And that's upsetting. I said, well, if I can make sure this character is more interesting than last time, I'd be happy to do it and I was happy. I think he's better and novelty factor aside I think this may be the best of the three films. I'm happy with it. There's certainly a high level of expectation for this film. Especially with kids and I like that. I think my kids will be thrilled. Trevor: I did have to audition. I knew (Producer) Kathleen Kennedy from working on The Sixth Sense and she sorta had me in mind. I auditioned for (Director) Joe Johnston and I guess they wanted me. It was nail biting because I was working on The Glass House at the time and they thought the schedules were gonna conflict. At first I'm going, I can't believe I'm gonna do Jurassic Park III a dream come true. I can't wait'. Then they thought they could work it out then they said no, I'm sorry, our schedules conflict too much. So there was a while that I thought I lost Jurassic Park. I was very lucky that The Patriot came out when it did, because that was the clincher when Mr. Spielberg saw it and liked me in it so he pushed Jurassic Park III so I could be in it. AGW: Could all of you tell us something funny or dangerous that happened while you were shooting this film? Trevor: Well, I got pecked by dinosaur chicks. That was cool. There were some puppets used. They actually had a puppet rock. It was movable on wheels and they had three puppet (dinosaurs) in the front that were actually pecking me on set, one on each side and one in the middle. They had sticks coming out for the wings and head and I asked about the sticks. Joe (Johnston the director) said they were gonna take the sticks out with computer. The two in back of me were animatronic. They used puppets to peck at me because they were a little more agile and really looked like they were hurting me. I got a few bruises. When I'm running from rock to rock and fighting and kicking, there's nothing there. I was wondering how that was gonna look and it turned out great. I did get a couple of nips. I had to stand up on a pedestal. They had a puppet on my shoulders for the flapping wings. You can't see the guys running it. They were practicing and they kept on pecking me. Hey, stop it! Tea:There were some moments in this film that were truly terrifying. Even more terrifying in hindsight, when some intelligence returned to your frightened body and warned you of certain little factoids that you might have overlooked like the fact that Bill Macy was chained to this big crane, cabled in and had that gone over he would have been chained in underwater, drowning. You hope there were divers there. I fell off a catwalk. Wasn't even on camera which is too bad because it was one of my best pieces of physical work. Bill and I are hanging out in the birdcage and it's supposed to be filled with water below but it wasn't yet and I'm hanging out and I step off the back. And ladies, if you've fallen on a boy's bike you get the idea..slightly to the left. I had a contusion the size of a beach bucket. It was bad and I was dangling. I don't know how I ended up hanging by my elbow but those things happen very quickly. However during that I was thinking, okay Jerry will drive me to the hospital, etc. That's in the process of going down. I was hanging there and I was screaming "Bill!" I got back up finally. Sam: These dinosaurs
are more animated than ever. AGW: What do you guys do when you aren't making movies? (Tea and husband David Duchovney are raising their 2-year-old daughter Ava so they are homebodies.) Tea: We don't go out a lot. We have offers. People do invite us out at least once. It's also getting people to be a nanny on the weekend. We had a sitter come on Saturday night so we could leave at like 7:00, she goes down at 8:00. I don't want to eat at 8:30…too old, you get gas. We were so excited. We just went to this little local place. That's fun for us. Our daughter has our sense of humor. At times, I think it's a natural progression. Your children should be smarter than you and you just have to work to manipulate them into good options. She has a better sense of humor. She'll do subtle things and it'll leave her dad and me just gobsmacked and she'll say…'just kidding'. I'm ready for her head to start spinning and vomit to come out. No child at that age should have a sense of humor like that to stump two parents who are fairly well-witted. Trevor: Well, hang with my friends. Yeah, they're excited to see it. They bought my action figure and fed it to their dogs. Threw it into the ceiling fan, whooped it at the wall. No, seriously, they saw the trailers during the NBA finals and they're excited to see it. They think it looks great so I'm happy. I make home movies but I've been too busy. I want to get a new video camera. That would be very fun to me to go out and do that. I always get ideas all the time. I think maybe I should write this. I start writing like 20 pages and then I get busy and sidetracked. Some day I want to go to film school. I want to go to the best one. USC I guess. Being on sets is a good education. I get to travel and learn about different cultures. I'm lucky that I can. But college is good. My parents have already made it clear that I'm going. Sam: I reward myself by having a holiday once in a while. I have other interests too. I just bought an orchard. I'm gonna grow organic cherries. It's next to one of my vineyards. I don't make career moves. I go off to do my acting and that's my work and I love it but there's much more to life than that thank God. I'm quite prepared to grow cherries if you insist or work in my vineyards. I'm about to do a dark love story in New Zealand which I'm co-producing. But, say good things about me and maybe I'll be back for the next Jurassic Park.
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has great timing. He'd just finished playing Mel Gibson's son in The
Patriot when Steven Spielberg was looking for a teen to star in Jurassic
Park III. He'll star opposite Leelee Sobieski in the upcoming thriller
The Glass House and plays a young coach in The Rookie with
Dennis Quaid. He told us about acting with dinosaurs, having his own action
figure and plans for his future. 
Tea
Leoni plays Trevor's mom in the film. You might
have seen her recently as Nicolas Cage's wife in The Family Man and
she ran from a big meteor a couple of summers ago in Deep Impact. Tea
is enjoying being a mom. She and hubby David Duchovney (X-Files and
Evolution) share a baby daughter. We found her to be one of the funniest
people around as she told us some wild stories from the set of J-P III.
Sam
Neill is the accomplished actor who played Nicole Kidman's hubby
in Dead Calm, a terrific thriller that launched her career. He
was Merlin in the 1998 t.v. Mini-series and played a Russian submarine
officer in Hunt for Red October. Sam also makes fine wines in his
New Zealand vineyard/winery. He was happy to bring back Dr. Grant and
do a little more with the character. 
It's more realistic and fun to work with. You really feel like you're
working with sentient beings on the set. They seem
to take an interest in what you do and they snuggle up to you. I think
they're pretty cool. I like them. I think we're all pretty cut
up and bruised. Joe told us this is going to be the most physical thing
you've ever done and it was..bigtime. I'm action/doctor so what the hey!
There's 10 times more banging up and running around and jumping off things
and drowning..you name it. There was no end to the indignities we had
to suffer. I think it is another sort of acting when you are playing the
Harrison Ford/Mel Gibson action parts. I don't do those things much..I
play psychopaths and people's dads usually. It's a different thing to
do. I balance a big film with a small one.