Sam Neill opened up about his insecurities when he was cast in Steven Spielberg’s iconic 1993 film Jurassic Park.
The star in her New Memories I Told You That Before said, “I was rocked by the usual insecurities,” adding, “Why me? I’m definitely not an action hero. The idea of me going Hand in hand with Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger is just plain nonsense.
I’m more of a regular on-screen guy. If indeed I was meant to be that kind of action guy, I was already, I think, forty-five and, as always, had left things about ten or fifteen years too late.
According to Neill, the marketing campaign deepened his feelings when it revealed that the CGI dinosaurs, not the actors, are the real stars of the film.
“The impostor syndrome would be reinforced later when we were promoting the film,” he wrote.
“The more or less official line from Universal Pictures was that with ‘Jurassic Park’ they set out to prove that with Spielberg they could make huge blockbusters without ‘movie stars’. That was true enough, but I think it kind of annoyed us actors to remind ourselves from time to time that we weren’t real “stars”.
The actor adds, “It also rather overlooked the well-established and highly respected careers of Laura, Jeff and Dicky. Ultimately, we now know that Harrison Ford turned down the role, so the ‘no movie star’ plan “might isn’t quite true.