SUBMITTED BY Lincoln

July 23, 2001 — The New Straits Times features a Sam Neill interview today also!

"This is my favourite one of the three films because it is the most balanced of all three. I think the human component matches up to the dino component in Jurassic Park 3 more than in the previous films," he says frankly.

Besides a stronger storyline propelling the film, he is excited about JP3 because he also feels that the latest outing is much more of an action film than the previous one, describing his character as a reluctant action hero.

"The curiosity about action films is that the faster the film is, the slower it is to shoot. So we were longer out there, 20 weeks as opposed to 11 in the first one.

"Johnston is more action-oriented and that is why this is more of an action film. I think it was the right decision to make an action film.

"And that is what differentiates JP3 from the others. There is much more adrenaline, and you can say it is an adrenaline-fuelled kind of ride, than the others.

"Hopefully, all those people who want that sort of a movie in the summer will turn up in droves and go again and again," he explains at length.

Besides the solid pedigree of director Johnston and producers Kennedy and Spielberg, Neill also wanted to do another Jurassic Park film to prove a point, to himself if not anybody else.

He remembers a review in the New Yorker when the first film first came out where it described Jurassic Park as: "The first film in cinema history where the dinosaurs are more three-dimensional than the actors."

Neill proudly and gleefully announces that Jurassic Park 3 is basically "the revenge of Alan Grant - bigger and better and meaner!"

Like a poet, he explains his "revenge" in this way: "One of the things about human beings - and one of the reasons why people are so attracted to the dinosaurs - is that we are irresistibly attracted to the things that will hurt us the most.

"And that is one of the reasons why actors always forget the good ones (reviews) - and have the bad ones printed on their frontal lobes."

Proving points aside and on a less competitive note, Neill has not lost sight of the big joke that the whole make-belief movie world is all about as he takes a jibe at his character, Alan Grant.

"I was rather disturbed by my action figure when it was presented to me a couple of days ago," he said.

"Given that they had come in and taken photographs and made a sculpture of me, it looked like someone else altogether! And the most disturbing thing about it was that it looked like Alan Grant had been abusing steroids for the last 57 years - because the musculature had to be seen to be believed!"

This combination of suave confidence, self-mockery and a hilarious sense of humour makes this man very endearing - and it was not surprising that the women journalists at the table were somewhat flirtatious when interviewing the star.

On flirting with disaster, i.e. acting with the dinosaurs on his latest film, Neill explains that it is easier when they are three-dimensional (animatronics) than when he is acting against just thin air (that's later filled in with CGI - computer generated-imagery - dinosaurs).

Thanks to Squirk for the heads up!