Leoni Online: The Articles — Cinescape Magazine

Leoni talks about the challenge of creating strong characters while facing deadly dinosaurs.

Dateline: Thursday, July 5, 2001

By: FRANK KURTZ By: News Editor

Source: Inside Trek & Sci Fi

Tea Leoni is one of a group of actors who went head-to-head with the dinosaurs of JURASSIC PARK III. While talking to Ian Spelling’s Inside Trek & Sci Fi syndicated column, Leoni spoke of how she approached her role in the coming film, saying, “We didn’t have a very conclusive script at the time we began filming, but what I knew at the start would remain the same throughout whatever changes were made: Amanda is a mother who has lost her son, which is my own worst nightmare, and I’m sure it’s top of the list for most mothers. That drives everything Amanda does, every move she makes.”

Whe asked about doing serious acting chops in a summer popcorn film, Leoni returns, saying, “I don’t think popcorn or summer. Honestly. That sounds silly, I know. Getting involved in this I was concerned that I have a real solid jumping board, and I did. A mother who has lost her child and will do anything to get that child back was my `own private Idaho’ reality. That’s all I needed. Come hell or high water – or dinosaurs, mainly – I had what I was going to do as an actor.”

Don’t worry, it isn’t all dire seriousness. She adds, “Sam [Neill] and Bill [Macy] and everybody came in realizing it was our duty to make the human story strong, relatable and humorous. Everybody also understood that there had to be a great charm, and the way we were going to bring charm to this was through humor. So there’s a good deal of humor in JURASSIC PARK III.”