'Jurassic Park' marketing campaign irked us: Sam Neill

Sam Neill opened up about his insecurities when cast in Steven Spielberg’s iconic 1993’s film Jurassic Park.

The star in his new memories Did I Ever Tell You This said, “I was racked by the usual insecurities,” adding “Why me? I’m certainly not an action hero. The idea of me going hand to hand with Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger is simply absurd.

I’m more of the ordinary guy on screen. If indeed I was supposed to be that sort of action guy, I was already, I think, forty-five years old, and as always had left things about ten or fifteen years too late.”

As per Neill, the marketing campaign worsened his feelings when they revealed CGI dinosaurs, not the actors, are the real stars of the movie.

“The impostor syndrome would be enhanced later on when we were out and about promoting the movie,” he wrote.

“The more or less official line from Universal Pictures was that, with ‘Jurassic Park,’ they had set out to prove that they, with Spielberg, could make huge blockbusters without ‘movie stars’. This was true enough, but I think it slightly irked us, the actors, to be reminded from time to time we were not real ‘stars’.

The actor adds, "It also rather overlooked the well-established and highly respected careers of Laura, Jeff, and Dicky. As it turned out, we know now that Harrison Ford turned down the part, so the ‘no movie star’ plan may be not entirely true.”