Out in the Park

“I never thought it was going to happen. I never thought anyone cared about Henry, or thought he was interesting or important enough in the first movie. I always downplayed the whole thing, because I felt I was there to fulfil a certain technical, informational function. They’d always tell me, ‘No no, you’ll see, you’re the only person who nobody knows what happened to them at this point.’ And then, wow, they were right. But what I felt was almost an oversight in the first movie has turned out to be a great advantage and door-opener to so many possibilities of fresh exploration, and actually reconnects us to the Crichton novel and the character that he created.”

The Jurassic Park nerds among us – and yes, we’re including ourselves in that – will know that BD’s character Henry actually plays a much larger role in Michael Crichton’s original novel, on which the first movie was based. He was a genius geneticist who brought John Hammond’s dinosaur dream to life, before being savagely ripped apart and eaten alive by a velociraptor when things inevitably went awry.

“I did actually feel kind of robbed when that didn’t get to play out in the first movie,” BD laughs again. “I remember in the novel it was a really fantastic, graphic and juicy death, with just lots and lots to it. Everyone else in the movie who was dying was getting that. You know, getting to meet their end while sat on the toilet, or whatever. I just thought, well, gosh, when’s my turn?”

BD – quite rightly – is tight-lipped when it comes to the chances of his character’s survival in Jurassic World. In fact, he still hadn’t seen a final edit of the film when we talked to him in San Francisco, mere weeks before the world premiere. Security has been THAT tight. But from everything BD has seen, read and acted, he doesn’t think fans of the original are going to be disappointed.

“There’s a real relationship between the first movie and Jurassic World,” he explains. “When I read the script for the first time, the first thing I thought was they’d done a really good job of serving up everything that we liked about Jurassic Park and putting it in Jurassic World, without making it redundant. But what’s better in this movie about the others is that you get something you’ve never had before – you get to see the dinosaurs freaking out thousands and thousands of people, not just a few.

“It makes it much more of what we used to call a ‘disaster movie’ – I’m old, so I remember this genre. But a disaster movie isn’t a disaster movie unless there’s humanity involved. And this movie has TRULY gone into disaster mode, I love it.”

And while reassuring us that Jurassic World won’t sink to the same depths of mediocrity as Jurassic Park III, BD also confirms for us what we’ve always believed – that Chris Pratt is indeed the best man to follow in the giant Tyrannosaurus-shaped footprints of Sam Neill and Jeff Goldlblum as our heroic male lead.

“I’m not going to say drooly things about him,” starts BD, clearly possessing stronger willpower than we do, “but he’s super great. And it’s true what everyone says about him – he really is the nicest guy, the funniest guy and the greatest person to put in the centre of a movie, because he just has that energy. If someone is sour or bitter after a long day, or whatever, he’s just being positive. And he’s funny. Funny is always great. Funny and insightful and witty people are always more interesting to me than not.”

If there’s one thing that BD is passionate about, though, it’s the fact that he’s an out gay actor performing on the massive, global stage that Jurassic World is providing. He’d be the first to shoot down claims that he’s a role model, or an inspiration, but he strongly upholds the belief that if you’re part of the conversation, then you’re helping in the fight for equality – and helping countless young people facing issues surrounding their ow