Women are inheriting the earth.
This week, the women of “Jurassic World Dominion” — Laura Dern, Bryce Dallas Howard, and DeWanda Wise — are on the new cover of Variety, and inside, talk about the feminism of the franchise.
READ MORE: Laura Dern, Sam Neill & Jeff Goldblum Look Back On ‘Jurassic Park’ 30 Years Later
Looking back on the original “Jurassic Park”, Dern marvels at the inclusion of the iconic line, “Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth,” which was not in the original script.
“God bless everyone involved who allowed this to be in a movie,” she says. “Because that’s what it felt like at that time. I felt like we got away with something.”
Though the actress admits her preferred feminist line from the 1993 classic is, “We can discuss sexism in survival situations when I get back.”
“It’s just so perfect, because we get to repeat some of that energy — ‘We’ll take care of the business’ — while there may be boys shirtless in the scene,” Dern says, recalling the image of a shirtless Jeff Goldblum, which has since become an online meme. “It was so enjoyable to me. She’s like, ‘I’ll be over here taking care of stuff; you just rest yourself.’”
The new film also sees the romance between Howard and Chris Pratt’s characters finally resolved into an actual relationship.
“We were all totally in agreement that we would move beyond the will-they- or-won’t-they, and it was clear that they were a family,” Howard says, adding of the characters’ steamy kiss in the new film, “I have always been the one to push for more romance. I’ve always just been like, ‘OK, and now they kiss, right?’ Without that push, the status quo is very chaste.”
Wise, meanwhile, talks about her new character Kayla, a bisexual air force veteran from Detroit.
“It was a really dope and atypical opportunity to give her some legs to stand on,” she says. “I always think it shows up [onscreen]; you can feel the difference between a character who’s one-dimensional and one who clearly has had an entire life before she has met any of these people.”
She adds, “It’s important to continue to expand and diversify what [sexuality] looks like, what it means. It’s the same thing when you’re coming at conversations about diversity and representation in general — which is, at some point, it has to be so well-woven, so matter of fact, that you feel it in the fibre and the truth of the character.”
Talking about her character’s braids, Wise says, “The experience of getting them was Black womanhood at its finest. It was — as it is — a deeply fulfilling spiritual ritual, a precious thing. It just felt like having family there with me in the process.”
“Jurassic World Dominion” hits theatres June 10.
