The first time Chris Pratt saw 'Jurassic Park' he was on a date set up by his mom
With 2015’s megahit Jurassic World and this month’s sequel Fallen Kingdom, Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard became the torchbearers of the dino film franchise first brought to the big screen 25 years ago by director Steven Spielberg.
And like many of us, the pair were there opening weekend to see Jurassic Park and still have crystal-clear memories of the beloved adventure. (The film opened June 11, 1993.)
“We were the demographic,” Howard, who was 12 at the time, told Yahoo Entertainment. (Watch above.)
Pratt was 13, and he was on a date that was set up by his mother and his mother’s friend, who had a daughter around the same age. “They were trying to set us up for years,” he said. “I mean, neither one of us remembered we were on a date three minutes into the movie. We were like, ‘Whaaaaat?'”
Pratt and Howard both experienced that specific sense of wonder and awe fans remember when beholding the groundbreaking special effects Spielberg and team used to bring the extinct creatures to life.
“I was feeling like Sam Neill and Dr. Alan Grant when he just removes his glasses and looks up and sees the Apatosaurus moving across the screen,” Pratt said. “Not only was it the first time I had seen a dinosaur, it was the first time CG used so effectively … This looked real for the first time.”
Howard saw the film with a guy who knows a thing or three about iconic films, her father, Ron Howard.
“I remember getting emotional watching it because it looked so real,” she said. “And because I am a big dork, and the daughter of a director, and I knew that it was this groundbreaking moment. And now this whole other level of storytelling was possible.”
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opens June 22.
Watch Jeff Goldblum share memories from Jurassic Park in our Role Recall interview:
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