As Scarlett Johansson begins filming the latest installment of Universal’s enduring dino-centric action-adventure, she received a warm welcome to Jurassic World from franchise veteran Jeff Goldblum.
Johansson, who recently outed herself as a “huge nerd” for all things Jurassic Park and Jurassic World appeared on NBC’s Today on Tuesday morning to promote her new romantic comedy, Fly Me to the Moon. As the interview with host Savannah Guthrie concluded, the Avengers star was informed that “somebody wanted to welcome you aboard to the team.”
Johansson appeared slightly perplexed but that quickly turned to a delightful smile when a video of Goldblum was played on air.
“Dr Johansson, this is Jeff Goldblum,” the veteran actor, donning his trademark glasses and a dinosaur sweater, says to the camera. “Here’s what I want to say to you. This I know: Scarlett will find a way. Don’t get eaten, unless you want to. I love you.”
Goldblum’s reference here is to the classic line, “Life finds a way,” which he delivered in 1993’s franchise launching Jurassic Park. In the beloved blockbuster, Goldblum portrays Dr. Ian Malcolm, a mathematician who along with a paleontologist and paleobotanist, finds himself fleeing cloned dinosaurs as they run amok at a new amusement park on a remote Central American island. The Ian character became iconic for both Goldblum and the franchise; he repeated the role in The Lost World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
Johansson, seemingly stunned by the personal video from a star of one of her favorite films, gushes, “I mean, I think my life is complete. It’s done. Yes… done. I can retire. Oh my gosh!” The actor also politely corrected Guthrie’s misstatement of the line when she recalled it as “water finds a way.”
In a recent interview with Comicbook.com, Johansson said that it’s been a decade-long struggle to get into the Jurassic franchise, which after three Jurassic Park films in the 1990s, was rebooted in 2015 with Jurassic World, set 22 years after the first trilogy concluded. The movie took in $1.6 billion globally and spawned franchise entries Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022). The Johansson-led fourth entry into the franchise is scheduled for 2025.
On Today, Johansson recalled that Jurassic Park was her first theater-going movie experience as a child.
“I was probably 10 or 11, and it was absolutely transformative for me,” she said. “The experience was — we had never seen anything like that, CGI used in that way. And when you see it, it still holds up. I mean, it looks so great. It’s like magic. … The actors were so amazing: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum. And it had so much heart.”
Filmmaker Gareth Edwards (Rogue One) is directing the upcoming Jurassic World entry. In addition to casting Johansson in the lead role, it will star Jonathan Bailey, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Rupert Friend, Mahershala Ali, Luna Blaise, David Iacono and newcomer Audrina Miranda. Screenwriter David Koepp, who scripted Jurassic Park and its sequel, The Lost World, has returned to write this installment.
