DeWanda Wise on her JurassicWorldDominion braids: “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.”
“It was very important to introduce a new hero who could potentially define the future of this franchise,” director Colin Trevorrow says of Wise’s character. “We’ve had the opportunity to hopefully make someone that young girls are going to be dressing up as at Halloween for years to come.”
“It was so enjoyable to me. She’s like, ‘I’ll be over here taking care of stuff; you just rest yourself,’” Dern adds, as Howard jokes: “You look injured, and all oiled up.” When “Jurassic World Dominion” co-screenwriter Emily Carmichael watched “Jurassic Park” as an 11-year-old, she was influenced by Ellie Sattler’s scientific prowess, but that loaded dialogue flew over her head. “The fact that that character, in that environment, needs to drop this little bomb into the lap of the patriarchy, I understand that better as a more mature female,” she says.
But for now, they’re huddled in Wise’s dressing room and about to recount their experience filming the new dinosaur movie. Ever the director, Howard sits on one end of the couch texting Trevorrow to let him know that they’re going to be just a little bit later than expected, while Dern is at the other end and Wise perches on a chair across from them.The women forged a deep bond while quarantining at the Langley hotel in Buckinghamshire, U.K.
“I remember Chris [Pratt, who reprises his role as animal behaviorist Owen Grady] asking me — because I’m sure I was giving very newbie behavior — he was like, ‘How long have you been doing this?’ And I said, ‘20 years,’” she adds, emphasizing just how curtly she responded. “I was like, ‘I’m gonna get my bearings — just give me a moment. I’m working through multiple traumas.’”
The director’s first question was what Wise imagined for the character’s hair; she chose braids, and the production brought in Josee Mampuya, owner of Josee’s Professional Braiding Studio in North London, to do the job. “The experience of getting them was Black womanhood at its finest,” Wise recalls. “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.
Fans got their first look at Kayla in January, when an image was released showing the character standing next to Pratt and preparing to face an unknown predator. Some wondered if the character — whose name had yet to be revealed — was Dr. Malcolm’s daughter Kelly Curtis , who was introduced in 1997’s “The Lost World: Jurassic Park.”
“To DeWanda’s point, it has everything to do with what the experience is like while you’re making the movie and how either empowered or disempowered you feel,” Howard says, reflecting on the controversy. “I always felt empowered, every single minute of ‘Jurassic,’ by Colin Trevorrow. And that experience, no comment or observation or analysis can ever take that away from me.”
“One of the things I love about Claire is that she so desperately wants to do the right thing, and sometimes, the bad consequences of her good intentions can weigh on her. We wanted to explore that need for redemption, that sense of guilt, that sense of regret,” Trevorrow teases. “That’s a very universal idea: As we get older, we start to have things that we wish we’d done differently.”
The movie also addresses Claire and Owen’s on-again, off-again romance, with Howard, Carmichael and Trevorrow adamant that the games be over. “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.“I have always been the one to push for more romance,” Howard giggles. “I’ve always just been like, ‘OK, and now they kiss, right?’ Without that push, the status quo is very chaste.
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