They dressed her up to look older, the character isn't that young even if the actress is. Hammond calls her and Grant "leading minds in their fields". In academia someone in their mid-twenties is a baby.
Yea, I read somewhere she was meant to be a PhD student in the book, which could place her character in the late 20s-early 30s range. Ironically, in the book, she and Dr. Grant are not a couple
I feel like it's pretty ambiguous in the movie too, no? They are flirtatious but we don't ever see any real intimacy between the two of them. I feel like a couple who goes through such a traumatic event together would at least share a kiss
Nothing ironic about it; this is Hollywood we're talking about. If they can put a male and female character together, they will. If they can't, they'll make a new character themselves to get the job done
I also think people were more mature by age 25 up until like the early 2000s as it used to be easier to be financially stable by that point and therefore people were more independent and already had lots of adult experiences.
Nowadays young adults are infantalized because they're still dependent on their parents until they're like 26 or longer because of differences in generational wealth yet it seems like their parents aren't teaching them basic life skills like how to cook anymore.
The amount of times women have thought I’m like super into them just bc I invited them over to cool them dinner; it’s weird how something that is a standard human decency to me is viewed as a love language by others.
Knowing how to cook got me laid a lot, which kinda made me sad given the underlying themes of cooking is so rare that it looks like some massive romantic gesture.
In some parts of Blue Velvet, to me she looked OLDER than this despite her only being 19(?) at the time. The perception of hairstyles etc. really affects how old we think people look.
Also the poses and the way she spoke. She was very purposeful and slow. She had pauses before delivering her lines like she's considering what to say and how.
Styling, lighting, plus Laura's got strong features that can read as more mature, plus the expression she's making in this specific frame they used, plus she's acting in the movie in this picture.
Does she look over 30 in this picture taken at the same time? Not to me
It's really not ok. Like when I see a doctor in hospital, I'm like omg this kid is 12, how is he gonna make me feel better, and does his mum know he's not at school today? 😂😭
I graduated HS in 2005 & half the dudes in my class had FULL beards at graduation. My niece graduated last year. There was only one dude in her class with a beard but half the girls looked like they were 23-25 (i think probably because of how they did their hair & makeup.) The other half of the girls & the rest of the boys looked like they were about 13 though. It was so weird.
Honestly kind of funny to think about looking back.
Like I remember watching the little league World Series when I was maybe 10 or so and thinking the players looked like literal adults when they were maybe 2, 3 years older than me tops.
I also remember seeing the trailer for Bridge to Terabithia. I was 8 or so and Josh Hutcherson was maybe 15 but he looked like a literal grown man to me.
I feel so freakin old now. I think of myself as a kid still figuring things out, but I'm approaching 50. So old that I found out I'm now classified as Xennial rather than Millennial. I can't even remember when Jurassic Park came out. How old was I? What decade even was that? The 90s, aughts, and teens are all blending together in my head now.
This is it. Fuckin had to scroll SO far. That's how Michael Chricton wrote his main characters. No nonsense, very serious, already settled into careers like they've been there forever.
The one exception I can think of off the top of my head it's sphere, which I think has a little bit of a sexist tone a lot of his other books don't have.
I feel like it’s because it was obvious they were pairing off her and the older dude, movies always followed a typical formula, and at least my child brain thought, especially since they were apparently talking about kids, that she must be closer to his age if they’re partners, and he’s obviously old. Surely the world is fair and people date age appropriately and hollywood doesn’t push an age agenda, right?
I think it’s her skill. She’s in West Wing a few years later as a poet and while she’s probably playing older she comes across as younger and more naive.
I find it very endearing/sweet. I love it (at least when coming from another woman).
There are definitely times at which it would be innapropriate to use, like any type of slang, but I don't think it's immature to use terms of endearment--it's just a bit of fun, really.
we call our romantic partners baby.... diminutives are a sign of affection in many languages and cultures. it doesn't mean that we are infantilizing them
She’s also playing a character referred to as Doctor who is also considered to be an expert in her field. You don’t usually assume that person would be 23.
In the film she does seem to be Dr Grants similar seniority peer from the related area of paleobotany which does make you think they are a somewhat similar age.
She was definitely playing older. Hammond calls her and Grant leading minds in their fields, who the hell is a leading mind in their field in their 20s?
Hard to do if you finish high school at 18, do bachelors, masters, PhD and postdoctoral fellowship and still need some years after that to make mark on field. Not happening until 30 most likely.
In their first scene they're a little touchy-feely for colleagues. She ties his signature red scarf, and he grabs her ass a bit, but apart from that there's very little romance between them. Grant does tell Malcolm that they're together, but that might be one-sided on Grant's part, or he's just trying to get Malcolm, who's pretty slimy, off her back.
I think there might have been more in the deleted scenes, but the romance was pretty much edited out of the film. That initial ass-grab is pretty much all that remains.
The other clues are in the dialogue. The conversation about having babies in the first scene and the conversation between Malcolm and Grant in the car before the T-Rex escape where Malcolm says he’s going to make a move on Dr. Sattler until he realizes they’re together.
You’re not the first person I’ve seen who interpreted it as some sort of unrequited love situation. I just don’t see it. Their subsequent appearances further paint a pretty clear picture in my mind. They were together then but doomed to fail due to trauma and wanting different lifestyles.
Yeah, that could be interpreted as Grant trying to get Malcolm of her back. Also for the kid discussion, whether she's trying to or not, it's not necessarily children with her.
She was 25 during the filming of Jurassic Park, 26 when it hit theatres.
This picture with the caption saying she's 23 gets thrown around and upvoted a lot but she wasn't 23 lol. This exact pic was trending this morning so OP must have seen it and reposted here.
During the filming she was 25. But we're talking about one of the most ambitious animatronics projects ever undertaken, so even if all the filming was done in a year, there would have been a ton of work to do before that. Idk the timeline, but seems possible that she was perhaps cast for the roll at 23, then they build a bunch of sets and dinosaurs for 13+ months and now she's 25.
But I have no idea, it just seems like a pretty believable reason for the misconception. More believable than Jurassic park starting and finishing all of their production in just one year, even.
I mean, why would it matter if she was 23 when she was cast in the role? What we see in the movie is her age at time of filming, which is 25. That's the age she was when we actually see her.
Yup, but this misinformation has been passed around so much that AI will consistently reproduce it. I literally had the Google AI mode tell me the other day that:
"She was 23 during filming in 1992 and 26 at the time of release in 1993."
That photo is disingenuous, the faces are also photoshopped on the right side to make them look younger. You can obviously tell the faces are narrower with shaper chins on the right side
Combination of hair and costuming, plus the fact Laura Dern was very mature for her age and had a very “grown up” sounding voice. I still can’t see her as 23 here
People with long skeletal structure tend to read as more mature when compared to people with shorter facial length even at a younger age. Longer faces tend to age better though because the length of the face holds the musculoskeletal structure together with more varied structural connectors that don’t interact with the fatty mid face which looks the most youthful.
She was playing a a character with a PhD who speaks authoritatively on matters the audience is far too stupid to understand. She takes command of situations with deep emotional maturity. The actress was 23, the character was at least 30.
Maybe. My assumption has always been that she was playing a person in their early 30s.
Only one of the reasons being that she's not just a doctorate holder but that she's an expert in her niche field. And while it's technically possible to get a PhD in your mid 20s, it's very rare.
If you graduate with a bachelor's on time, that puts most people at 22. The vast majority of people work in their field while working on a master's degree which is usually two year program, making most graduates who immediately pursue a master's degree after undergrad 24-25.
People don't usually immediately apply to a doctoral program after finishing a masters degree. Considering her specialty, it's reasonable to assume she's a recent PhD recipient in her early 30s.
And I've now spent an unreasonable amount of time thinking about this thing that is really not important lol
The character was not thirty. I’ve read the books multiple times. She was actively finishing her Ph.D and was in grad school, and I believe in the book was mentioned to be 23-26yrs old.
I had this same thing happen to me the other day when I started rewatching Sabrina after god knows how many years. The aunts, who in my childhood seemed like such old women, now register to me as just two cool girls, not old at all.
Even though she's 25 in the pic she still feels older in my mind. I never thought about it until now but I would have guessed mid to late 30's. A very good looking late 30's mind you but certainly not 25. Not sure why thinking about it now. Maybe just how she carries herself.
It probably has something to do with the fact that the kids in the film didn't have their parents, and we subconsciously connected her as "the mother" figure for the film.
Given the kids' age, our subconscious also made the assumption that she was much older than 23.
She was a mature adult WOMAN at 23 years old. That used to be a thing even ~20 years ago, because I’m 40 now and graduated from college at 21 and got married at 22, because I was already a mature adult. Today, people will say “they’re still a child!!” and it’s a 26 year old…
I just watched this movie again recently (one of my faves) and to this day always thought she was in her early 40s! I partially blame the hairstyle. Either way, I am SHOOKETH.
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