The original stars of the classic Jurassic Park movieseries have shared their memories of the evening Princess Diana attended a special royal premiere of the first movie in 1993 while promoting the latest franchise installment, Jurassic Park Dominion.
Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum have both spoken about their experiences with the princess, who was a close friend of their Jurassic Park co-star Lord Richard Attenborough, detailing how the princess was spotted at times viewing the film with her "hands in front of her eyes."
The reminiscences come 25 years after Diana's tragic death in a car crash at Paris' Pont de l'Alma tunnel in August 1997. The cause of the crash was attributed to the speeding of the driver of the vehicle who was over the legal alcohol limit as well as the dangerous pursuit by the paparazzi.
Speaking to GQ ahead of the release of Jurassic Park Dominion—which sees the adult leads from the original movie Neill, Goldblum and Laura Dern reunited—Neill said of the movie's U.K debut:
"When we went to London, I was sitting beside Princess Diana, and she was jumping out of her skin. That was fun," he said.
"I'd seen [the movie] three or four times by then," Neill added. "So it was really half an eye on the screen, and half an eye on her, looking at how she was reacting, and sometimes she would have her hands in front of her eyes. I mean, she really loved it."
Diana was photographed meeting the movie's stars at the premiere which was held in London's Leicester Square in support of royal charities.
One of these stars was Goldblum, who told Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet: "we showed [the movie] at the time to Princess Diana and we had a kind of a royal screening...I was standing there next to Diana...sitting, with popcorn."
When asked if he shared popcorn with the princess, Goldblum responded with feigned bashfulness: "I was very much a gentleman and she was a spectacular lady."
Diana was known to be a fan of the movie and while she reportedly didn't take her sons to the premiere fearing they may find it too scary, she took them to a public screening in the following weeks.
When the princess did take Prince William and Prince Harry to see the movie, it made headlines due to an incident with a paparazzi photographer that occurred as Diana and her sons left the theater.
After the photographer was seen taking pictures of the royals on what was supposed to be a private visit, Diana reportedly confronted him saying, "you make my life hell."
The British tabloid Daily Mirror ran the story on the front page of their August 3, 1993 edition with the headline Diana-sore!: Angry princess in amazing row at Jurassic Park
Diana's attendance at royal movie premieres was common throughout the 1980s and 1990s and the tradition has been replicated by son William and his wife Kate Middleton.
Last month the royal couple attended a charity screening of Tom Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick which made headlines when Cruise held Kate's hand as she climbed a flight of stairs.
Jurassic World Dominion is set to be released in theatres worldwide on June 10, 2022.
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About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more
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