Despite a busy schedule of globetrotting for Jurassic World Rebirth, actress Luna Blaise is all smiles.
The 23-year-old, who joins the iconic franchise as almost-college student Teresa in the latest Jurassic installment, has been taking the entire experience in. “I felt like I was at the masterclass,” Blaise tells The Hollywood Reporter on a Friday morning Zoom weeks before the film’s release.
The actress, whose past credits include a series regular role on NBC-turned-Netflix fan favorite Manifest, prides herself on having worked hard to get where she is, and she doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon.
Below, Blaise speaks with THR about Jurassic World Rebirth, taking any opportunity she can to be onset, and where she sees herself going in the future.
How do you feel about joining such a beloved and large franchise with Jurassic World Rebirth?
Truly, it’s been an unbelievable experience from the beginning to getting the call all the way to now. It’s been a minute-by-minute, heart-pounding, eyes-widening, mind-melting situation. When you get the call to do this, it’s one you’ll never forget. Honestly, I have been so blessed. To be able to have this opportunity and work with the people that I did and just continue to go on this journey is so exciting. I’m just so excited now for the world to now see it.
It has to be a little intimidating. Do you feel that you learned anything from other members of the cast?
Beyond. Oh my gosh, yes. The whole thing was a learning experience. I felt like I was at the masterclass, literally. To be able to work with the people that I did — [the] actors, yes, but crew as well. It’s just not your everyday thing. Honestly, [it was] a college course for what I want to do — to have a captain of the ship, which was Scarlett [Johansson], and to be able to have her set the tone for everything. Really from the beginning, the tone was set, and we all knew that no matter what, we’re all going to be taken care of. We all have each other’s backs. This is a hard process, but we’re not going to be able to do it without each other. We stuck with that, which was so helpful and so amazing.
What was it like getting to watch the film with audiences at the premieres? What were the reactions, particularly with your big T-Rex scene?
It was completely surreal. I remember just sitting at the Odeon [Luxe in London], and I was just with all my cast, and finally we’re seeing and hearing it be received by others. You’re looking around, and you’re just like, oh my gosh, this is happening. To be able to have so many people invested and involved and vocal about everything, it made the experience so much more heightened and so much more memorable because it wasn’t just you experiencing this. You were in a room with everybody else experiencing it, and it was just so special.
Did you always see this type of film for yourself, or do you feel it’s a departure for you?
I think that for me, if I was writing the script of my acting career, I don’t think I know what I see at all. I have a vision of where I want to go and what I want to achieve, but anything that comes along with that is all part of the ride. It’s all part of the journey. I’ve been blessed to be able to work in this industry for the amount of time that I have and have been attached to projects that have truly changed my life. I’ve had just such a pleasure doing them. Having this come my way — it’s my biggest thing yet — it’s not that I didn’t ever see it for myself, but I almost thought that that was something just completely unimaginable. Being in a Jurassic movie, it’s like a dream. I’m still waiting to be woken up.
You get that call, and you don’t think that that’s the actual call. I’m still waiting for that to simmer down in my brain because it’s just unbelievable. I guess if I were to close my eyes, look out and see what would be happening, it’s not that I wouldn’t not see this, but it was in an unimaginable sort of way. Now that it’s been able to happen, it’s even crazier.
Are you someone who takes roles as they come, or do you have certain milestones you’re looking to hit at certain times?
I’m just excited to be here. [I’m] just excited to be working in this industry, no matter what scale that’s at. It could be your Jurassic blockbuster, it could be a guerilla-style shoot for four days with one camera guy. It doesn’t matter. If I’m creating, and if I’m just continuing to just have my juices flow in that way and continue to work on my craft … I’m just excited for the opportunity. I think that whatever comes my way will come my way. If it’s something that I am intrigued about and something that resonates and sits with me, then 100 percent, I’ll take the opportunity to do anything on a set for sure. But then on the other hand, when those other projects do come, it’s like [you] jump at [them]. It’s an ebb-and-flow sort of situation but excited. Period.
It’s obviously a busy time for you with several premieres and the movie coming out. What does self care look like for you?
You can hear my lingering press sickness that’s happening right now. (Laughs.) It’s all fun. The stress of doing the 6 a.m. to this to going to the premiere and going to this and doing that and doing the press day; it’s like there’s so much, but you have to have fun. Because if you don’t, you’re just going to stress yourself out even more. I think for me, remembering to stay light, to stay positive. You’re tired, but it’s all part of the job, and you just have to get your work done. That’s it. It’s still work. You’re still working. The movie’s not over yet. It’s not over yet.
For me, especially within this past week that I’ve had — hopping from three different countries and doing a premiere and coming back here and going to New York and doing the whole thing — I have had to at least take 20 to 30 minutes at the beginning of my day to just breathe, to just set my intentions, to just center myself. [I will] repeat strong words in my mind that are just going to continue to keep my brain positive. I think if I’m lucky enough to be in a hotel that has a spa, I will go to the sauna, and I will go to the steam [room], and I will meditate for a second. I have definitely been taking advantage of my spa privileges during this press run.
Like you said, this is the biggest project you’ve ever done. What are you hoping to do next? Where’s your head at?
The actual percentage of working actors in this industry is so small, so small. For me, Luna, if I’m in that percentage, I want to do anything. I just want to have the opportunity to be on a set and to do what I love, regardless of what that is. To just have that young excitement is so refreshing, and it’s so nice to have. I can’t write what I want to do next. It is not something that I know yet. Everything that’s coming my way right now, it’s super exciting, and I’m into everything. Honestly, it’s just [me] waiting to see what actually meshes and what clicks. Whatever that may be is going to be the next opportunity that I’m so unbelievable blessed to have.
I think that I want to do something that is going to make me work even harder, something that I can fully invest my time and energy [into] and create a character. Because it’s also crazy for actors too. You spend so much time in a role, you have to let that go. Even after all the press and after everything, you’re like, OK, onto the next, let’s move on. That’s that. To be able to really immerse myself in another character and to do something that’s just completely different than anything I’ve ever done before, which Jurassic was for me at the time… I think that’s just what’s exciting for me, to be able to do something that I haven’t done, something that’s new and something that’s exciting for me in my life.
How do you want people to view you as a performer?
I think the no. 1 thing with actors that I personally get turned off on is you watch their films and you get this sense of light and you get this sense of character. Obviously, they’re playing something else, but then you watch the interviews and you watch everything else and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s not who you are.’ I think that’s the worst. That’s the last thing I would want to happen to me. I want people to just see me. I hope you’ve seen talking to me, I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to have this opportunity. I’ve worked hard, and I am not going to stop working hard. I want people to see that. I want people to know that I am nowhere even near the top of where I want to go in my vision of life.
I have had the same visions for so long, and I am going to continue to try and work and to do that. I want people to see the hard work. I want people to know that. I also want people to know that this isn’t my first rodeo that I’ve done. I’ve been doing this for a while, and I want that to come off when people see me. I want people to know that it’s not just a walk in the park and that you have to be a hard worker to be able to get here. Nothing’s been handed to me in that way. I just want people to see that this is something that I truly, truly love to do, and I haven’t been given anything straight off the bat. I’ve done the work, and I’ll continue to do the work — and if you don’t see that, then that’s on you.
