Jurassic Park: Sam Neill Explains Why Alan Grant’s Accent Is So Weird
The original Jurassic Park stars Sam Neill in the iconic role of Dr. Alan Grant, a character whose odd onscreen accent has been baffling viewers for nearly 30 years. The 1993 dinosaur classic boasts one of the most beloved casts from any sci-fi film ever made, and Neill's presence in both the first film and 2001's Jurassic Park III has arguably made him the human face of the long-running franchise. Neill is, of course, set to reprise the role once again for 2022's Jurassic World: Dominion.
In Jurassic Park, Dr. Alan Grant embarks on a journey to the mysterious island of Isla Nublar, where he comes face to face with living, breathing versions of the dinosaurs he had spent his entire life studying as fossils. Director Steven Spielberg has gone on record as saying that Sam Neill was one of his first choices to play the part, and felt incredibly fortunate to have the actor lend his talents to the film. Neill himself has never been shy about his love for the Grant character and Jurassic Park as a whole and considers the role one of the highlights of his storied career.
As beloved as actor Sam Neill is in the role, one aspect of his performance in Jurassic Park has always been a curiosity: his inconsistent American accent. Neill himself hails from New Zealand, and bits of that distinctive accent can be heard in his performance. For nearly three decades, Neill's weird onscreen accent has been blamed on everything from disinterest in the role to bad acting. However, the true story behind the odd voice actually involves inconsistent direction from Steven Spielberg about how Neill should speak according to the Netflix documentary series The Movies That Made Us.
When Spielberg contacted Neill's agent about the role of Grant, it was made clear that Spielberg wanted an American accent to go along with the character. Despite a dislike of acting with accents that aren't his own, Neill was excited to accept the role. Once on set in August of 1992, he set to work playing Dr. Grant with the desired American accent. However, Spielberg approached Neill during the first day of shooting and informed him that he'd changed his mind. In an interview featured in The Movies That Made Us, Neill recalls the following: "Steven comes up to me... and says, 'you know, Sam, that American accent you're doing... why don't we just forget it? Just do your own voice.' I said, 'Steven, that's great! I will!'"
However, this bit of relief was short-lived. Neill continues, "And then on day three, [Spielberg] came up to me and he said, 'you know that voice you're using... can we sort of go halfway?'" Apparently, the dinosaur-loving Spielberg decided several days into shooting that he wanted Dr. Grant to have a voice that was half-American, and half-New Zealander. Despite the curious request, Neill agreed, and the rest of the film was shot with him using a hybrid accent. The end result is a voice that seems to waver between two different accents depending on the scene. "I've had 30 years of people going, 'Sam Neill's American accent isn't very good,'" says Neill. However, no amount of accent inconsistency has stopped Alan Grant from becoming an iconic character, and it certainly hasn't hurt the ongoing legacy of Jurassic Park.