Isabella Sermon finds female role models in Jurassic World Dominion
Teen British actress Isabella Sermon is lucky to have found female role models in Laura Dern, Bryce Dallas Howard and DeWanda Wise, her more senior co-stars in Universal Pictures’ Jurassic World Dominion.
Responding to a question from The STAR about the film’s female lineup, the 15-year-old shared during a recent virtual chat with Asian press that she loved working alongside these “strong and independent women,” who play feminist action heroes in the sci-fi action film directed by Colin Trevorrow.
Now showing in Philippine theaters, Jurassic World Dominion is set as the third and last installment of the second Jurassic trilogy after Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park series that began in the ‘90s.
“For me, it was so exciting because as someone who is still growing up, I feel like I’m very easily influenced at this age. And so it was great for me to be around these strong, independent women who were playing kind of characters that were very fierce and I guess, were kind of fighting the dinosaurs,” Sermon gushed.
“You don’t see a lot of women taking the lead in action films. Normally, it’s kind of the men. And I think that was really great to see and to be acting alongside people playing those characters. But also for the actors themselves, to just be so impressive… It was great to be able to kind of collaborate and share ideas with them.”
In Dominion, Dern reprises her Jurassic Park role as the paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler — perhaps one of the most iconic, feminist action characters to have graced the big screen. She was also introduced at a time when such roles weren’t prevalent yet.
Dallas Howard is Claire Dearing, who started out as a villainous, money-centered character in the first Jurassic World. She has since transformed into an “atypical heroine” who’s using her “feminine power for good.”
Wise, one of the new faces in the Jurassic franchise, is Kayla Watts, a former military pilot who becomes a cargo-pilot-for-hire in a shadowy underworld. She, however, shows that call to duty still supersedes personal gains.
Sermon stands as the youngest female action character in Dominion as Maisie Lockwood, the now pre-teen girl who lives with Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce). She first played Maisie in her debut film, Fallen Kingdom (2018), where she was introduced as the genetic clone of the daughter of Sir Benjamin Lockwood, the man partly responsible for bringing dinosaurs to life in Jurassic Park. Because of her origins, Maisie is being seen as an ideal specimen for scientific studies that may or may not be for the public good.
Dominion opens with Owen and Claire assuming parental responsibility and protection of Maisie, but the girl’s rebellious streak keeps getting in the way. Nevertheless, Sermon’s character is instrumental in bringing together the legacy cast from Jurassic Park and the new generation of Jurassic World amidst a human world that struggles to coexist with dinosaurs.
“It was really exciting because I love action films. I guess, what I really noticed when I watched this (new) Jurassic film for the first time, was that there’s just so much action in it. I haven’t really seen like this much action in a Jurassic film before,” she said about being cast in Dominion, the first major studio production that successfully filmed at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“To prepare, I ran a little bit at home and had to make sure that I was kind of healthy so I could do a lot of screaming, my lungs wouldn’t get tired or anything, or I would not get a sore throat.”
The STAR also asked Sermon about the most fun and most challenging parts during the entire shoot.
“My favorite scene was probably at the end of the film. Don’t worry, this is not a spoiler (laughs). But it was when I was filming a scene with Chris and Bryce, we were sitting around this campfire and we had to make S’mores. As someone who’s not from America, I don’t really make a lot of S’mores, like I don’t really know how to do it! So I had to have Chris and Bryce and Colin help me do it.
“I remember I was trying so hard to get it right… because I didn’t want to make a fool of myself. And when we started rolling the cameras, I bit into this S’more and it just burst all over my face. Like all the marshmallows, the chocolate just went all over me! It was the funniest thing. That was probably one of my best memories from filming,” Sermon shared.
“The most difficult scene was in the trailer, actually. Maisie is standing on a ladder and she has this dinosaur around her, like about to eat her. It was difficult for me to kind of act that out because obviously I’ve never really been in that situation. I haven’t really been in a life-or-death situation before. It was kind of difficult to do that – to kind of summon the fear and some of the emotions felt by someone in that situation. But all of the casts and the crew were so helpful and so supportive in that scene. I feel like it would have been a lot harder to do without them being there and helping me.”
Sermon is just 15 but with big-budgeted films already under her belt, plus the coveted experience of having to act side by side with some of the biggest Hollywood stars. The future is, indeed, bright for this young woman who described acting as a “freeing” place to be in. Nevertheless, she credited the Jurassic franchise for leading her to this career path.
She recalled, “I think what led me to acting…I remember when I was younger, I was in a lot of school plays and I really enjoyed doing that. But, I guess, I never really kind of considered it as a career path until Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Without that opportunity of being cast in that film, I don’t think I would have considered acting at all! Which is funny because now it’s like that one thing that I love doing and I’ll never get tired of it.
“I think I like acting because it’s very freeing to kind of express all these emotions that we sometimes don’t get to express in daily life. That’s a big part of acting — being able to draw from your own life and project it on screen.”
Asked what onscreen projects she wishes to do next, Sermon expressed hope to star in more action-themed films. “I’d really love to see more representation of women in action films, like in Black Widow and stuff. I think something like that would be cool to do. Also, I really enjoy slowburn kind of drama things. I like coming-of-age films. I’d probably like to do something like that as well, like a bit more low-key than Jurassic World.”
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