"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" Nixes Lesbian Character Reveal
Yet another queer character has fallen prey to Hollywood editors: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom star Daniella Pineda revealed that her character's subtle coming out scene was nixed from the film's final cut.
In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Pineda shared that her character, Dr. Zia Rodriguez, made a telling remark about the film's lead, dinosaur expert Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), in the original cut of the Jurassic Park sequel:
I look at Chris and I’m like: "Yeah, square jaw, good bone structure, tall, muscles... I don’t date men, but if I did, it would be you. It would gross me out, but I’d do it." I love that I’m looking at Chris Pratt, the hottest guy in the world, and I’m like, "It would gross me out, but I guess I would do it!" It was also cool, because it was a little insight into my character. But they cut it.
Pineda added that the scene was nixed because the film's original cut, clocking in at 2 hours and 40 minutes, was "too long," and producers felt the moment wasn't "relevant to the story, but it was a little glimmer into who she is."
That's unfortunate, since we'd gladly trade two minutes of raptor time for a little bit of on-screen queer character development.
This is hardly the first time Hollywood has cut queer reveals from big-budget movies: Last October, actress Tessa Thompson noted that her Thor: Ragnarok character, Valkyrie, was actually bisexual. Sadly, Valkyrie's sexuality was never explicitly addressed in the film, since producers cut a sexy scene from the film's final edit.