How Scarlett Johansson Faced Her Greatest Fear on Jurassic World Rebirth: "Cockroaches!"
Like her character in the film, Johansson also does her best to avoid prehistoric creatures.
In Jurassic World Rebirth (now in theaters; get tickets here), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) leads the cast as Zora Bennett, a mercenary-for-hire tapped to lead a dangerous mission trying to nab dino DNA from some mutated giants.
While she tries to evade giant, man-eating dinosaurs in Rebirth, Johansson is actually afraid of something much smaller in the real world.
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Scarlett Johansson reveals she faced her biggest fear on Jurassic World Rebirth
“My greatest phobia is cockroaches, and there were plenty of those, too," the actress told Craig Melvin of NBC's Today, referring to the insects she encountered while filming the blockbuster in Thailand, which "had some pretty serious creature critters.”
“Thailand was astounding, grounding, and amazing,” her co-star Mahershala Ali (Duncan Kincaid) says in the film's official production notes. “And sometimes, not so amazing, too, but I think for all the right reasons. Thailand was extraordinarily humid and hot; you felt like you were being cooked from the inside out. There were all kinds of animals and critters and insects around these locations. You’re in the middle of the scene and you’re seeing monkeys scale a cliff or a snake swim across a river. You have bats flying and scorpions crawling past you. These things in some ways really contributed to the feeling of being on an adventure."
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Interestingly, cockroaches have been around for over 300 million years and even predate the dinosaurs, making them living fossils. Unlike the dinosaurs, however, cockroaches have survived multiple extinction-level events throughout their time on this planet. So yes, there are disgusting, multi-legged scavengers, but in the long run, their if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it evolutionary design will probably allow them to outlive all of us. And just to put things into an even greater perspective, humans have only been around for an estimated 300,000 years.
But nothing, not even roaches, were going to stop Johansson from starring in Rebirth, which takes place five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion (now streaming on Peacock). “It was a childhood dream of mine to be in this movie,” she said. “I’ve been trying to get in the Jurassic universe for three decades.”
She continued: “I saw the movie Jurassic Park when I was 10 years old in the theater and it was so impactful. Like the entire audience, I was completely transfixed, mesmerized, carried away, terrified, all of that stuff, and it’s part of the formative part of my childhood.”
Just like the 1993 original directed by Steven Spielberg, Rebirth was written by David Koepp, who also penned the 1997 sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
How can you watch Jurassic World Rebirth?
Rated PG-13, Jurassic World Rebirth is now playing exclusively in theaters. Tickets are on sale here!
Need a refresher on where things left off? the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World trilogies are now streaming on Peacock.
