online interviews

When you were filming which dinosaurs could you see and when were you acting against a screen?
Trevor: Its quite funny actually. You have animatronics for close-ups. A lot of the raptor stuff was animatronics and the blinking and eye shots where they move. We had some spinosaurus animatronics but when they couldnt do running or jumping - because they were on sticks and the body came up from a stick with electronics coming out of it - so anything like that, full body shots or jumping or running and chasing us in a big wide shot, that was usually CGI. Wed be looking back at nothing. It did make a difference because [with animatronic models] we were looking at things that look real. It isnt that hard to be scared when youre looking at these things. Then theres also times when we have to react to dinos on sticks which were a picture of a dinosaurs head on a mop head. Joe Johnston [the director] would shove it in your face and go Grr! and youd have to react to it. So, it was funny. Like anything else, you just put yourself in the position of the character and react to whats going around in the scene.

What physical stunts did you do?
Trevor: It was fun to me. It was very fun to me. I wanted to do all my own stunts. I got to do 80% of it. I got to be in a harness all day getting flown around for the whole pteronodan sequence. I dropped from the top of a soundstage, I dont know how far up it was, all the way into four feet deep water. I just got to do a lot of stuff. All the running and screaming was fun to me. I begged Joe Johnston and Larry Franco, our producer, to let me do it and they were pretty cool about it.

Did you do any parasailing?
Trevor: No. You know, the parasailing, for all the close ups, it was all blue screen and they put me up in a harness. I wasnt really allowed for all the wide shots because I didnt know how to parasail.

Did you ever get injured?
Trevor: You know whats funny, I did all these stunts like falling from the top of a soundstage, then jumping from seven feet across the rocks and then getting flown around in a harness all day, I never got one. Yet, one time I was running, just plain running through the woods and I tripped over a potted plant and got one bruise. That was the extent of my injury.

Do you remember seeing the first Jurassic Parks?
Trevor: Oh yeah. I remember seeing the first one when I was six. I saw it the very first day it came out actually. My dad took me and Im from Chicago and at the time I was living in a suburb right outside and thats all they talked about. Did you see Jurassic Park? Did you see Jurassic Park? That was the big thing and I was a very big fan.

How are your friends reacting to you being in part 3?
Trevor: Its funny. They say, Yeah, so, whats it about? What happens? Just very casually. Well be playing Nintendo or Playstation and Im like, Man, I cant tell you. He goes, Come on, Im your friend. And I say, No, come on. Youre going to have to see it. Or Ill say, Its about dinosaurs. He goes, I know that, but what happens? Well, we have to run away from them.

Did you pay attention to making your character different than some of the annoying kids in other movies?
Trevor: Oh, now Im trying to think if I was annoying in the film.

You werent, thats why I ask if you thought about it.
Trevor: I think my character is different and I think what makes him different is he, through all this, he doesnt really have time to be scared. Whats very cool is hes a normal kid before he reaches the island and by the time everyone finds him, hes changed. This experience has changed him. Hes sort of hardened from it and be basically has to go into survival mode when he gets there. I dont know if I was necessarily conscious of it. I never really pictured the kids in the first two movies as annoying to me.

I didnt mean that either. I just meant in action movies in general.
Trevor: I know what you meant.

Do you want to be an actor forever?
Trevor: Id love to. Id love to do this as I get older if thats what happens, but Ill play it by ear. Whatever happens, happens. If theres something that causes me to not go into acting and go into something else, thats just how it will work. I still plan to go to college.

To study what?
Trevor: Id like to actually, for right now - my mom says my mind changes every minute - but Id actually like to go into film school, study that for a while.

Do you go to regular school now?
Trevor: Ive been very lucky to have the teacher - when I was in The Patriot I met Adrian [SOUNDS LIKE: Laiter] who was teacher on set and she worked with me then, after that on Glass House [which opens this Fall] and then Jurassic Park III. At the time I was actually on Irvine Home School and theyre in the district and they send you the curriculum and you basically have to go through the whole curriculum and do a certain amount of tests and a certain amount of work sheets and send it in. You just send it back and you have to do three hours of school work every single day. I was very lucky because she already knew the program and its a very hard program for teachers to just learn because you have so many books and so many teachers editions and everything. So, I was very lucky for her to come with me. Thats pretty easy. Im not sure how it will work out when I go to high school.

Courtesy of agirlsworld.com. Thanks! muah!
August 8, 2001
How did you all happen to end up in this film (Jurassic Park III)?
Trevor: I did have to audition. I knew (Producer) Kathleen Kennedy from working on The Sixth Sense and she sorta had me in mind. I auditioned for (Director) Joe Johnston and I guess they wanted me. It was nail biting because I was working on The Glass House at the time and they thought the schedules were gonna conflict. At first I'm going, I can't believe I'm gonna do Jurassic Park III a dream come true. I can't wait'. Then they thought they could work it out then they said no, I'm sorry, our schedules conflict too much. So there was a while that I thought I lost Jurassic Park. I was very lucky that The Patriot came out when it did, because that was the clincher when Mr. Spielberg saw it and liked me in it so he pushed Jurassic Park III so I could be in it.

Could all of you tell us something funny or dangerous that happened while you were shooting this film?
Trevor: Well, I got pecked by dinosaur chicks. That was cool. There were some puppets used. They actually had a puppet rock. It was movable on wheels and they had three puppet (dinosaurs) in the front that were actually pecking me on set, one on each side and one in the middle. They had sticks coming out for the wings and head and I asked about the sticks. Joe (Johnston the director) said they were gonna take the sticks out with computer. The two in back of me were animatronic. They used puppets to peck at me because they were a little more agile and really looked like they were hurting me. I got a few bruises. When I'm running from rock to rock and fighting and kicking, there's nothing there. I was wondering how that was gonna look and it turned out great. I did get a couple of nips. I had to stand up on a pedestal. They had a puppet on my shoulders for the flapping wings. You can't see the guys running it. They were practicing and they kept on pecking me. Hey, stop it!

What do you guys do when you aren't making movies?
Trevor: Well, hang with my friends. Yeah, they're excited to see it. They bought my action figure and fed it to their dogs. Threw it into the ceiling fan, whooped it at the wall. No, seriously, they saw the trailers during the NBA finals and they're excited to see it. They think it looks great so I'm happy. I make home movies but I've been too busy. I want to get a new video camera. That would be very fun to me to go out and do that. I always get ideas all the time. I think maybe I should write this. I start writing like 20 pages and then I get busy and sidetracked. Some day I want to go to film school. I want to go to the best one. USC I guess. Being on sets is a good education. I get to travel and learn about different cultures. I'm lucky that I can. But college is good. My parents have already made it clear that I'm going.