By Kristy Puchko | Film | June 20, 2018 |
By Kristy Puchko | Film | June 20, 2018 |
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is two hours and 8 minutes long, but 10 seconds of that time could not be spared to include LGBTQ+ representation. Don’t worry though, there’s still plenty of scenes of Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt’s lackluster leads romancing again, having all the sexual chemistry of a moldy pair of sneakers.
In Jurassic World 2, Daniella Pineda plays Dr. Zia Rodriguez, the “nasty woman” who is tough as nails and a paleo-veterinarian with a heart of gold. She ALSO was supposed to be a lesbian. But that bit of characterization was left on the cutting room floor. Pineda told Yahoo Entertainment about the content of the deleted scene:
“I look at Chris [Pratt] 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 noted the reveal wasn’t “relevant to the story, but it was a little glimmer into who she is.” So it was cut for a leaner runtime, a leaner runtime that includes a prolonged shot of a dinosaur burning alive, scene after scene of building to the least shocking reveal in the franchise’s history, and tedious attempts to re-ignite a straight romance many audience members eye-rolled over the first time around.
This is just the latest in a growing list of Hollywood movies that seem to want partial credit for queer representation. Solo: A Star Wars Story’s screenwriter wants you to buy that Lando is pansexual, though that’s far from clear from the text of the film. Ocean’s 8 has femme flirting and dabbles in queerbaiting. Deadpool 2 goes the farthest, dipping its toe into queer representation but comes short of having its hero come out. And now Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom wants credit for having a woman of color play a lesbian, even if they won’t actually make that part of her identity part of the movie.
In the words of Lando’s lover (because why not if we’re going to act like off-screen speculation counts as canon representation):
Happy Pride Month.