As is, the Jurassic World universe isn’t necessarily one we’d love to exist within. If we’ve learned anything while watching those movies, it’s that dinosaurs are super terrifying and are not meant to co-exist with humans. While the star of its latest movie, Jurassic World Rebirth, didn’t work with actual dinos, of course, she did have her own run-ins with terrifying and dangerous critters.
Scarlett Johansson and the cast of Jurassic World Rebirth ventured off to Thailand, specifically in the provinces of Phang Nga, Krabi and Trang, to make Rebirth. The actress, who admit she’s “a city girl”, said there were some “pretty serious creature critters.” This anecdote she told Today really helps sum it up:
You’d be making coffee at the coffee table and then two minutes later (someone would say), ‘You know what they just found at the coffee table? They just got a scorpion.’ And you’re like, ‘What!?’ Like, I was just making myself a coffee right there. We had a venomous pit crew. Isn’t that crazy?
In other words, critters were so common on the set of Rebirth that there was a “pit crew” out there with them whose job was to extinguish all the poisonous things around, if I understand correctly. This set sounds like a true sight to behold, and one that would have had me on said coffee table pointing and screaming.
While Scarlett Johansson said she was all for shooting in the “majestic settings” rather than in front of a wall of green or blue screen, there were a lot of “obvious drawbacks”.” One of them is confronting a lot of critters, and her “greatest phobia” is apparently cockroaches. Oh, and then there’s the fact that the Jurassic World movie was shot during monsoon season. Johansson also said she watched her costar Mahershala Ali “melt like human candle” on set, too.
The film received mixed reactions from moviegoers overall, mostly from critics, such as our Jurassic World Rebirth review giving it two out of five stars, while another one of our writers said it was the Jurassic World movie they enjoyed the most. No matter your thoughts, you have to give it to Johansson for sticking it out, despite not being the biggest fan of some of her unexpected co-stars on the set.
It was certainly all worth it in the end considering Rebirth is one of the biggest 2025 movie releases (so far), standing at No. 1 worldwide right now, and it led to the actress becoming the highest-grossing actor worldwide. You can check out our exclusive Jurassic World: interviews with Johansson and more to learn even more about the summer blockbuster which is available to watch at home.