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Like the gosling descendants of Jurassic Park's dinosaurs, thousands of children imprinted on Sam Neill's Dr. Alan Grant when Steven Spielberg's film hit theaters in 1993. Neill played a curmudgeonly paleontologist who overcomes his disdain for children when he saves the grandkids of Jurassic Park's founder and financier from certain violent death. Recognizable from his broad-brimmed hat, red bandana, and denim chamois shirt, you don't need the visual acuity of a velociraptor in order to spot a Dr. Grant cosplayer at a comic con. 

When spelled out in these terms, it isn't surprising that Harrison Ford was Steven Spielberg's first pick for Dr. Grant. Ford already had played a cranky scientist with excellent taste in headwear scrounging around in the dirt for bones in Spielberg's Indiana Jones films. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Spielberg shed light on his plans for Ford to play Dr. Grant in his 1993 Jurassic Park film, and why Ford passed on the project. 

"Sam does a phenomenal job, but my first choice was Harrison. I went to the art department, and I had them do a photorealistic painting of the T. rex chasing Harrison with two kids, and put Harrison’s face on the character of the archaeologist, and sent the script, the book, and the picture to Harrison. The next day I got a call, and he said, 'This is not for me, pal.' That was the end of the conversation," Spielberg said. 

Spielberg probably meant to say "paleontologist," not "archaeologist," but who am I to question an Olympic flag bearer and the reigning king of Dad Cinema. While Spielberg doesn't exactly specify what Ford's reasoning was, we can parse that he probably wasn't a fan of the vibe he got from the artwork showing him running away from a T. rex. I get it, as Indiana Jones, Ford has had to run away from a lot of things. But a T. rex is a whole other matter. 

Now, the real question though is how much of Michael Crichton's novel Harrison Ford actually read before he declined Spielberg's offer. 

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