Equally as scary! It’s amazing to see how these special effects teams create the puppetry around these fantastical creatures. In all three of those films, the directors really set out to make us as immersed as possible. While there was some green screen, there was a lot of practical reference. In Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, when we were doing surgery on Blue, the raptor, that was an actual giant, raptor puppet that blinked and cried and sweat. On Detective Pikachu, we had a lot of puppetry. The scene where I’m walking through the grotto trying to take Pikachu to get healed, I’m holding an actual furry Pikachu puppet. 

It was the same on [Dungeons & Dragons]. There were like so many people walking around the set dressed as these characters. The animatronics that go into it—it’s like a giant mascot suit on steroids. It’s incredibly detailed; the eyes can blink, and the jaw can move. It’s pure artistry.

Where was your favorite location to film?

Northern Ireland is incredibly beautiful. There’s a beautiful forest and we get to ride horseback through it. But there’s one location where our team stops by an old cottage built right in front of a giant mountain. It looks CGI in the movie, but it’s fully real. They fully built the cabin there. The mountain is right there in front of your face. It’s incredible.

What was your horseback training like?

That took about a month of training. The horses are pretty trained. So really, we just had to learn how to stay on the horses. I loved my horse. His name was Shrek. He was very sweet, and a little stubborn, but I liked that, because it teaches me how to be more assertive. 

Danofgeek