Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous season three is now streaming on Netflix, and to celebrate, we sat down with Paul-Mikél Williams, the voice of Darius & Raini Rodriguez, the voice of Sammy.
The new season brings a new threat for the teens trying to get off Isla Nublar. Their friendships have grown as they work together against a common enemy.
Check out the interview below to see how it’s been for the cast to voice record at home over Zoom sessions, along with some inside fun.
You have had a lot of work in both live-action and voice-acting roles. Does your creative process differ for those like in the preparation that you do? And do you have a preference?
Raini – Yes, and no. I feel like as an actor, I sort of approach every script with, good character breakdown, figuring out where I fit in the show, the movie or the scene, what my character’s goal is, point of view, her relationship between herself and the other characters and whatnot. As for voiceovers, I prepare a little bit more with, a lot of throat coat tea, a lot of warm water. I know it sounds funny. Sometimes I have to stretch a little bit. Because especially for this show, when you’re running from dinosaurs, you’re not necessarily like running in the booth itself. But it’s a lot of heavy breathing. So you kind of got to get into a mental state for that just because you will pass out or hyperventilate in the booth itself. But for the most part, I prefer it all. You know, when you’re doing voiceovers, it’s great because you can literally wear your PJs, especially when we’re at home recording. So we can quite literally wear our PJs while we record versus live action when you know, you got to show up professional. So that’s kind of a fun thing to do. But I definitely enjoy the whole aspect of, you know, filmmaking and recording and being on set and things like that. I, I do miss a little bit of the in-person interactions that we would get to have in our recording booth if we were all in Los Angeles together. But for the most part, I love it all. Just the whole creative process is exciting.
Are there aspects of you that you find in your character like that’s you straight up you?
Raini – Yeah, for sure. I tell everybody, Sammy is like a heightened version of myself. She’s definitely me, but like, times 10. We both come from Texas. I was born in Bryan, Texas, and she’s from San Antonio. We both have big Latino families. And we’re both sort of like the mother hand and nurture of the group.
Paul-Mikél – People keep saying that I look like Darius because I used to have big hair for people that had seen me back when I was recording. I feel like I always have that optimism that Darius has, and I’m always trying to keep a smile on everybody’s faces because friendship makes the world go round. A fun part of the characters is their dynamic and how much they connect to each other, despite being from totally different backgrounds and being from all around the United States. I feel like a lot of that also comes from our cast’s dynamic because we also come from a bunch of different backgrounds, and it’s just the chemistry between the Jurassic Camp family and the camp family behind the Jurassic Camp family. It’s just like, we’re all just one big family.
Obviously, you guys have a great friendship going on, so I’d love to know who is your favorite friendship from the show?
Paul-Mikél – That’s a really tough question. Because in season a, season three, we see all of these friendships that kind of start developing in different ways. Like, um, Kenji and Sammy they, they start having fun Darius and Ben you see them start to connect also and like relive past things and, and I’m in Brooklyn and Sammy, they kind of like go on this like detective adventure. And it’s like, they’re there. There are so many different character dynamics and pair-ups that we still have yet to happen.
Raini – Anything that Ryan Potter does is Kenji is just hilarious. So anytime he talks to anybody, and like Paul mentioned, Sammy and Kenji get to have some fun moments this season where we get to see their goofier side for both of them come out. I mean, let’s be real. Kenny’s character has been goofy for three seasons. But to really see Sammy, sort of join in on the fun on that. Any pairing together is hilarious because our writers write such funny stuff or emotional stuff. You’re gonna see some of that this season as well. Some really, really nice heart to hearts and some tug at the heartstrings moments and some really nice vulnerability and emotion that these characters sort of get to show you in their layers that we’ve seen in the past three seasons, and I’m really excited for people to see what it’s like when the kids get to have fun and be kids even though they’re on like a deadly Island, that they still get to have fun and be kids. But then when they get to band together and fight for a cause and, you know, try to get off the island again. I love seeing those moments too. Because the way that we all go about approaching it, you know, with our voices and our actions and things like that is so beautiful. So I’m excited for everybody to see all the different pairings. I think they’re gonna have new favorites this season. I’m excited to hear what the fans think about this season for the pairings.
