She’s still pinching herself – but the dream’s real. As Teresa Delgado in Jurassic World Rebirth, Luna Blaise steps into one of Hollywood’s biggest machines, holding her own alongside Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey.
At 23, LA-born actress Luna Blaise is on the cusp of something that feels quietly inevitable. Hollywood feels closer by the day, but she meets it with a calm that borders on surreal. “Like waiting upon the unknown,” she says, “in a pinch me sort of way.” There’s no performance in her tone—just a stillness, a kind of baked-in gratitude that’s hard to fake.
It’s 9 AM in April when she calls in from home in LA, all smiles. Her hair—long, dark, softly wavy—falls the way it would if you left it alone and trusted it to do its thing. The morning light slides across her face as she settles into the conversation, the low thrum of helicopters overhead breaking the quiet. An unintentional score, she notes, to a year spent deep in the chaos of Jurassic World Rebirth.
“I was always at the cinema and speaking to my parents about the making of movies,” Luna reminisces, breaking out into another smile. She grew up in Los Angeles, the daughter of a filmmaker (dad) and professional singer (mum), where storytelling was part of the everyday. She also remembers growing up on the very franchise she now finds herself inside. “I was and still am a huge fan of Jurassic Park and Steven Spielberg.”
Returning to the screen five years after Jurassic World: Dominion, Rebirth brings original co-writer David Koepp back to the franchise. Having once believed he had nothing more to offer the series, he returned to work alongside director Gareth Edwards in an effort to honour its roots. For the first time in his career, Gareth—alongside cinematographer John Mathieson—shot the film entirely on 35mm. A first for Luna, too.
“You are at the mercy of these film cameras. It’s much more intricate, as if you’re looking at everything through a spyglass…” she shares. In an era where cinema continues to bend to the speed of the digital age, this was a welcome shift. “I have never shot on film, especially at that great length,” she adds. An aspiring cinematographer herself, Luna lights up when speaking about the process. It was, she says, an “incredible learning experience,” particularly in watching the camera department “flourish.”
With a whopping estimated $265 million budget, Jurassic World Rebirth is reportedly the most expensive film to ever hit the box office. Shot primarily across Thailand and Malta, the production traded green screens for heat, humidity, and a setting as unpredictable as it was cinematic. “It’s a part of filming; a part of the Jurassic franchise. If I get a spider on my leg or see a snake, it’s all part of the fun. Of course, no one would ever let you get hurt but it brought a real sense of fear when filming in Thailand. You are in these very real places with even more real circumstances.”
Even once production moved to Sky Studios Elstree in London, the commitment to realism held strong.“They built sets [that transformed Watford into authentic-looking jungles]. It was out of this world. Every single moment that you are in there and filming, they made it the closest to feeling like the real thing. That’s what is so special about this movie.” While CGI played its part, Gareth leaned heavily on animatronics. There was no need to pretend.
Luna plays Teresa Delgado, a character she describes as “a young, feisty warrior type”—someone she’d “love to be her friend.” As a Latina herself, Luna understands what that kind of representation means. “It’s going to be really amazing for the audience to see a Latino family on the screen. [Teresa] is a badass who puts her life on the line for her family.”
She still sounds a little stunned by the company she’s now keeping. “To be able to work alongside and share a screen with such an amazing cast is an honour,” she says. Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali all added weight. “Obviously that adds the most amount of pressure and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, what am I doing here?’… pinch me.” She leans into the moment, though—soaking up every second. “Being able to learn and be in their orbit for such a significant amount of time is such a blessing and something that I will never take for granted.”
For Luna, the pull toward storytelling was instinctive. At 12, she landed her first role in the American sitcom Fresh Off the Boat, playing Nicole—a young girl navigating adolescence and queer identity. “In TV at the time, there wasn’t a young girl representing the queer community in any way. For me to be able to bring that to the screen was such an honour.” The performance earned her early recognition, including a Young Artist Award for Best Recurring Young Actress in 2016.
Left: Luna wears top MIAOU; bra BUNDI; jacket GUESS; cap AREA. Right: Luna wears dress & earrings SCHIAPARELLI
At 16, she faced a choice: stay in school and live out a normal adolescence, or take the leap. She was cast as Olive in Manifest and chose the work. “I wanted to be in school with my friends, go to the football games and the dances, but I sort of realised this is going to be my career.” That decision meant moving to New York alone. “It was the first place I ever lived alone. I really became a woman in New York, and it really shaped me into who I am today.” Her parents, though, never pushed her. “If I didn’t, my parents would never force me to do it. They continued to say ‘at any moment you can pull the plug. It’s not up to us, it’s not up to anyone, it’s up to you.’” That unwavering support has been a constant, and one she doesn’t take for granted. “Having them is definitely a great blessing.”
Luna is, by her own description, a “see where the wind takes [her] and then cross that bridge” kind of person. The next chapter is unwritten—but it’s coming. You can feel it. “If the world lets me do this for the rest of my life then that is a massive blessing and I would be so honored to do so,” she tells us, with her signature kind of thankfulness that doesn’t ask to be noticed. She’s good at letting things come to her.
Photography by Emma Louise Swanson
Styling by Amanda Lim and Luca Kingston
Words by Scout O’Donoghue
Hair by Kat Thompson at The Wall Group
Make-up by Melissa Hernandez at A-Frame Agency
Styling Assistants Ian Martin, Viktoria Petrovski
Videography by Abir Hashem
This interview appears in Wonderland’s Summer 25 issue. Order your copy now here.