Inside Luna Blaise’s Rapid Rise to Blockbuster Status

When I meet with Luna Blaise a month before Jurassic World Rebirth hits theaters, it’s the hottest day of the year in New York so far. But for someone who spent months in the Thai jungle filming the blockbuster of the summer and battling dinosaurs in tactical gear under 100-degree heat, a balmy 86° in New York feels like light work. The actress is unphased as we retreat to the cozy, dimly lit lounge of the Bowery Hotel, an environment ripe for discretion. It’s a luxury she’ll come to appreciate soon. In a few weeks, Blaise will enter the orbit of a major Hollywood franchise—one that promises to change the pace of her career.

In Jurassic World Rebirth, the seventh installment in the popular franchise starring Scarlett Johansson and Jonathan Bailey, Blaise steps into the role of Teresa Delgado—a sharp-tongued, billionaire-skeptical Gen Z heroine who feels tailor-made for the post-2020 blockbuster landscape. What starts as a family boating trip (with dad Reuben, played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, and little sister Isabella, played by Audrina Miranda) quickly spirals into chaos when they’re swept into a covert dinosaur DNA extraction mission. Teresa becomes the film’s emotional engine, fiercely protecting her family through the epic action and drama. Between dodging genetically modified raptors and side-eyeing corporate greed, Blaise brings feral wit and fury, which feel refreshingly of-the-moment.

Sliding into a velvet chaise lounge, she seems like any cool 23-year-old, yet her slicked-back bun, trendy capris, and mini sunglasses clue me into her social media relevance. Blaise, who politely sidesteps the label of It girl when I name her as such, admits she’s “so bad” at social media. “My friend Iris [Law], on the other hand, has the best slides,” she says as she sips on a Diet Coke, the universal aid for volatile New York City heat. “Every time I try to post, something messes up.” Blaise might not want to admit it, but her posts are resonating, and she certainly has an audience. Lest we forget, her Instagram notifications practically went ballistic when she announced she was going to be in Jurassic World Rebirth.

That moment—equal parts digital chaos and career milestone—didn’t come out of nowhere. Blaise’s path to the big screen may seem fast-tracked from the outside, but it’s rooted in years of quiet determination and a childhood steeped in creative influence. To be fair, Blaise isn’t new to the acting world, and the industry runs in her blood. Her father, a music video director, and her mother, a singer and producer, were careful to not push her beyond her comfort zone as a young child in Los Angeles, but even as a kid, whether she was conscious of it or not, Blaise wanted to perform. “When I was little, my parents used to take me to the movie theater, and I would always run down to the bottom because I wanted to physically be inside of the screen,” she remembers. “I was like, ‘How do I get in there? How do I do that?'”

Her first notable acting job came in 2015 when she starred in Fresh Off the Boat as Nicole Ellis. Blaise was only supposed to appear as a one-off character for a few episodes, but her scene-stealing portrayal of the trouble-making tweenager got her promoted to a series regular. Then came Manifest. In the sci-fi drama, Blaise got her big break as Olive Stone, the insightful and compassionate daughter of a family whose son mysteriously reappears after being presumed dead for years in a plane crash, thrusting them all into a web of supernatural mysteries and emotional challenges. The show, filmed in New York throughout its four-season run, was her first taste of massive success. “I feel very grateful. It’s not every day that it happens to people,” she says, noting the show’s long run. Every day, it feels like a show is being canceled, a project rewritten, or a studio shuttered. “To be in a job consistently as long as I have is a blessing,” she adds.

Jurassic World Rebirth puts Blaise on an entirely new level. To have visibility in a major movie franchise, especially one that’s as revered in pop culture as the original Jurassic Park is, transcends her wildest dreams. When the actress auditioned for the project, it was crickets for months—until a random Zoom invitation for a script read landed in her inbox nearly half a year later. “I totally thought I bombed it.” Blaise admits. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, the casting director hates me. I hate myself.'” When her agent called her to tell her the news, she was confused. Why were there so many people on the call? Was there really a need to tell her she didn’t get it if she already felt it deep in her bones? “My agent just said to me, ‘Are you ready to go fight some dinosaurs? You got Jurassic,’ and I just lost it,” she explains.

Soon, Blaise will be blasted across thousands of screens globally, each pair of eyes watching her as the hot-headed Teresa. So how does one prepare to be on the precipice of stardom? “I think about it every single day,” she admits. Although she’s had time to process everything since shooting began nearly a year ago, the last three months have been a roller coaster of emotions. “It’s nerve-racking. People are actually going to see it. I’m thinking, ‘Oh my god, I hope everyone likes me,'” she says. There was no one as influential on set as Johansson, who commands the film as the determined, skilled covert operations agent Zora Bennett. Learning from Johansson, Blaise says, is one of the reasons why the filmmaking and release process has been so grounded. “Having a leader like that and having someone to captain the ship was so important, and having it be her was such a blessing,” Blaise gushes. “Just being able to watch her and learn from her was amazing.”