A lot of fans are likely looking forward to the release of Jurassic World Rebirth next week. Many of them may be especially excited to see the next big role by Wicked star Jonathan Bailey. We’ll get to see a different side of him in the sci-fi action adventure, but it turns out we’ll also hear a different side of him in the film’s score.
We knew Jonathan Bailey could sing and dance, but I certainly didn’t know he could also play the clarinet. It turns out he’s also pretty good, as he ended up sitting in with the orchestra recording the Jurassic World Rebirth score. He tells SiriusXM that he went to Abby Road Studios to watch the recording for fun and was inspired to break out his clarinet. He explained…
I was doing ADR the week before with Gareth, and they were recording in Abbey Road Studios the following week, and I went along, obsessed with sort of film scores and Alexandre Desplat's score in this. It's just like knockout, and so I just sat there, you know, on the first day I was doing a play at the time, so it was like a calming thing to do and Conrad was there, the original orchestrator for John Williams, and it was 105-piece world class orchestra, and then I was like, ‘Oh, I could bring [my clarinet],’ I hadn't really played the clarinet for properly for like 18 years.
Bailey was eventually talked into sitting in with the orchestra, which he did happily, but mostly just because he wanted to play John Williams’ iconic Jurassic Park theme. It turns out that even if it had been 18 years, Bailey’s a solid clarinet player, as Rebirth composer Alexandre Desplat told him he was welcome to stay. He was even offered a solo, though he initially turned it down as he didn't want to upset the professional musicians. Bailey continued…
Well, exactly. I know. No one wants an actor turning up, being like, ‘I'm gonna try and do that,’ but I just played along literally to the John Williams score initially, and then Alexandre was like, ‘You can play, you stay.’ Clarinet solo came up and they were like, ‘Do you wanna play it?’ and I was like, ‘No, no. Absolutely not,’ and it was the most terrifying thing.
It's understandable, and commendable, that Bailey didn't want to take the solo away from a member of the orchestra. But it seems everybody was ok with it. As when the solo opportunity came up a second time, he was once again offered it, and the second time he took it. The timing could not have been more perfect. Bailey said…
It gets weirder because that sequence wasn't even, it wasn't on the page. The interaction with the titanosaurus and what was queued up and bearing in mind, they did it for a week and a half and it just happened that after filming that, recording that John Williams score, there was a clarinet solo and I was like, ‘No, no, I can't do it.’ Then it came up again and he went, ‘Come on, it's now or never,’ and I was like, ‘Okay,’ and it happened to be the exact moment that my character touched the dinosaur. The fact that that wasn't even scripted, the fact that he then wrote it for that.
So when you’re watching Jurassic World Rebirth next week and you see Jonathan Bailey touch a dinosaur and hear a clarinet solo, now you know it’s actually him performing the music as well. Makes me wish I hadn’t quit the clarinet in the fourth grade.
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