Wayne Knight's Jurassic Park Role Caused Issues On Seinfeld

One of the numerous joys included within "Jurassic Park" is waiting for the arrogant, greedy, obnoxious computer programmer Dennis Nedry to get his just desserts. Although Steven Spielberg's film version of Michael Crichton's source novel is far kinder to its human characters than the book was, Spielberg and co-screenwriter David Koepp reserve their nastiest kill moments for the film's most odious characters, and Nedry's demise at the hand (well, mouth) of a particularly persistent Dilophosaurus is the film's most delicious instance of poetic justice.

However, it may have been a little too good. The actor who portrayed Nedry, the lovable-in-real-life Wayne Knight, found himself dealing with some unexpected repercussions as a result of filming his character's final moments. The demise of Nedry had an unintended effect on the shooting of the fourth season of "Seinfeld," the highly popular and successful sitcom in which Knight portrayed Newman, Jerry Seinfeld's arch-nemesis neighbor. The show was in production while "Jurassic Park" was shooting, so Knight not only had to pull double duty, but also had to contend with one gig bleeding into the other. Had it not been for the efforts of the "Seinfeld" hair and makeup team, this situation nearly resulted in Newman appearing with a nasty stain on his face due to Dennis Nedry's Dilophosaurus encounter, something even the increasingly wacky sitcom would've had some trouble finding a justification for.

In "Jurassic Park," Nedry attempts to escape Isla Nublar with a Barbasol can full of dinosaur embryos, ostensibly to sell them to a rival corporation. Waylaid by a tropical storm and the disabling of Jurassic Park's security systems (the better to allow him to slip away unnoticed), Nedry finds himself stuck inside the Dilophosaurus habitat, at which point he's stalked by one of the cheerful yet deadly animals. As per their hunting style, the Dilophosaur spits venom directly into Nedry's face, a substance which incapacitates the man long enough for the diminutive predator to attack unimpeded.

When shooting this moment on set, Knight had to prepare himself to be shot in the face with a purplish goo, which was actually a bunch of K-Y Jelly dyed black that was created by the special effects department. As he recalled during an interview about "Jurassic Park" for ABC News (via SyFy Wire), Knight discovered that although the moment only took two takes to get, it nonetheless left its mark on his body:

"One night, I went back to shoot a 'Seinfeld' [episode] and I came back while we were shooting 'Jurassic,' and I said [to the effects man on 'Jurassic'], 'You know when you did the thing with the spitter?' They go, 'Yeah.' [I said] 'It kind of dyed my face purple.' He goes, 'Yeah, it'll do that.'"

Fortunately, the makeup team on "Seinfeld" was able to help out, rather than Knight needing to go to the writers of the show to try to come up with some weird excuse for Newman's new appearance:

"So there was a make-up problem going back to TV, we had to like cover the spot."

It just goes to show you that most facial blemishes — be they a wart, a pimple, or dinosaur spittle — can be covered up if you have the right products!

Fortunately, all turned out well for Knight and Newman, but it's not like Knight found the filming of Nedry's demise all that comfortable to begin with. The dyed KY Jelly was shot into Knight's face by a man wielding an air rifle filled with the goop, the same man who told Knight "Yeah, it'll do that." As Knight tells it, the moment only took two takes to shoot, in large part because this man put the fear of numerous takes into Knight, telling him right before filming, "Don't blink or I'll have to do it again."

Knight found it tricky to "turn to camera, and without blinking, [get shot] between the eyes with this gun," but he managed to make it work, despite the sense of disdain he was getting from the man with the rifle. Recently, when Knight appeared on Jason Alexander's podcast "Really? no, Really?," Knight not only retold the story of his ordeal but also provided a very Seinfeldian post-script:

"But that guy now lives across the street from me. And he has a better house than I do!"

Whether deserved or not, there's some kind of karmic poetry to Knight having to live next to one of his nemeses. Hey, it could be worse: at least he doesn't have to live next to a Dilophosaur.