Rupert Friend witnessed a major family milestone from afar while filming Jurassic World Rebirth.
Appearing on the Today show Monday, the 43-year-old Homeland alum shared the emotional details of welcoming his first child with wife Aimee Mullins — a little girl they’ve nicknamed “the Jurassic baby.” And how did she earn that adorable moniker? It just so happens that her dad was hard at work on the latest installment of the Jurassic Park franchise when she finally entered the world.
“I’d flown back [to New York] to visit with my wife and surprise her,” Friend recalled. “Came to London the next day and I’m hoisted up on a wire, a hundred feet in the air, doing a stunt. The crew start saying, ‘Get him down, get him down.'”
Wondering what the issue was, Friend was told that his wife was on the phone.
Jasin Boland/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment
Rupert Friend in ‘Jurassic World Rebirth’
“I’m like, ‘Honey, I’m a little busy,'” the actor said, laughing it off. But once he was back on the ground, the gravity of the situation became clear. “My wife’s waters had broken. So then it was a mad dash to get on the last seat on the last plane out of England to get all the way back to the States to be there for the birth — which I very sadly missed.”
Though he couldn’t be there in person, Friend at least got to participate in the moment virtually.
“I saw it over FaceTime in the airport, crying my eyes out with all the air hostesses thrusting champagne at me,” he said. “And nearly missed the flight.”
Friend noted that as his wife was giving birth, his flight was on the verge of leaving — meaning he had to choose between boarding the plane and losing the connection or missing the flight to watch the birth of his daughter. Luckily, fate intervened.
“That wonderful — I’ll never forget it — sound came through the airport that said, ‘Ding, dong. Your flight is delayed,'” Friend said. “That’s when they said, ‘You have a baby girl.'”
“So it’s like Rebirth or real birth,” anchor Dylan Dreyer quipped.
“She’s always gonna be a dino baby,” Friend added.
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Friend married Mullins, an athlete and fellow actor, in 2016. The couple have largely kept their personal life private but have not shied away from walking red carpets together. Mullins, a bilateral amputee, is known for completing the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta and playing the mother to Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven on Stranger Things.
Hitting theaters July 2, Jurassic World Rebirth stars Friend as pharmaceutical representative Martin Krebs. The cast also includes Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali. Gareth Edwards directed from a script by David Koepp, who wrote the original Jurassic Park and sequel The Lost World.
Watch Friend recount the birth of his daughter in the video above.
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