Ariana Richards is good at making a young character's fear feel urgent and believable. In Jurassic Park, we believe in Lex's panic without losing sight of the practical intelligence behind it.
Fi1m perspective
Richards's frightened reactions in Jurassic Park (1993) do more for Lex than much of the writing. As Lex Murphy, she has to make terror readable without reducing the character to a scream, and she largely succeeds. We were frightened for Lex because Richards makes the panic feel like a child's immediate response to danger. Steven Spielberg's suspense does much of the work, but her expressive reactions give us someone to worry about. The thin character writing remains a weakness, even in a film we recommend as warmly as this one.
Her earlier parts include Carol Wetherby in Prancer (1989) and Mindy Sterngood in Tremors (1990). In Ron Underwood's creature comedy, the chief pleasure is Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward's easy rapport. Richards has a smaller supporting part, and we would not pretend it announces everything that follows. What matters is that the film makes its townspeople worth worrying about without stopping the jokes. It is useful context for Jurassic Park: both films need their supporting players to take ridiculous dangers seriously, and neither would work nearly as well without them.
Spielberg gives Richards room to be resourceful as well as scared, and she is convincing at both. Lex's computer literacy could have felt like a convenient label attached to a child the script otherwise struggles to describe. Richards makes the intelligence credible without suggesting that cleverness ought to make her immune to fear. That is the performance's particular strength: we can believe she knows something useful while remembering how young she is.
The later work offers fewer chances to develop that promise. Angus (1995) gives her a supporting role as Melissa Lefevre, while The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) brings Lex back only briefly. She returns as Mindy in Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001), before painting becomes her main occupation and acting more occasional. There are too few substantial adult leading parts to judge how far she might have developed beyond these young characters. Start with Jurassic Park, and watch her rather than waiting for the next dinosaur.
Biography
Ariana Richards is an American actress and painter. Born Ariana Clarice Richards on 11 September 1979 in Healdsburg, California, she began acting as a child with guest roles including on The Golden Girls and made her feature debut in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988).
She is known for playing Lex Murphy in Jurassic Park (1993) and reprising the role in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). She also appeared as Mindy Sterngood in Tremors (1990) and returned to the character in Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001). As a child actor she won several Young Artist Awards.
Richards trained at Skidmore College, where she earned a B.S. degree in fine art and drama. As an adult she has focused primarily on her career as a painter.
