Jeff Goldblum Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters

Keep the camera rolling, Jeff, say, 'bagayaga',

say, 'bagayaga'.

And I say, I have 10 other things,

let me- here, watch this,

'Gayayayga, yayaga'.

And I just- I started to improvise, really fun.

[upbeat music]

Jurassic Park.

Here's a little bit about that, golly.

I've had a big history, and a little bit

of a future coming up with it.

'Cause we did a Jurassic World: Dominion,

it's called, Jurassic World, colon,

I think, titled, Dominion.

And Colin Trevorrow wrote and directed it, he's a wonderful.

And we were always- the beginning of COVID,

so we were all bubbled up in a hotel near Pinewood Studios.

And this is the original cast,

with Laura Dern, and Sam Neill, and Ben, and me,

kind of put together

with Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt.

But also with DeWanda Wise, and BD Wong and Omar Sy,

and Mamoudou Athie, Dichen Lachman,

Daniella Pineda, and Justice Smith,

big, delightful cast, and I think it's gonna be good.

So it'll be out this summer.

But it takes us back, and allowed me to play-

stepping into the shoes again of Dr. Ian Malcolm.

Raise your hand, don't move. I'm gonna do the same thing,

start with the same- stay in place again,

which way is it gonna roll off?

Let's say same way.

Same way, same way.

[gasps]

It changed. Why?

Because tiny variations, the orientation

of the hairs on your hands-

Hey Alan, look at this.

The amount of blood distended in your vessels,

imperfections in the skin.

It was originally beautifully rendered

in Michael Creighton's book,

which I read around the time that somebody said,

Hey, Steven Spielberg wants to-

would like to meet you on this movie.

Who? says I, read the book, read the script, went in.

At that first meeting, he said, Hey, you know,

I wanted to meet you.

You know, I've enjoyed what you've done.

There's a current consensus and a faction,

at least, in my group here,

that thinks that the script should develop a little,

and we may take your character out of it.

And put that character that was in the book, Malcolm,

and kind of meld it into the Grant character.

So, you know, it's kind of one guy.

I was, well, Ooh, really? [laughs]

I've made a little pitch, you know, in my way,

all off the top of my head.

I think you might enjoy having that character there,

because- or I, you know, I'd be remiss before I left,

if I didn't say that, I think, you know,

you want somebody to- whatever I said, you know?

Not that that swayed him in any way,

but luckily it wound up in the movie.

And so then we go to Hawaii, which was the first two weeks

of both those shoots, the first,

and the second, The Lost World.

And we go to Hawaii, and I'd sort of contributed,

I searched around for my costume and my glasses.

So we went to the costume person,

and said, How about this?

And they- I think they took most of that,

so it's most of what I brought, I think.

And they took some pictures.

And Steven Spielberg, he doesn't rehearse,

at least in that, he didn't rehearse.

He went, in fact, on the set.

He didn't want to rehearse until he turned the switch on.

He said, Because, you know, if you do it,

then I, you know, I have photographed it, dah dah dah.

I think what we should- it should cook to full-

it should come to full boil when we're filming it.

And I do love that.

I love many other approaches, and different kinds of things,

but I loved how he does that.

What a creative force, in a sweet, available,

delightful, you know, once in a lifetime,

once in a generation, landmark cinema.

Man, he is full of stories, and enjoyment,

and creative juice.

He's has a child-like enthusiasm,

and when he's there, so prepared,

but he goes, I know what we can do, let's do-

you know, so he's- you're following him doing that.

And he's [snaps fingers] the whole thing

is moving very beautifully.

Unauthorized breeding in Jurassic Park.

[Hammond laughs]

How do you know they can't breed?

Well, because all the animals in Jurassic Park are female.

Oh.

We've engineered them that way.

Even though it's a big movie, a big production,

and there are dinosaurs, and all of that,

it feels like a kind of an independent workshop,

where he's very sensitive to,

and interested in the characters,

and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.

And you know, ways of maybe improvising certain things.

So that was delightful.

Ooh, how about in Hurricane Iniki,

in that first- in Jurassic Park in '93.

We went to Kauai in Hawaii, and Hurricane Iniki,

this has been talked about many times,

struck the island shortly before we finished.

And we were stuck there, all of us, in the ballroom,

with the crew and the cast,

and Steven in the ballroom of that thing.

My character says, You know, we not only-

we humans, we not only lack of dominion over nature,

we're subordinate to it.

The wise idea is that we have to live

peacefully with other creatures here,

figure out how to do it, so that they have as much safety

and liberty as we do.

And align ourselves with nature so that it works out

for all of us, and the environment,

and the planet, et cetera, et cetera.

Life, uh, finds a way, yeah.

I don't know that they'd written in the, uh,

maybe I contributed that uh,

but I don't want to take the credit.

Pat myself, break my arm patting myself on the back.

It's not possible, listen, if there's one thing

in the history of evolution has taught us,

it's that life will not be contained, life breaks free.

It expands into new territories,

and it crashes through barriers painfully,

maybe even dangerously.

But, ah... Well, there it is.

There it is.

You're implying that a group composed

entirely of female animals will...breed?

No, I'm simply saying that life, uh, finds a way.

We didn't know that that would be like that,

And life, uh, finds a way.

So that kind of- yeah, that's kind of kept around.

People have enjoyed that. [background laughter]

Isn't that something.

[upbeat music]

Independence Day.

That was a popular movie of the time,

you know, Roland Emmerich, he's a wonderful fella.

I enjoy him so much, and he was young and full of beans,

and so were we all.

And aliens, and Dean Devlin, was very fun to work with.

And we improvised here and there,

and me and Will Smith in the cockpit, or that thing.

And that was fun.

And walking at the end, on those salt flats,

we stayed in some hotel at the border of Nevada and Utah,

or something like that, in some hotel,

where the casinos were in the- you know?

And then we drove out to these salt flats,

that's what you see in the movie, that's not CGI,

that's a long area of other-worldly looking terrain.

Saved the world, defeated the thing,

and the camera was way far away.

And me and Will Smith were smoking these cigars.

They make me dizzy,

I'm not a smoker of cigarettes or cigars.

And by the time, you know, you go [imitates sucking],

and get it lighted, I'm already groggy and woozy.

So finally, these weren't the days of-

where passing germs was such an issue,

so I asked the AD, the very generous AD,

Hey, can you get this going for me,

so that when they say 'action',

you can hand it to me lighted,

and then I can [imitates sucking] on-screen, take a few.

And that's about all I can do,

'cause we're doing this over and over again.

My dad, oh boy, Judd Hirsch.

Well, you see, a man can live his entire life-

Mm, not that, the other part.

Hmm, well, I don't want you to catch cold.

[light-hearted orchestral music]

Oh!

What is that? What's the matter with you?

Genius.

And Harvey Fierstein was great.

They marketed that thing with- in the Superbowl.

I remember watching the Superbowl in some party, and wow.

They said they were gonna do that, but, wow,

that's commercial, and they destroy the White House,

that was kind of provocative, and interesting,

and it kind of caught on,

and, Gee, that was fun.

And the aliens.

We're gonna have to make a run for this one here,

let's get low, let's get fast.

I've got you, big daddy, let's get 'em!

Woo-ooh!

Watch the deck.

[dramatic music] [lasers fire]

[jet engines roar]

[Jeff] Well, I'll tell you, the issue of aliens,

for one reason or another, I can't tell you why.

I can't disclose the secret that I'm holding,

but I just recently, you know,

I've done other things with aliens.

I was an alien in Earth Girls Are Easy,

and I became overtaken by aliens

in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

And in Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension,

I battled aliens, and so, you know,

I've had my brushes and elbow-rubs with aliens,

of one kind or another.

And I may have- oh, I can't say any more,

I can't say any more about something,

but there's a secret that I'm holding,

which has caused me to do a little serious-

just because I'm interested in it,

in the possibility of life somewhere else in the universe.

The question of intelligent life, somewhere there,

as we have construed intelligence, so-called.

And what our place might be in that family,

if there's anybody else out there.

And the Fermi paradox, do you know about that?

And where is everybody?

And I'm currently very interested in it.

[upbeat music]

The Fly.

David Cronenberg sends this script.

And I think, you know, I grew up in Pittsburgh,

and my sister and I used to go

to the Leona Theater in Homestead, and see-

beautiful, old theater, and see many-

the first run of- oh, my golly,

Bridge on the River Kwai, and great movies.

And a lot of Roger Corman movies, and The Sadist, and Iga.

And a lot of Vincent Price movies,

including, probably The Fly.

So when I got this script,

I think I had a kind of a thrilling association

already with it, and then it's such a wonderful script.

David Cronenberg, so smart, what an artist,

and so individual, and it was wonderful.

And what a part, very chewy and delicious.

I kind of was very excited right away.

We talked about it, and then, there we go.

I was not pure, the teleporter insists

on inner pure, I was not pure.

[slams hand down]

I don't know what you mean.

A fly got into the transmitter pod

with me that first time when I was alone.

Chris Walas, who won the Oscar for the makeup

that he did, designed this thing.

And I remember gonna his shop,

you know, with David Cronenberg early on,

and they had- he had drawn out

the different stages of my devolution,

and we talked about it.

And then I started to try on some things,

and they photographed them, and, you know,

it was a very thoughtful and careful process,

and masterful and artful process.

Stephan Dupuis was his cohort, Chris Walas's,

who got me in, finally, the dentist's chair,

it starting at 3:00 in the morning,

as I remember, in Toronto.

And did five hours of makeup on me to put this stuff on.

And during which I've meditated on the part,

and I got ready for the day.

And then, you know, technology being what it was,

makeup technology, it starts to fall apart right away.

So the whole rest of the day,

he's taking it up, and gluing it down again,

gluing it down again.

At the end of the day, not that I'm complaining,

they didn't have a solvent to take it all off,

but you know, it's an hour of rub, rub, rub, rub,

rub, rub, rub, rub, rub, rub, your skin is red now.

And you know, all that kind of stuff, but it was fine.

They took great care of me.

And of course, doing that project, he and I-

I had an idea.

There was an idea about the ending

that I had became passionate about.

I didn't- when John gets his character to win finally,

and for me to become a kind of a-

I dunno what I was protecting at that point,

but I had a big passionate idea about it.

I said, No, don't let them be together at the end,

let them- I dunno, something about her being devoted to me,

or I don't know what.

We hashed out some kind of collaboration,

we had- I enjoyed it very much, I think he did, too.

As I became the fly, I don't think I had-

I hadn't really practiced, and kind of developed

a real concrete idea about how I would

behave physically, and this and that.

I, as the story goes, I did find a fly,

and looked at a fly for- put it in a plastic bag,

and looked at it, and how it was moving around.

And so I got something from that.

I think on the day, when I put on the thing, finally,

things kind of came- had to come together, and they did.

I remember the first thing we shot

is when I am fully flied out.

[glass shatters] [screams]

I crashed through that glass brick wall

in the medical facility, and, you know,

do something like that.

You know, I had to come up with it, but we did it.

It was just a joy to do.

And then his wonderful words, insect politics,

and this and that, really, really fun.

And the tragedy of it, the romantic tragedy of it,

really delicious to chew on.

And of course, Mel Brooks produced it, Brooksfilms.

You know, I love him.

And then, you know, it was all done,

and I went to Time Square, I think, for the opening.

And boy, it was a ruckus, 'cause nobody knows

how it's gonna play or anything.

It was- I stood in the back,

and it was a real ruckus crowd

that seemed to enjoy it that night, it was thrilling.

And in the decades to come, it gets enjoyed,

and people come up to me, and say one thing or another,

and I'm thrilled that I did it.

It was a high point creatively, and career-wise, too.

[upbeat music]

Thor: Ragnarok, gee, I had a good time on that.

I took Emilie Goldblum, and the kids,

Charlie and River, to Nobby Beach

on the Gold Coast of Australia.

And the great man, and the great director,

Taika Waititi was there.

We had met before, he's said,

Hey, you want to talk about this?

Maybe you should do this part in this thing.

And we met at a hotel in Los Angeles, near my house.

And I had seen, for the meeting, the other Thor movies,

and I had some ideas, and I'd read that script.

And he- and we talked, he's so smart, and good,

and heartfelt, and authentic, and unusual,

and hilarious, and full of the energy of life.

So fun from the start.

So I jumped on board, and he said,

You know, I don't want you to do anything

theatrical, or cartoony.

I think who you are, kind of in your-

part of your straight behavior is a little bit useful

in this so-called character,

I think we'll dress you up in some way.

But I think you can be contemporary.

And kind of a little bit in this vein,

that we're talking about.

And I like to improvise a lot.

And I said, Well, me, too.

And then we got to the set, and I'll be darned

if it wasn't as much fun as I've ever had.

Whenever we get to talking, Topaz, about scrapper 142,

what do I always say?

She is the...it starts with a B.

Trash.

No, not trash.

Were are you waiting to just call her that?

It doesn't start with a B.

Booze hag.

I'm so sorry, no, best.

I was thinking about best,

'cause I always say you're the best.

She brought me my beloved champion, you know?

You say that every time she's here.

What have you brought today, tell me.

He would say, Yeah, yeah, let's do this,

'cause it's a big, you know, big machine

that has to work, and a big story that has to be told.

But he said, Now that we're here, I got 10 other ideas

about things you can say, keep the camera rolling.

Jeff, say, 'Bagagaga', say 'Gagaga'.

And I say, I have 10 other things.

Let me hear. Watch this.

Gagagaga, gagaga, and I just had started

to improvise, really fun.

Aah!

Time works real different around these parts.

On any other world, I'd be like millions of years old.

But you're on Sakaar.

[funky music]

In any case, you know this,

this- you call yourself, Lord of thunder.

God of thunder, tell him.

I've never met this man in my life.

He's my brother. Adopted.

Is he any kind of a fighter?

[laughs] You take this thing out of my neck,

and I'll show you.

Ah, listen to that, he's threatening me.

Hey, sparkles, here's the deal.

If you want to get back to ass-place, ass-berg...

Asgard!

Any contender who defeats my champion,

their freedom they shall win.

Fine, then point me in the direction

of whoever's ass I have to kick.

That's what I call a contender.

We're a good team, at least, in my humble opinion.

And I enjoy him very much.

And that whole operation at Marvel,

Kevin Feige, and Louis D'Esposito, in Victoria Alonso,

they know what they're doing.

And they build in reshoots,

a schedule that involves reshoots.

And they have Taika trust that he's gonna make

something interesting, and different out of it.

And they want to make popular movies,

but high quality movies.

And I love them, and I love what they do.

And I have a secret, another secret that I'm holding,

that I cannot discuss, that...

Well, I must say, I just have a current

and living affection for Taika.

And I love that character.

And I can't say any more.

Look, I'm already expectorating over the ideas.

I can't say any more than that.

[upbeat music]

The World According To Jeff Goldblum,

is a series, for those who don't know,

it's a series that Nutopia, production-

wonderful production company, did for Nat Geo.

And it's being released on Disney+.

We did a season of it, of a dozen episodes,

that came out a little bit ago.

You can still stream it on your Disney+,

and see many episodes, and ice cream,

sneakers, jewelry, cosmetics, pools,

RVs, gaming, different things.

And then we did another season during the pandemic,

mostly where we were gonna, not go all over the country,

but kind of limited to LA.

But then somehow, during the thing,

LA became iffy, and we went to Atlanta,

and we shot there for a month.

5 of the new 10 episodes of season two

are being released on Disney+ day, which is November 12th.

The episodes are dogs, dance, magic,

monsters, and fireworks.

What?

[record scratches]

I don't understand the syntax here,

No smoking, open, flames.

Wait a minute, wait a minute.

See this comma here? No smoking, open, flames.

I think they mean open flames.

Oh, hey, good. [laughs]

So forget that, All unauthorized persons and vehicles,

you know, beware, I guess,

turn back, turn back, turn back.

We're authorized.

I really like 'em, I recommend 'em,

and they'll be out, and you can stream them.

And then five more will be sent your way, if you like,

sometime a little after the first of the year.

And I can't tell you what those episodes are,

but it's a series that allows me to invite you,

and take you and guide you, on a little half-hour journey

of exploration and adventure, and science secrets,

and mysteries of knowledge that I discover.

On one particular subject,

or thing that we all seem to love, and seems to be familiar,

but there might be some extraordinary things

about this ordinary familiar thing.

Like the character in our town, who goes,

I wish I'd appreciated, when I was there,

all the dogs that I saw, or the ability to dance,

or, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.

So it's a little bit that there's wonderment,

and phantasmagorical transmogrification available.

And plenty of me doing- messing with the form, you know,

I didn't want to do something conventionally documentary,

like you've seen a host do.

I didn't want to kind of make it easy for myself,

and read a teleprompter, but I do what I'm doing now,

and kind of expel my thoughts, such as they are,

and feelings to my friends in camera land.

And we're about to, as the sun beautifully goes down,

on this epic landscape, about to set off some fireworks.

[loud electronic boom]

[dramatic music]

And then I encounter people

that they would cast brilliantly,

and recruit, and research these things.

And then take left turns in sequences.

In an episode on fireworks,

we talked to an astronaut about the stars,

because fireworks really mimic, in some ways,

the stars, the show that the stars put on every night,

and we allow ourselves to look up to see.

And then we explore our place in the universe,

and the shape and size and dimensions

in the universe, a little bit.

So things like that.

In dance, I wind up doing a dance with a sea lion,

believe it or not.

In dogs, I get taken around on a mushing,

urban mushing thing, on some rickety thing,

over a bouncing landscape with a team of Huskies, you know?

It was- there's some weird, wonderful stuff.

And for monsters, I go up to the mysterious,

dark forests of the Northwest,

and with people who are looking for Bigfoot.

So anyway, that's a little bit about the series.

I love it.

And then I gave him my whole photo albums

from when I was a kid, and my home movies

when I was in Pittsburgh,

that include my parents and my family.

And then my wife, Emilie Goldblum, and the kids,

include themselves in a couple of things.

So when I watch them, I'm delighted by these episodes,

amused by myself and everybody else, and I'm choked up.

I get choked up on camera a couple of times.

And when I see them, I'm- I adore them.

So anyway, that's me.

Thank you, says Jeff Goldblum, so much for your time,

and bearing up with us, and watching me talk about this.

And if I happened- on the off-chance that I missed anything

that you wanted me to talk about,

or any parts that you were thinking about,

maybe I'll see you in the future.

I'll arrange such a thing,

and we can talk about things in the future.

There's always- there's plenty more where that came from.