NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 There is only one person who, in the middle of a massive dystopic dinosaur movie, can utter a line like 鈥淭hat鈥檚 bananas鈥 with just the right timing and inflection.
For almost three decades, off and on, Jeff Goldblum has played Dr. Ian Malcolm with particular Goldblumian panache. As the stylish chaos theorist of the 鈥淛urassic Park鈥 and 鈥淛urassic World鈥 films, Goldblum is voice of reason and comedy relief in one, an auger of nature鈥檚 unpredictability who can鈥檛 help marveling at seeing his theories in action, even if that poses immediate danger to himself.
It鈥檚 one of the 69-year-old actor鈥檚 best-known characters. Yet in even big movies like 鈥淛urassic Park鈥 and 鈥淚ndependence Day,鈥 Goldblum has such a singular manner and that he's never been particularly defined by those roles. It's more that Goldblum, in putting his own idiosyncratic spin on them, marks the characters, rather than the other way around. Life finds a way in 鈥淛urassic Park," and so does Goldblum.
In Colin Trevorrow鈥檚 鈥 which opens in theaters Thursday, Goldblum 鈥 along with original cast members Laura Dern and Sam Neill 鈥 returns to close out the franchise鈥檚 second trilogy of films in a sprawling adventure set in a near future where dinosaurs have spread across the world, as has ecological imbalance and a plague of giant locusts.
For Goldblum, the son of a doctor and host of the Disney+ series 鈥淭he World According to Jeff Goldblum,鈥 the subjects and themes of the movie dovetail with some of his own curiosities and interests in how we might, he says, 鈥渦pgrade our stewardship of the planet.鈥 What does Goldblum, the movies鈥 resident chaotician, think of our increasingly tumultuous times?
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know anything about what I鈥檓 talking about. But let鈥檚 utter the word 鈥榚ntropy鈥 and 鈥榮ystems鈥 and how things break down,鈥 Goldblum says, speaking from London. 鈥淏efore the butterfly comes out of the chrysalis, the caterpillar has some convulsions, chaotic convulsions. But it鈥檚 not death, necessarily. It鈥檚 the onset of transformation.鈥
Satisfied that he鈥檚 perhaps arrived at a kernel of truth, Goldblum concludes, 鈥淗ey, what about that?鈥
Chaos and harmony feature prominently in most conversations with Goldblum, an ever-riffing, cosmically attuned raconteur. He tends to speak as if narrating his brain's inner-workings in real time, arriving now and then at ideas worth pausing to savor and existential epiphanies that delight him.
One question, for example, about whether his sons鈥 names 鈥 River Joe and Charlie Ocean 鈥 suggest some ecological bent sends Goldblum on a jag about ocean environmental health, fundraising for Oceana, the song 鈥淢oon River鈥 (which Goldblum, an accomplished pianist, says his band might soon record), Carly Simon鈥檚 鈥淟et the River Run,鈥 the movie 鈥淲orking Girl,鈥 Mark Harris鈥 Mike Nichols biography and a white-water rafting trip on the Kern River.
鈥淲ater is life, isn鈥檛 it?鈥 says Goldblum. 鈥淚f they ever wanted to drop the Goldblum and just go with River Joe, that sounds evocative to me, that sounds like a good character. Or Charlie Ocean. I like both of those. Nothing wrong with Goldblum, but if they want to change it, fine with me.鈥
Either through experience (Goldblum鈥檚 early films included two with the improvisational Robert Altman, 鈥渁 dipsy doodle of an artist,鈥 he says) or practice (Goldblum credits acting teacher Sandy Meisner with instilling in him 鈥渁 continuity of digging鈥), Goldblum has arrived at his unique cadence and perpetual state of curiosity.
鈥淎t the beginning of the day, I remind myself: free association, stream of consciousness, perceptual readiness and then openness,鈥 says Goldblum. 鈥淭his whole business of acting and music seems to be, if nothing else, an invitation toward opening up. Opening yourself up in both directions. Not only to what鈥檚 around you in reception but then in your giving back, reacting and offering something.鈥
After co-starring in 鈥淛urassic Park鈥 and its 1997 sequel, 鈥淭he Lost World,鈥 Goldblum returned to Ian Malcolm in 2018's 鈥淛urassic World: Fallen Kingdom" during which his character testifies to the U.S. Congress. Malcolm recommends letting the exploding volcano determine the fate of the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar. Goldblum relished it.
鈥淚 was full of juice,鈥 he says. 鈥淚 was in this froth of fun, which I sometimes get in.鈥
Trevorrow, who has co-written the trilogy and directed the first and third installments, first worked with Goldblum on . Goldblum wasn't what he expected.
鈥淵ou think that he鈥檚 purely improvisational and maybe even a loose canon,鈥 says Trevorrow. 鈥淏ut on this movie, I'd just see him walking out on the garden at the hotel we were staying in going over his lines again and again and coming in and delivering a very precise, considered performance.鈥
Production on 鈥淛urassic World: Dominion" was halted in 2020 due to the pandemic. When shooting restarted, the studio rented out a hotel in England near Pinewood Studios for cast and crew. Goldblum would sometimes play the piano there with his castmates and Trevorrow 鈥 鈥渕usicales and hootenanny's of one kind or another,鈥 Goldblum says. Dern posted one video of
鈥淗e鈥檚 a beautiful man,鈥 says Trevorrow. 鈥淲e would have really thoughtful conversations about his perspective on where we鈥檙e at. There was a depth to it all, honestly, when it comes to the experience of making the film and going through pandemic together.鈥
For the 鈥淛urassic World: Dominion鈥 cast and filmmakers, making a movie about nature's resistance to humankind's meddling during the pandemic took on real-world resonance. As in the movie, the world might be ending but Goldblum is still there keeping the spirits up.
"What else can we do?" says Goldblum. 鈥淏eing a Sandy Meisner devotee, I鈥檓 a romantic about the ensemble credo and synergy and, like this movie depicts, what educated, smart and deeply caring people can do 鈥 even a few of them 鈥 together at a crucial moment. They can even sometimes defeat the forces of ignorance, corruption and greed, and keep the homo sapiens ball moving along a little more. Maybe.鈥
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