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Jeff Goldblum has long been one of Hollywoods most charmingly distinctive actors.
But, by golly, its nothing that Ive tried to engineer.
Im certainly not trying to pull the wool over anybodys eyes about who I am.
He gives a playful smile and taps me on the knee.
But when it comes to being real and true, isnt trying to find that what actings all about?
Whatever it is thats happened with my public reception, its fleeting.
The ups and downs of show business are fleeting.
But this particular experience where does it come from?
Ive done a couple movies that have been well-received and widely seen theThormovie.
And I remember a few years ago somebody said, You know theres thisJeff Goldblums watching you poopthing.
Its all cute, isnt it?
And theyre similar to what Ive been doing with the press whether itscommenting on peoples tattoosorreading tweets about myself.
I feel like its all creatively true.
What does approach toward authenticity mean?
You want to be without delusion or illusion in what youre creating.
You dont want to lie.
The camera knows has been said many times and maybe that applies here, doesnt it?
No one is fooling anybody.
Your real character will out.
Pretty good.Youre a good teacher.
Stop it.Im sure I could learn much from you.
I doubt that.Oh, no.
Theres much I can learn.
Within those parameters my intent is to be open and self-revealing and to give you what you need.
I even think Im rather generous in that way.
Iwantto be generous in what I am sharing.
its Whats interesting about my partner?
Does that make a lick of sense?
But no, Im not worried about that.
And I like to do that.
I think I can even do a better version of it.
So no, this little Jeff Goldblum row that Im hoeing is still adventurous.
I still am excited about transforming for roles.
I wouldnt mind playing a part with hair extensions and an eye patch and a funny accent.
So you want to play Jack Sparrow?Oh, there might be something piratical in me.
But let me tell ya, I just did a movie,The Mountain, with Rick Alverson.
I play a character based onWalter Freeman, the guy who pioneered lobotomy in America.
People were filling up the asylums after the war and there was no way to handle them.
[Freeman] was like, I could do some good here.
I can do [lobotomies] quicker and better than theyre being done.
Im going to get an ice pick and go in through the eye socket.
He has a heart attack early in the picture.
I think Im having something similar right now perhaps.
Who knows whats going on in anyones heart?
Anyway, this kid, played by Tye, and I …
Lets skip to the end if thats okay.Lets skip to the end!
So this kid and I go on the road from asylum to asylum.
As you’re free to imagine, its a littleApocalypse Now.
Im drinking heavily, picking up women.
Its a version of the American critique.
Anyway, at the end of the movie you see the mountain and its kind of metaphorical.
Its an ambiguous ending.
Doesnt that all sound interesting?
It does.Anyway, my character is not exactly Jeff Goldblum.
You have to stop me, David.
And I dont drink coffee.
Im just an excitable guy!
So the way you talk …Im embarrassing myself.
No, no, no.
When did you realize that this offbeat thing you have was something you could utilize as an actor?
I dont know why I got this idea to be an actor.
So Ive always liked being jazzy.
But I was a fish out of water at school.
I was curious about that.Heres what happened.
File this under finding myself and utilizing myself as an actor.
I did, didnt I?
But yes, as a baby I did have something unusual.
And this is my modestly copping to there being something interesting about me.
There were seeds of my strangeness early on but I wasnt in possession of that until much later.
Now,my dadwas a doctor in Pittsburgh.
I did not grow up in that.
We were in West Homestead and my dad was the doctor to steel-mill workers.
I was the only Jewish fellow in school.
I took part in drama class there and thats when I said, Im going to be an actor.
I burst out of my shell.
Oh, I had a great time.
I even felt a connection with the girls there.
And then I remember Im getting too excited about myself.
Is this embarrassing yet?
No, its good.All right, thank you.
Im going to skip ahead again.
Thankyou.[Laughs.]
I had a line inAnnie Hall.
I forgot my mantra.Yes, and it kind of worked in a way that I didnt understand yet.
I certainly didnt know what I was doing.
It could be these flowers.
And Phil said, Thats good.
Yeah, thats good.
Anyway, by golly, that was that.
You were born in 51?52.
So your adolescence was the 1960s.
They were frustrated both of them probably thought that theyd be actors.
Which is another thread of my story.
But they would go to New York and come back with playbills and jazz albums.
And my mom and dad liked to go out and dance the bossa nova and the cha-cha.
I loved all that 50s culture.
So my mom and I went down to Gimbels department store and got those clothes and someJohn Lennon glasses.
Mostly what he was talking about was marijuana.
And my mom started to grow marijuana in the backyard.
In the 1960s in Pittsburgh?Yeah.
She smoked a lot and wanted to smoke with us.
She wanted to be part of the youth-culture thing.
She was kind of youth obsessed, I think.
Did you get high with your mom?Notreally.
Id never had anything before, and he put onMagical Mystery Tourand maybeSgt.
Pepperand maybeThe White Album.
I didnt know what the heck was going on.
It was like tripping on acid I took that once in 71.
I took mescaline a few times that same year.
I didnt go to Woodstock, but around that time I became obsessed with acting.
My only salvation seemed to be,Ive got to be an actor.
It was serious, and deeper than just making a living.
It was a calling.
So what happened was that my countercultural proclivities were whats the word?
We can use that.
My countercultural proclivities were subsumed by acting.
Thats an unusual early-date move, isnt it?Yeah, I did that.
I like the written word.
I like a good story for heavens sake.
This sounds like a strategy.I dont think it was, but it may have been.
I also read herThe Catcher in the Rye.
In my past Ive readWuthering Heightsout loud to someone.
Who?Someone in my distant past.
I cant say who.
I also used to pester people with P.G.
What would you read to me?Portnoys Complaint.
Man.Maybe I pick up something pervy from you.
Itd be okay if I did.
I thinkPortnoys Complaintis a grand novel.
Wed get a kick out of that job.
One semi-random question: Did you improvise the Im part gay line inThe Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou?
It sounds improvised.[Laughs.]
No no no no no.
Wes Andersons scripts are artful documents in themselves, and you stick to what hes written.
I worked on it conscientiously.
I made one change.
And Wes Anderson went, Yeah, that was good.
Did you change this and to a the?
That wasnt something Id done higgledy-piggledy.
I thought the change was a little more elegant.
And Wes Anderson said, Yep, I understand.
Do it the other way, just.
And I said, Absolutely.
If it’s possible for you to tell me: What happened with you andLaw & Order?
That seemed honorable enough.
I had a fine time and they were fine people.
So there were no conflicts?I may have been a little Ive changed.
My criteria for taking a part now would be that Ive got to be excited about it creatively.
Maybe you could swing me an invitation.
So I go up and he says, Oh, Jeff.
I never wanted you to play me in the movie.
Well, I did my best.
You know who I wanted to play me?
I said, You know what Jim Watson just said?
And Tom Stoppard said, Are you sure he wasnt thinking about John Malkovich?
So I went back to Jim Watson and I said, Are you sure you mean John McEnroe?
So in that sense, Jim Watson was absolutely right and John McEnroe wouldve been much better.
It makes me think of John McEnroe doing other parts Ive played.
Life finds a way…you cannot be serious!
Must go faster…You cannot be serious!
You and your wife havetwo little boys.
But in getting together with Emilie shes 30 years younger children were part of that consideration.
How could this work out?
What are the ways it couldnt?
But Im feeling fit as a fiddle, and I naturally adore my boys.
My feelings for them arent something that I had to tryand feel.
They were there right away.
But its all for the good.
What would I rather be doing?
For example, I want to expose my boys to science and the way we construe the universe.
And Id hope they develop an orientation in the fact-finding way instead of the old fairy-story way.
We need to honor our investigative powers.
Tell me a story youve never told before.Something as-yet-heretofore-untold?
The secret treasure trove.
Im rifling through the files mentally.
That ones from my distant past.
Okay, I dont know if Ive told this before.
And we were doing oh yeah, and I still have it!
this picture of a butterfly made of mosaic tiles on a tray.
I brought them to camp to work on the project and Mrs. Moats was looking over my shoulder.
There was something I didnt like about her.
She was too intrusive or authoritarian.
And she says, How about some more turquoise here?
I brushed her off and she said, Jeffrey, Im here for your guidance.
And I said to her, I remember it, Mrs. Moats, I dont need your guidance.
Why does that stand out?I mark that exchange as a landmark of sticking up for myself.
Yes, hed bothered my sister and I was in possession of the heat.
It was a little heroic, a little protective, a little sensitive.
Thats two for ya.
I have a couple questions based on perhaps apocryphal things Ive read about you.
I was very serious and passionate about that role.
[Makes some quick and impressively fly-like gestures.]
I went on a couple ride-alongs with cops here in Los Angeles.
I saw some events a guy had just been shot and we raced to the scene.
But the drug dealer?
I havent thought about this in years.
And, you know, drug dealers are around.
Its crazy to me that actors are allowed to hang out with cops in the way you just described.
So, people, you want to check that there are no actors in your operating rooms.
Get that in writing.
Or I just might show up.
This interview has been edited and condensed from two conversations.
