Jeff Goldblum brings his unique personality to everything from coffee to the people who drink it. Photo / FilmMagic
It simply doesn’t get much more Jeff Goldblummy than The World According To Jeff Goldblum, a new 12-part series on the Disney+ streaming platform. Dominic Corry talks to the actor about playing himself and the origins of the series.
How did this series come about?A couple of years ago I did three episodes of Nat Geo Explorer; I loved the producers and we hit it off and sometime after that they said: “Hey, maybe wanna do a show of your own?” Ordinary items with extraordinary facets and surprising elements maybe. I thought I could lend myself in some fun way, maybe do it in such a way that’s kind of personal and spontaneous. I like this show, I’m proud of it. It’s a good way of using my time.
So, what does the world according to Jeff Goldblum look like?It’s a moment-to-moment answer. The ordinary mundane world - there’s something extraordinary. For my sensibility and for my money, it’s the people. People to me are just endlessly, infinitely mysterious and beautiful and fascinating and educational.
Where does your curiosity come from?I think it’s natural. But if I hadn’t been an actor and devoted my life to this, I might be another kind of person, it has kind of enhanced and nourished my curiosity. My acting teacher Sandy Meisner said you’re interesting to the extent that you’re interested.
Are you as comfortable being yourself on camera as you are acting?I’ve become more and more comfortable, playing jazz, encountering audiences and presenting myself on talk shows and doing shows like Portlandia and Thor: Ragnorok where Taika Waititi will encourage you to improvise. I’ve become more comfortable and interested in exploring my own so-called personal voice.
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You seemed to be having a great time in Thor: Ragnarok.I credit it all to Taika. He was fantastic. He let me loose. When we first talked, I said that I loved his improvisation, I loved What We Do In The Shadows and Flight of the Conchords and he said, “We’ll fix it up somewhat like that, I think the character is right in your familiar sweet spot.” He’s so deeply soulful and high integrity and caring and empathetic that I think that must be something of the New Zealand character. And he’s so surprisingly - in a way that I love - wickedly funny. I can’t wait to see Jojo Rabbit. I’ve seen all the movies he shot in New Zealand. They were new to me because I’ve still never been to New Zealand.
That’s not because of that fake viral story about you dying after falling off a cliff in New Zealand is it?How about that? No. That’s no reason. I’d love to go. I wanna go. Maybe if we do more episodes of this, maybe we’ll go outside of the United States, I hope to New Zealand.
I assure you, we have very few cliffs that are actually dangerous. Well, I’m no daredevil.
Will you be in the new Thor film that Taika is directing, God and Thunder?There’s a chance. I hope so. I’m hoping so.
And you’re about to work with Sam Neill again in Jurassic World 3, right?We’ll be together again soon, with Laura Dern. I got the script about a week ago. He and I spoke on the phone a little bit ago. I hadn’t seen him in a while. He’s in Thor: Ragnarok but we missed each other on that, he left a beautiful, funny note for me. I adore him and admire his work.
You often encounter your own fans in this series. How is that?Well, they’re very sweet. They’re very generous and they wanna take pictures with me and I like that. I go on my Instagram and see if they’ve posted and what they’ve said.
The World According to Jeff Goldblum is now available to stream on Disney+ disneyplus.com