Jeff Goldblum takes a walk down memory lane as he rewatches scenes from his classic works including 'Jurassic Park,' 'Independence Day,' 'The Fly,' 'Kaos,' 'The Big Chill' and 'Wicked.' Jeff dishes on "sausage making at the 11th hour" with Steven Spielberg on 'Jurassic Park,' working alongside "out of this world" costars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo on 'Wicked' and so much more.
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00:00Oh, that's a tooth.
00:04Oh, bloody tooth.
00:05Uh-oh.
00:09Hello.
00:10My name is Jeff Goldblum,
00:12and today we're going to be
00:14watching some scenes,
00:16selected scenes,
00:18from my so-called career.
00:21Watch this.
00:22♪♪
00:32♪♪
00:39That radio's out, too.
00:41Gennaro said to stay put.
00:42Kid's okay?
00:43I didn't ask.
00:44Why wouldn't they be?
00:45The great Sam Neill
00:47is there, of course.
00:49We had to sit there for,
00:51you know, a time
00:52and get the shot,
00:53but the very great
00:55Steven Spielberg,
00:57on that one,
00:58I think we came in
00:59a couple of, you know,
01:02weeks or several days
01:03under schedule.
01:05That guy not only is brilliant
01:07and inspiring and exciting
01:09because he knows everything
01:11about what he needs to get,
01:13but is also
01:15in a creative surge,
01:18conspicuously, and going,
01:19ah, I know what we could do,
01:20I know what we,
01:21he's prepared so much
01:22that he's free to come up
01:23with new ideas.
01:24And that was the intersection
01:26there of Mr. Spielberg
01:28and Stan Winston
01:29and Dennis Murin
01:30and the technology
01:31to bring dinosaurs to life.
01:33He left us.
01:39He left us.
01:41You know, as I remember,
01:43Mr. Spielberg and I
01:44were talking,
01:45and he was so generous,
01:46we came up with this idea
01:48that instead of in the book,
01:50as we got to talking,
01:52the lawyer, as you remember,
01:54goes, ah, ah,
01:56I shouldn't be here
01:57because the dinosaurs,
01:58the T-Rex is out,
01:59and he goes to the bathroom
02:00and eats them off the toilet.
02:03And then my character
02:04goes, ah, ah,
02:06I'm getting out of here too.
02:09And then it chases me
02:10and happens to provide
02:11a moment for Sam Neill's
02:12character, Alan Grant,
02:13to save the kids.
02:15I think it came up
02:16in discussion
02:17where we said, hey,
02:19what if instead of being
02:20repetitive with the lawyer,
02:22you know,
02:23not that these guys
02:24aren't scary,
02:25the dinosaurs aren't scary,
02:26but maybe my character
02:27is a little bit,
02:28has a little bit of gumption
02:30and self-sacrificing heroism
02:32in him,
02:33and goes, gets that flare,
02:35lights it,
02:36and purposely distracts
02:37the dinosaur.
02:39And we all thought
02:40that was a good idea.
02:41Anyway, just to,
02:42if you're interested
02:43in sausage making,
02:44that changed a little bit
02:45at the 11th hour.
02:46Hey, hey!
02:47Ian, freeze!
02:49Get the kids!
02:51Get rid of the fire!
02:53Get the kids!
02:55Get rid of the fire!
02:57So there was nothing
02:58at this point with CGI,
03:00so I'm running away
03:01from nothing.
03:02Hey, chase me, chase me,
03:03chase me, and like that.
03:05The rain, of course,
03:07is a rain machine.
03:08Turn on the rain,
03:10and you get wet, you know.
03:12There are other movies
03:13I've done where they do that,
03:15and boy, they don't warm up
03:17that water so well.
03:24Take these.
03:29Just in case.
03:31Where's, where's...
03:33Just in case.
03:44Just in case.
03:48I'm very proud of you.
03:50Wow, sweet.
03:52Wow.
03:54You know, now,
03:56now having kids myself,
03:58I've got a 7-year-old
03:59and a 9-year-old.
04:01I can't imagine, you know,
04:03what it's like
04:04if they took a risk,
04:06as radical as that
04:08seemed to be,
04:10and have to possibly
04:12say goodbye to them
04:13for the last time.
04:15It would be excruciating.
04:17Excruciating.
04:19Oh.
04:21And I'll bet,
04:22I don't know the whole backstory,
04:23but I'll bet
04:24we've had a good relationship.
04:26As you know, we're friends.
04:28In the movie, we play chess
04:29all the time,
04:30and he cares about me, obviously,
04:32and I care about him.
04:34And gee, I can't imagine
04:36that being real.
04:37What a great dad he is.
04:39I've known him for a long time,
04:41but I love him to pieces.
04:43And it's a sweet moment.
04:46And boy, you really got me.
04:48I don't know what you do.
04:49Why'd you do it to me?
04:50But Judge Hersh, you know,
04:51I'll bet at this point,
04:52when did Ordinary People come out?
04:54I'd seen him in many things,
04:57including Ordinary People,
04:59and talk about a cry fest,
05:01how you see how easy I am
05:03and mushy I can be.
05:05When Judd Hersh's character,
05:08the doctor, the therapist,
05:09helps, they meet at the office,
05:11and he's hysterical,
05:13and he has a kind of epiphany,
05:14and he cries and stuff,
05:15and then Tim Hutton,
05:18he says,
05:19Are you my friend?
05:21Judd Hersh says,
05:23Count on it.
05:25And they hug.
05:27And it's just, it's just
05:29very, very moving.
05:31I feel, you know,
05:32it's fun to go to movies
05:33that make you cry,
05:35and I show kids,
05:36I show movies to my kids,
05:37and they see me,
05:38boo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo,
05:39and they go,
05:40Da-da, what's the matter?
05:41I go, it's so sad.
05:43So, you know,
05:44so I'll bet a little of that
05:45was working on me
05:47as I was pretending
05:48that he was my father.
05:52Oh-oh.
05:57That's a tooth.
05:59Oh, bloody tooth.
06:01Uh-oh.
06:03Ha-ha-ha-ha.
06:05Chris Walas,
06:06who won the Oscar
06:08for the makeup,
06:09for the special effects
06:10makeup in this,
06:11and David Cronenberg,
06:12the great David Cronenberg,
06:13who directed this movie,
06:15what a wonderful guy he is
06:17and a terrific artist.
06:19They were very careful
06:20beforehand in having designed it
06:22and had 5 stages.
06:24This took 5 hours,
06:26as I remember,
06:27to, well, maybe the suit,
06:29the suit comes up to here,
06:31and the suit you kind of
06:32get on in a few minutes
06:33with a little help,
06:34you know, a tight-fitting
06:36rubbery thing
06:38that they beautifully fashioned
06:39that comes up to there,
06:41and then now it's
06:43a 5-hour process.
06:45They spend the next 5 hours
06:46pieces, prosthetics,
06:48of course, teeth,
06:49things that you put in
06:50probably later,
06:52and then paint, paint, paint,
06:53paint, paint.
06:54Then it's made of,
06:56it's done in such a way
06:57that you start working,
06:59and between each take,
07:01as I remember,
07:02it's starting to fall apart,
07:04so they have to be doing that
07:07and painting more
07:09and gluing more,
07:10and so it's,
07:11and then at the end of the day,
07:12by the way,
07:13there's no, I always said,
07:14I think still,
07:15even the last time I did
07:16something like this,
07:17there's no solvent
07:18that can just spray, spray, spray,
07:20whoosh, that's it,
07:22you're out of here.
07:23It's rub, rub, rub, rub, rub,
07:25rub, rub, rub, rub, rub, rub,
07:27ouch, ouch, it's a little red.
07:29My teeth have begun to fall out.
07:32What I remember, and yes,
07:33at the 11th hour
07:35in the trailer,
07:36now we're on the set,
07:37I think a fly appeared,
07:39and I was able to catch it
07:41and thought, hey,
07:42this is a good,
07:43it flew into our laps here,
07:45may as well kind of put it,
07:46I don't want to hurt it,
07:47but let's pin that thing
07:48and keep it alive
07:49as long as possible
07:50and watch it.
07:51I don't know why it hadn't
07:52occurred to me before then,
07:54but you know, gee, I see,
07:56you know, it kind of moves
07:58in this herky-jerky way
07:59and does this thing
08:00and, you know,
08:01got what I got from that.
08:02But then as I remember,
08:03the first time I had
08:04to shoot a scene,
08:05I think it's the scene
08:06where I break through
08:07those glass bricks.
08:13And I think that's the first
08:14thing we filmed
08:15with this five,
08:16stage five stuff on.
08:18It started to move around
08:19kind of like a chicken.
08:20I thought, oh,
08:21it's like a chicken movement.
08:22It's like, you know,
08:23how those things go
08:24and they waddle,
08:25the things waddle,
08:26they reverberate around.
08:27I thought maybe it's
08:28a little bit like that.
08:29And then, well, here you go,
08:30Jeff, crash through that thing
08:32or a stunt guy
08:33crashed through the thing.
08:34Now you land in the thing,
08:35we'll dump some fake glass,
08:37some candy glass around you,
08:39and now you come down.
08:41And now look for her,
08:42and that's it.
08:43And I just did what...
08:45After having done
08:46all that work,
08:47hoping that something
08:48would come out of me
08:49behaviorally,
08:50and that's what did.
08:59Am I likable
09:01to people like me?
09:03Do they not seem
09:04to take to me?
09:06What are you talking about?
09:08We're watching a scene
09:09from Chaos, K-A-O-S.
09:12You know, this is a show
09:13about the Greek
09:15mythological characters,
09:18some of them,
09:19as set in pretty much
09:22the modern day.
09:23You see I wear
09:24different kinds of track suits,
09:26that kind of thing,
09:27and those little tinted glasses.
09:29I'm talking in my backyard
09:31on Mount Olympus,
09:33back garden,
09:34with Stephen Delane,
09:36who plays Prometheus.
09:38Stephen Delane
09:39is a fantastic actor.
09:41If you know everything about,
09:42if you've devoted your life
09:43to studying the Greek gods,
09:45the myths,
09:46you'll still enjoy this,
09:47because Charlie Cavell
09:49wrote these brilliant
09:50and powerful and moving
09:52and hilarious scripts,
09:54and they not only
09:55modernize the setting,
09:57but kind of twist,
09:58twist the ideas.
09:59Do you remember
10:00that on all Olympia days past,
10:02we would barbecue,
10:04the whole gang,
10:05all of us would be
10:06dancing around the meander.
10:07So this is me and Prometheus.
10:09You know, Prometheus
10:11was that character
10:12who brought fire
10:13to the earthlings,
10:14and he's my good friend.
10:16In this show,
10:17he's my best friend
10:18and confidant and therapist
10:20and confessor.
10:22We, this was added
10:25additional shooting
10:26that we did,
10:27because originally
10:29all the scenes with me
10:31and Prometheus
10:32were on that cliff face,
10:35and I went
10:36and visited him there
10:38for one reason or another.
10:40We changed the content
10:41of some of those scenes
10:43in additional shooting
10:44and brought him
10:45with this beaming up business
10:48to my beautiful,
10:50overly, you know,
10:51flaunting of wealth backyard.
10:54Do you see this thing here?
10:56Ah, come on, come on.
10:58This prophecy.
11:00I think,
11:02I think it's coming to pass.
11:04It's happening.
11:06Read it.
11:07I know what it says.
11:08I said read it.
11:10Please.
11:13The line appears,
11:14the order wanes,
11:15the family falls,
11:16and chaos reigns.
11:18Like a lot of these guys
11:19who are not really powerful,
11:21but are given
11:22and somehow find themselves
11:23in positions of authority.
11:25Listen to what I'm saying now.
11:27He may be, have weaknesses.
11:29Real power lies in
11:31a person's ability
11:33to tell the truth,
11:35be honest,
11:36be authentic,
11:37know themselves,
11:39connect with themselves
11:40and to others,
11:41and to lift others up
11:42and leave others
11:44better off than they found them.
11:46That's a real powerful person.
11:54What are you talking about?
11:56Nick is pissed off
11:57because Alex didn't leave
11:58his suicide note.
11:59You think he could have
12:00left his reasons in a note?
12:01Maybe a long note.
12:03I can sum up people's whole lives
12:04in 32 paragraphs.
12:06I once did an entire rock band
12:07in a page and a half,
12:08and they had 2 drummers.
12:10Well, it's a very rich
12:12and warming memory,
12:15as you see all these people.
12:17We had a good time together.
12:19We stayed together
12:20all in Beaufort, South Carolina,
12:22and rehearsed for 4 weeks
12:24together and bonded
12:27because the whole thing
12:28is predicated
12:29on having a back story
12:31that you feel a little,
12:32you know, us having been close
12:34and now it's the aftermath.
12:36I knew he wasn't happy.
12:38That doesn't tell you much.
12:40I had no idea how bad it was.
12:42Glenn Close is,
12:44I stay in touch with.
12:46She's very wonderful
12:48and everybody is.
12:49Now, William Hart.
12:51I think it was
12:52damn straight of Alex
12:53not to cook up some neat
12:54phony reader's digest
12:55condensation of his screwed-up
12:56life for our entertainment.
12:58He was sick of people
12:59selling their psyches
13:01for a little attention.
13:02He was classier than that.
13:03What a wonderful actor,
13:05wonderful man,
13:08and I remember lots and lots
13:10and lots,
13:11will never forget it.
13:13I miss him,
13:15and he was a spectacular actor
13:18and very, very giving
13:20and full of life force on this
13:24and had a unique character,
13:26unique personality,
13:27and was really something.
13:30Nobody like him.
13:31What do you think?
13:32This is funny?
13:34One of our best friends
13:35has decided to kill himself
13:37and we don't have a fucking clue
13:38as to why.
13:39You never know
13:40why anyone does anything.
13:41I don't know why I chose
13:42these socks this morning.
13:44Oh, there's a great equation.
13:45Your socks, Alex's death.
13:49They're pretty sad socks.
13:51I believe in the old theory
13:52that everybody does everything
13:53in order to get laid.
13:54Who said that, Freud?
13:56Oh, I did.
13:57Really, it was a beautiful,
13:59you know, rehearsal,
14:00you know, actorly,
14:02serious, special, delightful,
14:06you know, thing that we did
14:08on most movies.
14:09You don't have anything
14:10like that.
14:17I am most great and terrible.
14:27Something bad is happening
14:28in Oz.
14:31The best way
14:32to bring folks together
14:34is to give them
14:35a real good enemy.
14:39I'm sorry to be so mushy,
14:41but you got me going
14:42with that Independence Day
14:43and this kills me,
14:44this show just kills me.
14:46When I saw it first on Broadway
14:49with Idina Menzel
14:50and Kristin Chenoweth,
14:51I was a mess.
14:52I didn't know what it was.
14:53Somebody said,
14:54oh, there's a hot ticket
14:55to come in,
14:56and I had been such a fan
14:59for the movie,
15:00for that original material.
15:02And I don't know what it was
15:03about that primal thing
15:05going home
15:06or Judy Garland
15:08or that whole movie.
15:10It just gets me,
15:11and I've shown my kids
15:12that movie,
15:13and I'm very emotional
15:14at that movie.
15:16And then Stephen Schwartz's
15:17music, that music and that show
15:19just knocks me out.
15:20And by the end of it,
15:21I was an emotional wreck.
15:23You know, I didn't know
15:24what it was.
15:25I was wailing, I think,
15:26as people were going
15:27out of the theater.
15:28I defy gravity.
15:32You have no real power.
15:34I defy gravity.
15:36That's why I need you.
15:37So when Mark Platt,
15:39who originally developed
15:40this thing into a movie,
15:42and John M. Chu,
15:44who is really fantastic,
15:46he showed me
15:47some early footage of,
15:48I think I'm going to start
15:49with the hat and water.
15:52The witch is dead.
15:53You know how she gets
15:54drowned in the first one.
15:55But we're going to turn
15:56that upside down.
15:58And he showed me things,
15:59and Nathan Crowley
16:00had already made
16:01some production,
16:02this is the production designer,
16:03very brilliant,
16:04already made some models.
16:05He took me around and said,
16:06you know, this is what
16:07we're going to do,
16:08and would you like to do it?
16:09Now we come to these two
16:11giant artists and people.
16:14Come with me.
16:15What?
16:16To meet the wizard.
16:17Why couldn't you tell me
16:18this is your moment?
16:19I'm coming.
16:20Ariana Grande,
16:21a beloved and giant
16:23musical superstar.
16:26We met when she was 11.
16:27She showed me pictures.
16:28I didn't remember.
16:29She came backstage
16:30to the Pillow Man.
16:31I was doing this thing
16:32at the Booth Theater,
16:33and she saw productions
16:35with her mom.
16:36She has pictures
16:37of the two of us
16:38backstage after,
16:39or, you know,
16:40signing autographs.
16:41That's fantastic.
16:42Anyway, now working with her,
16:44she's to play that part,
16:45and you see some of it in it.
16:47Absolutely incredible.
16:49Her acting and her singing,
16:51and Cynthia Erivo.
16:53Cynthia Erivo.
16:57I'm not afraid.
16:58Out of this world.
16:59Out of this world.
17:00They're both out of this world.
17:01I should have been intimidated.
17:02We sang songs all the time on set,
17:04and John M. Chu helped us realize
17:07this character as a little different
17:09from the idea in the movie.
17:11I'm a kind of a Tesla character
17:14who's invented the 20th century,
17:15in a way,
17:16in this parallel universe,
17:17and movies and myth-making
17:20and et cetera, et cetera.
17:22Another time,
17:23I'll gush about it further,
17:25as you can imagine.
17:31Thank you so, so much
17:34for watching.