Jeff Goldblum opens up to PEOPLE about his secrets to life, love, and work. From his unique approach to creativity, to the lessons he picked up along the way (including keeping good hygiene that he learned the hard way on his first film 'Death Wish'!), the actor shares the insights that have guided him through his incredible journey.
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00:00When I was like 10, I used to shower every morning,
00:03and we had a glass shower door, and I would write on it,
00:05please, God, let me be an actor.
00:09I was really into it.
00:10And then, because I kept it a secret, personal secret,
00:13I would wipe it off before anybody could see it.
00:15My name is Jeff, J-E-F-F, Goldblum,
00:20and these, we might call my rules for life,
00:24if I have such things.
00:25Here they come.
00:27Rule number, oh, that's French for one,
00:30keep your hygiene up, shower,
00:33keep clean for heaven's sakes, hey.
00:35But I'll tell you, my first part was in Death Wish.
00:37Charles Bronson, 1973, long before you were born,
00:40I played freak number one,
00:41is one of the three bad guys who does bad things
00:44to his wife and daughter and sends him on this
00:46for the rest of the movie, you know, vigilante.
00:48So I, misunderstanding the methody way,
00:52I didn't shower in order to play this street thug
00:58until the AD, I didn't know what an AD was,
01:01yet the assistant director came up to me
01:03after a couple of days, listen to this,
01:06and he said, Jeff, can I talk to you for a second?
01:09Yes, yes, yes, why?
01:11Jeff, you know, we're in a small space here
01:14and a lot of the crew members and other,
01:16you know, you kind of stink, you smell.
01:19Can you do something about that?
01:21Please, please go home and,
01:22I was shamed, but it was a good lesson.
01:25It was a good lesson.
01:27So now, and as we see, we're in proximity,
01:29you know, in show business, you know,
01:31or in any collaborative, you know, close, close,
01:33you know, area.
01:35Yeah, keep your, keep your hygiene up, you know.
01:37Rule number two, or dos, stay hydrated.
01:43My wife and a lot of people are chugga-luggers.
01:46By nature, they go, mm, they know it's good,
01:49and they go, mm, and they really do the whole thing.
01:51I have to concentrate to do that.
01:54You know, mm, that's really all I like to do.
01:57You know when I like water the best
01:59is during a meal, ice water, plain ice water.
02:02Ice, I like it iced, it makes it feel festive to me,
02:05and then I drink a lot of water.
02:07I remember when I was experimenting with that,
02:09excuse me if I digress, but maybe some of these
02:12are rule, rule adjacent.
02:14Oh, macrobiotic diet, I think I was experimenting with
02:18many years ago, and I think their advice was
02:21don't drink liquids as you're eating,
02:24and I've just said that that's what I most like to do,
02:26I get that ice water.
02:27So, you know, I don't know if I adhered to it
02:29for a little while, but I don't know if it's true anymore.
02:31Anyway, that's my riff on water.
02:34Let's move on to salmon.
02:36To salmon.
02:37To family.
02:38Family, I thought you said salmon,
02:39because I have a whole chunk on salmon.
02:41Okay, family.
02:43Rule number three, or drei, your kids are hilarious.
02:49I have two kids, Charlie and River,
02:50they're seven and nine now, so I became a father
02:52nine years ago, and then seven years ago.
02:55I'd never had any kids before.
02:57When we were just pregnant, and my wife Emily
02:59was just going to have the first one,
03:01somebody said, your kids are hilarious.
03:04Don't forget that they're hilarious,
03:05and I'll tell you, through times, they can be a handful,
03:08they can drive you crazy, you can get tired,
03:12but if you remember that they are funny,
03:15whatever that means, and for me, it kind of opens up
03:18another way of looking at things,
03:21how you can look at things from different ways,
03:22and things can happen to you, but proactively,
03:25the rule of life is really be proactive,
03:28which means the cards, you can get dealt all sorts of cards,
03:31but how you experience it is in your hands.
03:35That's what somebody calls proactivity.
03:37You don't have to be, et cetera, et cetera.
03:38So the kids can drive you nuts for one moment or another,
03:42or you can have all sorts of drama or challenges,
03:45as we know, but if you can keep finding the humor in it,
03:50you know, that's not a bad rule.
03:52Rule number four, cuatro, find something
03:58that, so to speak, grounds you.
04:00Today, as we sit here, this is my 10th anniversary
04:04of marriage with Emily Goldbloom,
04:07so happy anniversary, darling,
04:09and thank you for keeping me grounded.
04:12She and the boys, of course, and our dog, Woody.
04:19You know, he doesn't care that I'm in any movies, of course,
04:23and the kids don't either, you know, really,
04:26and even Emily, really, I mean, they like it,
04:29but more important things are going on with them,
04:32and kind of who I am seems to be more important,
04:35and so who I am comes to the fore,
04:38which is a grounding kind of question
04:41that always, you know, is on the surface
04:44when I'm around them.
04:46Rule number five, you know that movie Five Pennies?
04:51This little penny, his first,
04:53that's with Danny Kaye, The Five Pennies.
04:55If you're not the boss, you know,
04:57you gotta trust the boss.
04:59What does a role have to have to snag my attention?
05:03I like a good script, and I like a good part,
05:06you know, that's maybe different,
05:07and I can learn from, I'm trying to get better.
05:09I'll tell you the main box, the header box on my list
05:12would be the director.
05:13You can't be good unless the movie's good,
05:15and it's hard to make a good movie.
05:17You gotta get a good director,
05:18and maybe they've never done much before,
05:20but you can suss it out,
05:21and try to imagine what kind of director they'd be
05:25if they're new, et cetera, et cetera.
05:29I'd say get a good, get a good director.
05:32If you're not that boss, you know,
05:34you gotta trust the boss, that's true.
05:37You gotta trust the boss, and collaborate, and be open.
05:43Rule number six, use what exists, and keep growing.
05:50So I had creative shamans, and guides,
05:53and great teachers along the way,
05:56one of whom was Sanford Meisner.
05:59You students of acting, and the history of American acting
06:04may know him.
06:05He said it takes 20 years to even call yourself an actor
06:09of continual work, and after 20 years,
06:12maybe you have developed the system of an actor,
06:15and then you can live your whole rest of your life,
06:19if you keep getting chances, if you're lucky,
06:22and keep progressing.
06:24I've taken it to heart.
06:25He also said, but it bleeds over into life too,
06:28I'll tell you, he said, use what exists.
06:32Pay attention to what's going on right now,
06:38which is different than right now,
06:40and of course, the wise people will tell us
06:42that only the now exists.
06:44There's only right now, and if you use, or pay attention,
06:48and then allow yourself to be available,
06:51and enlivened by what's happening right now,
06:57something will occur, and something spontaneous will occur,
07:00and that's a magical portal into creative navigation,
07:05and it also means, I've come to realize,
07:08and I'm still realizing it more as I go on,
07:11it also means use what exists inside of you.
07:15These are all kind of learning graduate little exercises
07:20for me, where I feel I can get better,
07:21and I tell you, they've kept me interested,
07:24passionate about it, and I feel that I'm at the top
07:28of my form now, doing better work than I've done
07:31in a more relaxed way, in a freer way.
07:33Hey, thank you so, so much.
07:35I need to say to you, I'm deeply grateful
07:37for listening to this, hopefully,
07:40maybe you've taken something away from this.
07:43If you have, I deeply appreciate it, thank you.
07:47I have a lot of rules about salmon.
07:49Medium rare, medium rare, you can dry it out, don't do it.
07:52Sustainable, wild is better.