2024-08-26 03:01:00
Jeff Goldblum is a family man. “This morning I was working with River, the seven-year-old, on his daily routine,” the 71-year-old actor and musician says over Zoom, pointing to the electronic keyboard behind him. At the same time, his wife, Emilie, whom he married in 2014, was downstairs “working with” Charlie, nine, on the grand piano. And before that, Goldblum spent an hour practicing himself. Afterward, he worked out and made breakfast for his kids. “Our Oura rings said we both slept well, even though we got up at 6 in the morning,” he adds, proudly pointing to the aro multicolor that he wears on his finger.
It is a much more disciplined system than you would expect from a capricious talent like Goldblum. Although there are inevitably eccentricities. Like the fact that he’s telling all this while sitting in a room with a leopard-print rug on the floor. “This little guest house I’m in is being renovated, so the rug might be on its way out,” he informs me. “If you want, I’ll send you a square.”
Let’s not fool ourselves: Goldblum is not your typical California family man, and much less the typical man. Revered for his roles in classic films, from Jurassic Park y The fly until Independence Day y The Grand Budapest Hotel, is one of the most legendary figures in Hollywood, with a career that encompasses five decades. Born in a Pittsburgh suburb in 1952, he trained in New York with the illustrious Sanford Meisner, founder of the Meisner technique, before landing his first role as “Freak 1” in the famous thriller Charles Bronson The anonymous avenger. This was followed by a series of small but notable roles, such as playing a single line in Two strange lovers, of Woody Allen: “I forgot my mantra, I forgot my mantra.”
Fast forward to today, and Goldblum is one of Wes Anderson’s die-hard fans, a star of Marvel (see his interpretation of the Grand Master in Thor: Ragnarok), and regularly tops star lists in films and television series high budget. He’s also famous off-screen for being, well, quite a character: “You’re in your natural habitat!” he greets, obviously excited to see my living room, although I suspect he’s alluding to the fact that I’m dressed casually, with no makeup and my hair in a bun.
We are here to talk about Kaos, the eight-episode comedy drama of Netflix based on Greek mythology that will be uploaded to the platform on Thursday 29th. Goldblum plays Zeus, which, in the hands of the award-winning screenwriter Charlie Covell (his credits include The end of the world), He’s part power-hungry egomaniac with sociopathic tendencies, part deluded, self-destructive child with daddy issues. “I love the unexpected things about him,” says Goldblum, who plays the role with his trademark swagger, somewhere between lascivious and bombastic. “He has an overwhelming capacity for cruelty and violence, but also charisma and complication. I’ve always loved stories about him.” How power corrupts and abuses of power.”
The story Covell has dreamed up for Zeus is pretty simple. After spending centuries enjoying life as King of the Gods, Zeus wakes up one morning to find that a wrinkle is forming on his forehead. The drama unfolds from there, as Zeus becomes increasingly paranoid; meanwhile, his former friend turned prisoner, Prometheus (Stephen Dillane), secretly conspires against him with the help of a few unsuspecting humans on Earth.
However, unlike other more predictable stories, Kaos take it grotesque from Greek myths, turns up the volume and turns it into technicolor. It’s very fun. Poseidon (Cliff Curtis) He is a lotus-eater, cigar-smoker, lobster-eater who lives on a yacht. The Furies, goddesses of vengeance, are a trio of bikers in leather jackets and scarves. And Hera, the powerful but ever-scorned wife of Zeus, turns all of her husband’s lovers into bees. At one point, Dionysus tries to reunite a grieving widower with his dead wife in the underworld. The only way to do this is by participating in a quiz show hosted by the Fates, one of which, naturally, is played by Eddie Izzard.
But in the midst of all this high-octane nonsense lies a very close world, with strong parallels with ours. Let us take the central tension on Earth: the Trojans have been expelled from society and, despite their efforts to integrate, they remain dehumanized and totally marginalizedin a way that is almost impossible not to understand how a comment on today’s immigration laws.
“I don’t think it was specifically inspired by anything contemporary or ripped from the headlines,” Goldblum says. “But like the Greek myths, historically, they all claim to be awaken and illuminate something in us, and in our human plunges. But of course, what the series talks about has always been with us. For example, the character of Zeus. I think that Zeus has that kind of ego problem that people have. “None of us can be completely oblivious to it.”
Standing 6’3″ and with a string of acclaimed roles under his belt, not to mention possessing one of the most recognizable faces, voices and costumes in the industry, Goldblum is certainly aware of his own can and status within Hollywood. But he doesn’t seem to spend much time contemplating his fame. “Well, I have my own modest version “I’ve been there all the way through,” he reflects, unconcerned. “I’m glad that someone saw what I intended to show. And if some people like it, it’s always a pleasure and I’m happy to make contact with them. But like Zeus, there’s always the trap that you can think it’s not going to be very ephemeral, and it’s potentially superficial. So I think that’s a lot of fun. “You don’t have to take it too seriously.”
It’s difficult to interview Goldblum. He has an unconventional way of speaking that sometimes causes him to blurt out sentences that don’t make sense (“When Homo sapiens was just born, there was leadership and cooperation and conflict”) and he’s reluctant to be specific in any of his answers. When I ask him about Donald Trump, which seems like an obvious point of comparison for Zeus, he is shown to be taciturn: “I don’t want to get too far off topic.” And when I ask him for his opinion on the current controversy surrounding Marvel and the scathing criticism of Dakota Johnson about its own box office failure, Madame Web, divert the question and instead mentions Sighswhich she also stars in.
This brings us to a conversation about its director, Luca Guadagnino, and I end by pointing to a framed print behind me from his 2015 film Blinded by the sun. “Fantastic,” he says. “Look at you! We’ll talk at length sometime, I hope, because we’re both film buffs, I think.” It’s strange for a celebrity to talk like that to a journalist; break the rituals of an interview in a manner that is as refreshing as it is shocking. Is it a power move? A tactic to seem more approachable? Or is he just being nice? With Goldblum, he seems oddly benign – “I’ve been reading about you, I’m glad we’re talking,” he adds at one point, before praising specific articles I’ve written – though this doesn’t make him any less disconcerting.
Having been in the industry for so long, Goldblum has witnessed some of its most radical changes. For example, the introduction of intimacy coordinators behind him #MeToo. “I thought it was great,” he says of his work with one of those coordinators in Kaoswhere there are a handful of sex scenes. “When it comes to intimacy of one kind or another, you have to make sure that everyone is comfortable with it.” Does he wish there had been intimacy coordinators for longer? “Yeah,” he says. “And I’m sad and angry about all the things that were missing until they stopped existing. You look back and say, ‘Now I could do better.’ But I guess it’s good because I have a new way of thinking.”
Another relatively new aspect of the industry that has become more prevalent since #MeToo? The culture of the cancellation. Goldblum has previously drawn criticism for his comments about Woody Allen, who was accused of paedophilia by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow. Allen has always denied any abuse, and an investigation by US state health authorities concluded that no abuse had taken place. But since the allegations came to light, many Hollywood figures, including Colin Firth y Greta Gerwig, have distanced themselves from Allen. However, in a 2019 interview, Goldblum said he would “consider working” with the director in the future.
“I think every human on Earth is trying to make it work for everyone, hopefully. That’s my goal,” he says when I put it to him. “And so every course correction that comes up, I try to take that into account and contribute in the time I have here. I am a free, expressive and even impulsive in my work. But at the same time, I like the little constraint and the challenge of using my words carefully.” It’s an admirable way of avoid the question whether he stands by his earlier comment about working with Allen again. I put it to him once again, and his PR team is quick to ask him to move on.
One of the things that often fascinates people about Goldblum is that He became a father for the first time at the age of 62. He beams when I ask about the two children he shares with Emilie, 41, a former gymnast whom Goldblum met at a gym. “It’s amazing,” he says of fatherhood, before asking if I have any children. I tell him I have a cat, but I don’t know if it’s the same thing. “I think it’s kind of the same thing,” he says, and lights up as he talks about how wonderful it is to be a father. “All the emotions arise, and you are forced to examine everything you model and what you could improve. It is a big task and a great opportunity.”
For all his gifts and idiosyncrasies, Goldblum seems to have settled into an industry that, for the most part, pushes people to do exactly the opposite. Yes, there is fame. There is recognition. And, obviously, there is also moneyBut none of that seems to matter much to Goldblum, who is surprisingly saccharine about it. “I wanted to be an actor since I was 10 years old, “You know,” he says. “And I still pinch myself, saying, ‘Wow, this is a miraculous opportunity. It would be a shame if you didn’t make the most of it.’ So I try to show up to work and be grateful and appreciate it all.”
* Of The Independent from Great Britain. Special for Page/12.