BERLIN – Whatever iteration of Jeff Goldblum career resurgence we’re currently experiencing it just proves once again what a unique talent the now 65-year-old actor is. Whether the secret weapon in Taika Waititi’s “Thor Ragnarok,” unintentionally slaying social media or gracing the covers of international fashion magazines, Goldblum is simply having another moment. He’ll reprise his iconic “Jurassic Park” role as Dr. Ian Malcolm in this summer’s “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” but before then he’ll be heard in Wes Anderson’s critically acclaimed stop-motion animated “Isle of Dogs.”
Goldblum voices Duke, one of the dogs stuck on Trash Island in Anderson’s near-future parable, alongside other regular members of Anderson’s troupe such as Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton and Frances McDormand, among others. The day after the film’s premiere at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival, he sat down to share some thoughts and stories as only he can.
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And, yes, he knows you’ll read this in a “Goldblum-ism” way even that’s the only way he knows how to share them. Let’s start off with a textbook Goldblum anecdote, shall we?
On stumbling across a Fellini production in Rome
Michelle Pfeiffer and I were doing press in Rome for “Into the Night” in 1983. I’ll be darned if he wasn’t shooting “Ginger and Fred.” I peered in and saw just a little bit of him with Giulietta Masina and Marcello Mastroianni, for heaven sakes, shooting this thing. I saw him go over and it looked like he was saying, “Don’t say this, don’t say that,” and then he put on music- loud music – and they do their thing and I guess, loop it later, just like that. (Laughs) Pretty good. But then there we were with Wes, and you know, there is a connection to the thrill of the location, the style, the currents. These movies that Wes is making…someday I think people will, and now they’re saying it, but I think these will live on and take their place in landmark cinema history. People will say, “You were there? What was it like?” Etc., etc.
Is Wes Anderson a trendsetter?
Well, yeah, I think he’s original. He doesn’t follow the trend of what’s come before. He is a student of what’s come before [and] stands on his favorite shoulders of favorite giants. No, but because he is original, he is a pioneer and forging his own way and has his own brave, however one comes up with it, I guess what’s called an artist. They have their own vision. “Here’s what I want to do and here’s what I like. Here’s the color that I like, and here’s the shape that I like. I like that actor, he makes me laugh. I think she’s interesting.” You know, like that. So, all of that, it comes out into something original, I think, and progressive.
On what it’s like to work with Anderson
After all of his preparation, it leaves him to be wildly present. He is, like I say, a master appreciator. You feel connected with him within this, as if you’re doing a play. He didn’t want me to change a “the” to an “and.” I remember in a big speech in “Grand Budapest Hotel” and I was like, “Oh, O.K.” Then he does 27 takes and kind of within a particular range. There’s beautiful detailing that he does with your behavior and his direction. He goes, “Try it like this. Maybe you want to do something-” Whatever he says. He is very actorly, very smart, and makes you laugh. I go, “O.K, O.K., that sounds good.” So it’s very enjoyable, and within it, the final experience is a very kind of free, creative, little swim. It’s really like that. It’s both things at the same time. Sometimes you need that.
On recording his role on a phone
I’ve done other voice movies and I’ve said on my own, “Hey, don’t you want to get me and Sandra Bullock, playing my sister, don’t you want to get us in the same room? Don’t do that thing where I’ll do my lines and you’ll put it together with her lines.” I get a lot out of seeing if it lands and listening and answering. So, they did. So they did it on that movie [“The Prince of Egypt”], I remember. On this movie, he said, “We want to get you, fly you to New York with Bill [Murray], with these guys. You’re the dogs, you’re this pack of dogs. We’re going to get you all together because you’re all going to overlap.” I said, “That sounds great.” We couldn’t work out the schedule. I was working [on something else at the same time]. So, I had to do my stuff all by myself in Los Angeles and Wes was on the phone. But, it was great because as much as I like to get something out of that, working with Wes when you’re not sharing him with anybody as you can imagine… (Laughs). Everybody is kind of, “Wes, Wes.” Everybody wants to be with Wes. To just kind of, you know, get him to yourself even if he’s on the phone? With tape, it’s different than if the sun is going down or the hair is not right. You can just keep doing the thing, and then I’d say, “Let me try this,” and he’d say, “That’s good, how about this?” In the same way, “Try it like this but I like when you do that.” So, it was a little work session like that which is a lot of fun.
Wait, Angelica Huston is in this movie?
Anjelica Huston, who is in “Life Aquatic” who is just wonderful. I heard she had a conversation during the process where she said, “Hey, I want to be in this movie. I want to be a dog; maybe I can be a poodle.” I’m just telling a story that somebody told me. That they said, “Good idea.” But then, throughout they couldn’t find it, so anyway they credited her with a “mute poodle.”*
*Think about it.
Yes, he’s a dog fan
I love dogs. We had a dog when I was a kid. Our current dog is Woody is a red haired standard poodle. A dream angel. We have two kids, a two-and-a-half-year-old boy, Charlie Ocean, and a 10-month-old year old boy named River Joe. [Woody] loves them, and he protects them. They are pack animals and we’re the alphas so he knows immediately that we’re bringing this thing home and so he’s protective of that thing. The kids love him. Charlie wrestles on him and leaps on him and hugs him and feels him, and does things and [Woody] just kind of lets him. It’s very sweet. And [Woody] sleeps with us and he’s just great.
Is he conscious of having “Goldblum-isms”?
I don’t do it for effect or haven’t developed it for some kind of thing. This is just the way it’s kind of developed. I know when people say this or do imitations of me, I go, “Oh, yeah I get the idea.” Or when they say, “Oh, do it like Jeff Goldblum,” I can do a kind of imitation of myself where I stammer and stutter or something. (Laughs)
“Isle of Dogs” opens in limited release on Friday.
