JEFF GOLDBLUM

Walking with dinosaurs for the first time since 1997? Life finds a way...

Some people we can talk to forever. Here’s one of them. Part god, part beanpole, all charisma.

Your name is Winter?” SFX almost feels guilty telling Jeff Goldblum that he’s misheard the publicist when she introduces us on the Universal lot in LA. “I thought she said Winter! How wonderful. Now I’m trying to work out what season I’d be named after…” We’re here to talk about Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, as the star returns to the dino franchise for the first time since 1997’s The Lost World, but any conversation with Goldblum is much more freeform than that – you don’t so much interview as experience him. And it’s fantastic.

The star is funny, charming, idiosyncratic and brilliant to watch, those famous long fingers and mobile facial features every bit as expressive as they are on screen.

“How long do we have? 20 minutes! We could cover everything, my life and some of my past lives as well. I was either a pharaoh or a dung beetle, I’m not sure which one. It keeps coming back to me. By the time we’re finished talking I’m sure it will clear up. This will act as regressive therapy, where I really clarify what those past lives were…”

In one of those past lives you played Dr Ian Malcolm, the sceptical chaotician in the first two Jurassic Park movies. Did you think you were done with him?

Well, I don’t think much about what may happen, I’m always eager to be surprised by whatever happens. I think when I finished my stint on the two, I didn’t know that they’d make more. But I was thrilled to be asked to return to this beautiful production empire because they’ve always been so sweet to me, and I had such a good time on the first couple – Mr Spielberg was delightful to work with, very creative – it was an educational, creative and playful time. The dinosaurs in the original movie were famously groundbreaking. At the time did you have the sense you were working on something historic?

I don’t think I was as aware as I am now that we were at an interesting moment technically. The story goes that Steven [Spielberg] wasn’t going to do this unless we can do it in a great way technologically, where people feel like they’re really seeing the dinosaurs. And they did. It was like when JFK said we’re going to go to the Moon in 10 years, but they didn’t have materials to do it. So I probably wasn’t as aware as I should have been, but I think I was just happy to be working with Steven Spielberg. Did it require a degree of faith to believe that the T-rex was chasing your jeep?

I grew up on those Ray Harryhausen movies, and I would have been happy to be in Jason And The Argonauts – I’m a fan of the old methods, so that would have been fine for me. Where do we meet Malcolm 20 years later?

I have a scene where I’m testifying in front of Congress, in order to determine whether we should let the volcano on the island take the dinosaurs out, or rescue them. I go on a bit of a riff, saying as I’ve always said, that this was a bad idea from the start. I’m a great believer in science and evolution, and that this was not part of the plan, and that when wonderful science gets in the hands of people interested in making money, or showbusiness types, or people interested in military usage, we should be careful. Wasn’t that my song 20 years ago?! You’ve done some very big movies. Is Jurassic Park the one people want to chat about most?

Jurassic Park and Independence Day, they’re popular, worldwide, internationally enjoyed movies, but then I have pockets of enthusiasts who will mention all sorts of other movies. The Fly made an impression, Earth Girls Are Easy [laughs]... There are Wes Anderson fans that are rabidly wild about the two of his that I’ve done [now three, after Isle Of Dogs]. And now that I’ve done that Thor thing, that was a popular affair, as we know. Ian Malcolm, David Levinson in Independence Day, Seth Brundle in The Fly, even James Watson in DNA biopic Life Story... You’ve played a lot of scientists. Do you seek those roles out?

I haven’t sought them out – especially now, as ever, I’m trying to get better as I go along, seeking a variety of things. Those scientists are different from one another and they’re all enjoyable roles, and now I’ve come to research a little bit through the demands of these parts, I’ve come to highly esteem science and scientists. Now if I passed on any wisdom or worldview to my kids, I think it would be to expose them to Neil DeGrasse Tyson and to the facts of the universe as we know them. And what season would you be?

Oh yeah, what am I…? I’d be spring or fall, I think.