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Jeff Goldblum was bullied growing up. It made him crave something 'finer' : Wild Card with Rachel Martin
Jeff Goldblum says acting was an escape from a tough culture of “whoever is strongest wins.”
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for Loewe
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Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for Loewe
Jeff Goldblum says acting was an escape from a tough culture of “whoever is strongest wins.”
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for Loewe
A note from Wild Card host Rachel Martin: Jeff Goldblum has a special brand of charisma — the kind that seeps its way into all his roles. Whether it’s in the movie The Fly or Independence Day or Jurassic Park — or his newest show KAOS — every character feels like a version of Jeff Goldblum himself.
He doesn’t need to work too hard at becoming someone else on screen because he knows that the audience really just wants him. His devilish smile. His perfectly deployed comedic asides. It feels like he’s always in on the joke and he wants us to be in on it too.
Jeff Goldblum is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2018.
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David Livingston/Getty Images
It’s as if he’s saying, “Hey, I see you out there. I’m having such a good time in this moment, doing this acting thing and I want you to have fun with me. Come closer. Have a seat and let’s see what surprises might unfold.” And we do, because it feels joyful there and a little dangerous, and that’s an intoxicating place to be. Which is why I wanted him to join me on Wild Card.
This Wild Card interview has been edited for length and clarity. Host Rachel Martin asks guests randomly-selected questions from a deck of cards. Tap play above to listen to the full podcast, or read an excerpt below.
Question 1: What’s a part of the culture you grew up in that you knew you didn’t want to take with you?
Jeff Goldblum: I grew up in Pittsburgh. It can be tough — just the culture of bullying, and rough stuff, and coarseness, and ignorance of one kind or another. I certainly can say that I realized even back then that I longed for something finer than the coarse world of whoever is toughest wins and whoever’s got the biggest muscle wins. I didn’t want to take that.
I knew there was something else besides that and I hungered for it. And it led me in part to acting, this world I’ve now pursued. So that othering business, I knew I didn’t want that.
Rachel Martin: Were you othered, or were you bullied explicitly, or you just noticed it from the sidelines?
Goldblum: I both noticed it, noticed it happening to others, and yes, myself here and there, othered and bullied. I realized, “Oh, I better get a little tough or find some way to defend myself.”
Question 2: What have you learned to be careful about?
Goldblum: My health. You know, it’s no joke. I lost a brother when he was 23. You can’t take it for granted. We’re fragile. I mean, we’re resilient and tough, but also fragile. And now, especially, I’ve got kids. I want more now to live as long and healthily as I can. So I try to go to bed on time and do several other things that are in my control. I try to be careful about my well-being.
Martin: Your brother didn’t die of an accident, right? Was it kidney disease?
Goldblum: Yeah, that’s right. It wasn’t an accident — he was traveling around North Africa. He was 23 and he wanted to be a journalist. He was fantastic and I miss him — we were close. But he was kind of going around and living in a cave and living on the beach or something for a couple of days, his friends said, and he got something.
He already knew he was susceptible to this one little anomaly he had in his system. So he had to already be careful. He was a couple of days away from a hospital, or a day away — too long. Had he been near a hospital, he could have been saved, but he quickly fell into kidney failure.
So yeah, I’m careful. I’m careful.
Question 3: Has your idea of what it means to be a good person changed over time?
Goldblum: Well, I suppose that it’s become clearer and more important. My parents taught me early on that being a good boy meant being polite. Which was probably good, nothing wrong with that. And making As in school.
I then went on to realize later that being a good student meant asking, “How much can you learn and use this lifetime for growth?” It meant not just getting the grade or impressing anybody else, but really delving into what you were curious about, connecting with yourself and then delving as deeply as you might, not just to get the grade. So that’s good.
Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern arrive for the world premiere of Jurassic Park in 1993.
David Ake/AFP via Getty Images
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David Ake/AFP via Getty Images
But more and more I got clearer about how what I did could impact others and help others and the idea of contribution, and I love that. There’s a George Bernard Shaw quote* that I like a lot that says:
“This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose considered by yourself as mighty. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community. And while I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For the harder I work, the more I live. I cherish life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It’s a sort of splendid torch that I’ve got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it off to future generations.”
That’s a good one to keep in your pocket or up your sleeve and to live by till the end of your days when you can’t do it any better and better and better and better and better.
* Editor’s note: This passage appears to be paraphrased from two separate George Bernard Shaw quotes.