We Love TV!
This is just an unofficial fan page, we have no connection
to any shows or networks.
Please click here to vote for our site!
By
Suzanne

Transcript of Interview with Jeff Goldblum
3/23/10
Final Transcript
Law & Order Criminal Intent Conference Call with Jeff Goldblum
March 23, 2010/2:00 p.m. EDT
PRESENTATION
Moderator: Our first question is from the line of Jamie Steinberg from
Starry Constellation Magazine. Please go ahead.
J. Goldblum Who’s it from?
Moderator Jamie Steinberg.
J. Goldblum Jamie Steinberg, yes.
J. Steinberg I appreciate your time.
J. Goldblum Thank you, Jamie.
J. Steinberg I was wondering what continues to challenge you about your
role?
J. Goldblum Well, let me see, it’s very challenging because the writing
is wonderful and the people around me are the best in the world. So I’m
just trying to live up to that and to make the most out of what are
wonderful scripts and wonderful acting opportunity it is. Plus, my
character is always kind of evolving, and it’s challenging to try to do
my best with it.
J. Steinberg Social media has become a big part of promotion for TV
shows and for movies and things like that now. How does it play a part
in your life and with your show coming on …?
J. Goldblum Well, Andrea and Farrah could tell you better how it plays a
part in the show. You don’t mean the content of the show? You mean the
marketing of the show?
J. Steinberg Yes.
J. Goldblum Oh, the marketing of the show. So I know nothing about that.
They can tell you. This is the first time—I’ve been doing it since last
year in this kind of way. But I’m sure they’re doing much, much more,
and they can tell you all about that because I don’t really—I’m so busy,
consumed with making the show right now I’m not really staying up to
speed on all manner of and forms of marketing that they’re doing.
J. Steinberg You don’t have your own account or anything like that?
J. Goldblum I do not. No.
J. Steinberg Well, thank you very much.
J. Goldblum Thank you, Jamie.
Moderator Thank you. We go to the line of Sheldon Wiebe from
eclipsemagazine.com. Please go ahead.
S. Wiebe You have a new partner who is going to be challenging. She’s
clearly as intelligent as Nichols—
J. Goldblum Yes.
S. Wiebe --and she has a fairly wide ranging network of contacts. And
it’s totally different skill set. How do you see them working together?
J. Goldblum Well, I now know. We’ve done several cases together. And we
work beautifully together, very dynamically. I think she’s great. You’re
right. She is brilliant and has her own skill set and we just work very
creatively together. And it’s, as much as anything, even given the dark
and horrific and nightmarish circumstances that we’re always faced with,
dead bodies and gruesome places and gruesome events, we seem to both get
a thrill out of the fun and the adventure of the hunt, hunting down the
bad guy.
And then, of course, I sort of—we get enrolled together and she gets
enrolled in my by and by, in my other peck agenda, which is not so
beside the point, which is, of course, finding out what the whole story
was and why, criminal intent of course, that’s why it’s named that. Why,
psychologically speaking, the person has done it? Not only who did it,
but why they did it? And like I said, and I say it’s not beside the
point because when we finally take it to court, that’s very much the
point. Part of it you got to tell a jury hey, here’s the—we’re not going
to get a conviction unless they can buy and believe the whole story and
the motive and why this person might have done it.
But it’s beside that, a personal thrill for me. And a personal kind of
side and overall contextualizing investigation to deepen my
understanding of the deeply criminal types and thereby all of us and me.
I’m on a kind of psycho spiritual investigation that fascinates me and
that’s infinitely mysterious. And she and I become partners in that. And
it’s absolutely thrilling.
S. Wiebe Thank you very much.
J. Goldblum Thank you so much.
Moderator Thank you. We now go to the line of Joshua Fulghum from
totallyher.com. Please go ahead.
J. Goldblum Hi, Joshua.
J. Fulghum Hey, Jeff. Hey. I have a two-part question here. First, how
was it being dead? And, how was it giving your own eulogy on the Colbert
Report?
J. Goldblum Those are great questions. Well, I love the Colbert Report.
I’m a fan of that show and him anyway, and when they asked me to do
that, I was delighted because they are smart. I get a big kick out of
their sense of humor and I thought they came up with something funny for
that and it was delightful to do it. The whole incident was bizarre and
engendered a rainbow of feelings in me, of course. It was upsetting.
People called who hadn’t heard right away or had—and would be—and called
up sad. Nobody, thankfully, ran their car off the road or had a heart
attack or anything, but there was some trauma. And for that, I would
dissuade people from doing this. And I’m sorry that it happened and all
of that.
But it was not of little interest to me to get in touch with, in some
cases, people I hadn’t been in touch with for a while. And said oh, my
gosh, is it true. …I’m glad you’re alive and it made me think of you and
all that kind of stuff. And it was trippy, trippy.
The first movie I ever remembered getting moved at was a movie called
Gigot. I don’t know if anybody will know this. It’s a little known
movie, I think, from the early 60’s probably when I was a kid. With
Jackie Gleason, and he plays a sort of a mute village poor soul and at
the end of the movie, everybody sort of mistreats him. And at the end of
the movie, they think mistakenly he’s dead. And then realize how much
they cared for him, in fact, and give him a big funeral. And he, in
fact, is alive and shows up secretly for a moment, peaking from behind a
tree and seeing the funeral and getting teary and weepy himself. And
then they see him and the whole movie ends in this sort of light-hearted
way.
But I remember crying at that. It was the first movie I ever remember
getting very moved at. So there’s something in that whole situation
that’s kind of--I’m sensitive to, I think.
J. Fulghum Well, we’re all very glad to hear you’re still alive.
J. Goldblum You’re so sweet. Thank you very much.
J. Fulghum My pleasure, Jeff. Thank you.
J. Goldblum Thanks, Joshua.
Moderator Thank you. We now go to the line of Troy Rogers from
thedeadbolt.com. Please go ahead.
J. Goldblum Hi, Troy.
T. Rogers Hi, Jeff. Thanks for taking the time.
J. Goldblum My pleasure.
T. Rogers I read that Ralph Macchio is going to be on this season.
J. Goldblum Yes.
T. Rogers Can you tell us who else we can expect to see?
J. Goldblum Well, let me see. I wish I had a whole—I should have been
prepared with a whole lineup. Just combing my memory. Now, he was great.
He was lovely and what a great actor. And what is—Kevin Conway is in an
episode that I think will play sort of shortly end of the season who was
absolutely wonderful. Gee, many—Karen Olivo, who was on Broadway In the
Heights and West Side Story. She was in this last episode that we did
and just a ton of other people.
That’s one of the lucky things about doing this show. It feels to me
you’re like in this anthology series and you get--the casting people are
fantastic. And you get the cream of the whole acting community showing
up. It’s just great.
T. Rogers Thanks.
Now, with the Law and Order franchise, there’s always a turnover of cast
members. I wanted to know what do you think the loss of Vincent,
Kathryn, and Eric will—how will that affect the show or how will that
affect the way you see the show?
J. Goldblum Well, let me see. How will it affect the show? I mean, I
think they’re the best actors around. I love the show with them and I
love their characters and I’ll miss them. It won’t ever be the same. All
three of them were spectacular and irreplaceable.
So it’s a different kind of—There’ll be a different kind of show,
although the flavor is something of the Law and Order flavor. It will
be—follow something of the same flavors. But I’ll miss them. I think
they’re just great.
I can talk about Saffron and her character and Mary Elizabeth
Mastrantonio and her character. And how excited I am about them.
But it will very different. But I love these two new actors and
characters. I feel lucky to be working with them and I’m thrilled about
the characters that they wrote for them. And what they’re doing in the
show and how we all play together.
T. Rogers Thanks.
J. Goldblum I hope people like them.
T. Rogers Thank you, Jeff.
J. Goldblum Thank you.
Moderator Thank you. We now go to the line of Christine Zimmer from All
Things Law and Order. Please go ahead.
C. Zimmer Hi, Jeff. Thank you so much for taking my call.
J. Goldblum Thanks, Christine.
C. Zimmer I have a question. Last season, we saw that like yourself,
Zack Nichols is very talented playing the piano. What other
“Goldblumisms” shall we see this season or what would you like to
incorporate into the character of Zack Nichols that are a part of you?
J. Goldblum Let’s see. Gee, I don’t know if I have any other show
business tricks up my sleeve or any other talents. I’m just trying to
play, be as smart as I can, and bring what I know is passion in the
writing and in the character and in the real lives that we’re trying to
depict.
We have a great guy named Mike Struck, who’s on the set all the time,
who’s a real and a masterful detective and police person. And I realize
all the time that to really do that job would be very difficult. You
have to have a very particular skill set for it, talent for it, and
appetite for it. And I’m just trying to pretend in a way that is at
least believable. Boy, that would be a tough job, I tell you.
C. Zimmer Yes. The other question I have is we’re almost about the same
age and I’m just curious, if they had an iPod, a thing like an iPod when
you were a teenager growing up, what kind of music would you have had on
it? You have a very interesting musical background. I’m just curious
what influenced you as a kid.
J. Goldblum Well, I remember the school, the earliest stuff I can
remember is when—I mean, the Beatles were introduced when I was a kid.
So I was very thrilled about the Beatles, including the first couple
of—I Want to Hold Your Hand and Love you, yeah, yeah, yeah. All that.
When those came out on 45s, the world had changed in some way and I was
very thrilled about it. And then a little later, when the White Album
and Sergeant Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour came out, it meant a lot to
me. It was a big deal.
Early on, too, Motown stuff was big in those days. Stop in the Name of
Love. And all the Motown stuff around then was big with me. Then, my
parents, we had a hi-fi and—
C. Zimmer Yes.
J. Goldblum --they had—they were jazz lovers and they had a couple
of—they had some Erroll Garner records, a jazz pianist who’s active,
who’s also from Pittsburgh as I am. That made an impression on me. And I
remember hearing Thelonious Monk. And then, my older brother was a big
jazz fan and got the Modern Jazz Quartet—
C. Zimmer Yes.
J. Goldblum --and was into that. And some Brazilian music. I remember
Stan Getz, this album he had from Stan Getz from the Astrud Gilberto
records. That made a big impression on me. All of those.
C. Zimmer Interesting. Very interesting.
J. Goldblum Yes.
C. Zimmer Well, thank you.
J. Goldblum Thank you so much.
Moderator Thank you. We now go to the line of Stefan Blitz from
forcesofgeek.com. Please go ahead.
S. Blitz Hey, Jeff. How are you?
J. Goldblum Good, Stefan. How are you?
S. Blitz Good. I’m a huge fan of yours for all the work you’ve done.
J. Goldblum You’re so nice. Thank you.
S. Blitz First question I have for you is the premiere actually was
pretty unique because—the jump-off premiere because it felt like a setup
for a spin-off series. A spin-off of actually the series itself.
J. Goldblum Hmm. Yes. Yes.
S. Blitz Does the atmosphere on the set feel like a new show or does it
just feel like a continuation of the show that you’d previously guest
starred on?
J. Goldblum Well, let’s see. I mean, I know I did eight of them last
year and you’re right, it was different. It was all different cast
members that year. But the stories and the quality of the writing and
the high quality of the production and the crew is still the same. So it
feels familiar but—and I miss the cast members who are gone. I adored
them.
But it does feel like a new show in a lot of ways. And I’m crazy about
Saffron Burrows and the character. They wrote it for her and the way
she’s doing it. And Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is spectacular and I
love her and her character, too. So yes, it feels kind of new to me.
S. Blitz Awesome. And the second question is a real fan question, which
is was the end martian sequence in Life Aquatic a deliberate homage to
the end martian sequence in Buckaroo Banzai?
J. Goldblum That’s so funny. At the time that we were doing it, I
remember Wes Anderson talking a little bit about that and saying—let me
see. Did he have another—was there another—He mentioned a couple of
movies that he’s—because he’s a hipster and a sophisticate and archivist
and knows all kind of movies. But yes, he talked about Buckaroo Banzai.
He said that it was a little bit—He really related to that in some way.
That’s right.
S. Blitz …about the single skip you do in both.
J. Goldblum I do?
S. Blitz Yes, you kind of do like the martial skit. It was very much an
intentional fan in both films quite a bit and there was—
J. Goldblum That’s funny.
S. Blitz That you were in both of them made it perfect.
J. Goldblum Oh, thank you so much. Yes, I liked both of those movies.
I’m glad to have been in them.
S. Blitz Well, thank you so much for your time today.
J. Goldblum Thank you so much.
Moderator Thank you. We go to the line of Jay Jacobs from
popentertainment.com. Please go ahead.
J. Jacobs Hi, Jeff. Nice to talk to you.
J. Goldblum Nice to you, Jay.
J. Jacobs I actually just last week got in the mail your first series
Tenspeed and Brownshoe, which has just been released on DVD.
J. Goldblum No kidding?
J. Jacobs Yes.
J. Goldblum I didn’t know that.
J. Jacobs Yes.
J. Goldblum That’s hilarious.
J. Jacobs It just came out last week. It just came to me. But—
J. Goldblum It did? Where is it available? Where do you get it?
J. Jacobs You can get it through Amazon.com or I’m sure it’s probably
available through stores and everything like that.
J. Goldblum I’ll be a ring-tailed monkey.
J. Jacobs So I’ve got to ask you, it’s been many years and you’ve
certainly done a lot of films since then and a lot of TV work, but it
was recurring. But it wasn’t until Raines a few years ago when you
actually went back into a regular TV series as a regular character. And
of course, Law and Order CI. How is it different working on a series
than doing films and recurring roles and stuff like that? And do you
enjoy one more than the other?
J. Goldblum I’m having as good a time as I’ve ever had right now. And
there are some obvious differences that I’m sure you’ve heard about
before. I mean, first of all, for me this is the longest, now, the
longest job I’ve ever had. I’ve never had—
J. Jacobs Yes?
J. Goldblum Yes, I’ve never had a movie that lasted this long and I
never did a series this long. So now, into the second season, it’s the
longest job of any kind that I’ve ever had.
J. Jacobs Yes.
J. Goldblum So that’s a little different. I see the same people,
happily, every day. That feels familiar and family like. And I’m
enjoying that. And the character, you’ve heard people talk about this,
but I think it’s a very nice creative opportunity where in a series
where there, where you get great writers, too. And as Paul Schrader told
me at the time a couple of years ago when we were doing Adam
Resurrected, he thought the best writers in writing was now on TV.
But if you get great writers and people who want to, who care very much
and want to do good things, and you kind of write as you go I think
that’s a very viable legitimate creative way to sort of see what works
and kind of make it up as you go and kind of elaborate on it and make it
more and keep writing the whole novel and the whole huge screenplay as
you go. And act it that way. It’s kind of like life a little bit.
It’s kind of like making a journey on a dark highway road in a car with
only your headlights ahead of you and you can’t see the road, but you
can see the road in front of you, but you can make the whole trip that
way. I like that idea. And so, I’ve found it very creative so far, but
maybe I’m in a relaxed and creative spot myself. I’m always trying to
get better. And I do like that.
I have a work ethic that I think I inherited from my father in a way. He
used to get up early every morning and routinely and put in an honest
day’s work and I kind of like that. I like having a place to go and
feeling like this is not just something I got to get through and make
the best out of and hopefully, do my best with. But it’s my way of life.
I still want to do my best with it, but it’s what I do every day. It’s
part of the daily, my daily routine. I really like that. I really like
it.
And this particular show, the actors are so good and the writers are so
good and the producers caring. It’s a very nice, nice thing for me. I
like it a lot.
J. Jacobs Perfect. And could you talk a little bit about your memories
of doing your first series that I just mentioned Tenspeed and Brownshoe?
How is that different?
J. Goldblum Let’s see. Let me see. I enjoyed that. We only did—what did
we do? Seven, thirteen. What did we do?
J. Jacobs I don’t remember exactly but I think there were like two or
three disks in the DVD.
J. Goldblum Yes. I think we did like 13 of those. So fewer already than
I’ve done of this. Well, Steve Cannell was great. And I think he’s
talked and feels like talking. He thinks highly of—he’s proud of what we
did there and Ben Vereen was fantastic. And I remember having a good
time with it. I liked it. I remember Bill Clinton. I met him a couple of
times. He came up and said you know you’ve done a lot of things, Jeff.
But my favorite thing was Tenspeed and Brownshoe. I never missed an
episode.
J. Jacobs Perfect. Well, thank you very much, Jeff.
J. Goldblum Thank you so much.
Moderator Thank you. We go to the line of Lena Lamoray from
lenalamoray.com. Please go ahead.
J. Goldblum Hi, Lena.
L. Lamoray Hi, Jeff.
L. Lamoray You have a very unique acting style. So how does it come in
handy on Law and Order and do you get to ad lib at all?
J. Goldblum Oh, that’s funny. Well, I’m trying to do my best on it. And
I feel like I can make use of the way I am learning, still learning to
tackle things. And yes, it’s very—they have wonderful writers. It’s
meticulously written, but here and there, we can and are encouraged to
do little tweaks and additions and be loose about it in one way or
another, yes, which I enjoy also.
L. Lamoray Can we expect to see more piano playing by you this season?
J. Goldblum Let me see. Did I play with—well, see, less so far. We have
a few yet to go. So I don’t know what they have in mind for me, but
there’s less piano playing so far, except I’m thinking of one episode
that we just finished, what did I do? Oh, yes, I just—I lean over.
There’s a young student, piano student, girl, at a performing arts
college and she’s playing something and I say oh, I get interested in
it. And while she’s still there, I lean over and play a few notes of
something. And I think, hum along with it. And do some humming and
playing. But that’s about all I’ve done musically this year.
L. Lamoray Great. Thank you so much.
J. Goldblum Thank you so much.
Moderator Thank you. We go to the line of Kristyn Clarke from
popculturemadness.com. Please go ahead.
J. Goldblum Hi, Kristyn.
K. Clarke Hi, Jeff. So which one of your character’s traits are you best
able to relate with?
J. Goldblum Traits? Traits, traits. Which character’s traits?
K. Clarke Yes.
J. Goldblum Let me see. Let me see. Well, I’m thinking of this character
Nichols, and I wish I were as smart. Boy, it would be tough. I don’t
think I could do that job really as effectively as he does it. After
many years on the—trying to do it, he’s a very—like our consultant, Mike
Struck. They’re eighth degree black belt practitioners. And they’re so
smart and then, intuitive and creative about it. I like to think there’s
some kind of parallel, at least in even what I’m trying to do as an
actor, although I still feel like a beginner every day in many ways. But
I aspire to getting as proficient and smart about and creative with and
I do share a passion with what I think Nichols feels for his work, for
my work.
Let’s see. What else? What else? I think he has fun. I think my
character, Nichols, has a lot of—has a kind of a grand time and an inner
secret. Funny fun with it. And I—that’s also true of me here and there.
At least, I aspire to that also. To always finding the enjoyableness in
my activities. But I have. Luckily, I’ve found things to do. Acting, for
instance. That I do find a blast. So there’s a couple of things.
K. Clarke Good things. And as my follow-up, what do you feel it is about
the show going into the season nine now, that resonates well with
viewers? What has kept it going?
J. Goldblum Gee. Well, they’ve all--Dick Wolf is a brilliant guy and a
passionate and caring guy and attracts terrific people around him, the
whole producing team and the writers that he gets. They just do high
quality things. And then, there’s something about solving crimes like
they do, and New York City. That at least would appeal to me. I can’t
speak for everybody. And what it is, they know more than other people,
I’m sure, have thought about it more and know more about it than I do.
But I know for me, I kind of am in love with New York stories and New
York City. I saw recently this documentary that Ric Burns did called New
York that gives you 400 years of history about this very unique place
where people are put together in the closest proximity from the widest
ranging places. The most diverse people stuck together. And it creates,
not only a hot bed of creativity and spiritedness of all kinds. But
trouble, too, and problems and challenges and the need to solve them,
and these New York stories, these crimes and criminal life and trying to
keep the streets safe are a part of these New York stories. And I love
that myself.
And of course, the reason I think it’s also been successful is because
the great actors they’ve had, too. I’ve always wanted to watch Michael
Moriarty or Sam Waterston or Vince D’Onofrio or Katie Erbe, all those
people. Jerry Orbach. I’d tune in to see them any time.
K. Clarke Great. Thank you so much.
J. Goldblum Thank you so much.
Moderator Thank you. We now go to the line of Patty Grippo from
pazsaz.com. Please go ahead.
J. Goldblum Hi, Patty.
P. Grippo Hi, Jeff. Thanks for talking with us today.
J. Goldblum Thank you.
P. Grippo Okay. I’m going to start out by telling you, I’m a huge fan.
You need to know this because I need to ask you a question about what’s
going on out there, though. Apparently, there’s a lot of strong feelings
within the fan communities since you’ve joined the cast of the show, and
they seem to—a lot of them seem to feel that it’s kind of lost its edge
and become lighter. They’re sort of addressing it as the Jeff Goldblum
Hour. So here’s your chance, if you will, could you—I mean, what would
you say to these people?
J. Goldblum Oh, well, gee. First of all, I don’t—it’s news to me because
I kind of don’t stay very in touch with all the—I’ve been consumed with
making the show.
P. Grippo Right.
J. Goldblum I don’t know. I mean, everybody has their own opinion. I’m
doing the best that I can and I know the writers are trying—there are
some very heavy and gruesome episodes that we’ve done. But it’s true. I
think part of their idea about my character is that I have a—I love. I’m
very passionate for the work, for solving these crimes and for
particularly investigating the intent, like the title says of having to
do with why these criminal people, these people so far off the rails
would have done what they’ve done and what that means for knowing about
the human being generally and for myself.
I think I’m on a very passionate and mysterious and infinitely
interesting, at least in my own character kind of mission. But that
along with it, I have a great time, too. Whatever I’ve been through
before. And we’ve made up a lot of stuff that hasn’t come to the
surface, that doesn’t come to the surface conspicuously or literally.
I’m at a place where I find myself very present, feeling very present
and alive and enjoying myself no end. I think I enjoy myself. Even in
these gruesome circumstances and I guess, even especially when there’s
been shocking loss and all the physical world has been thrown into
chaos. It feels like an opportunity to Zack Nichols to find what’s
important in life and find the deeper meanings in life in a very
enjoyable way. And I like solving the puzzle, too.
P. Grippo It’s obvious, actually. I personally enjoy it. It wasn’t from
me.
Now, the other question that a lot of people seem to want to know is
you’ve been involved with a lot of things and not in just making films
as an actor, but producing different things or being on the festivals,
judging and things like that. What are you doing now that you’re working
on outside of the show? Anything?
J. Goldblum Well, let’s see. This is so consuming that I feel like my
plate is kind of full and we’re going to keep filming till May, mid May.
Let’s see. What else am I doing besides this? Well, I play my piano all
the time.
P. Grippo Yes.
J. Goldblum I like to keep up with that. And there are things that I am
considering after we finish, but nothing that’s really worth talking
about at this point.
P. Grippo Okay. Well, thank you very much.
J. Goldblum Thank you so much.
Moderator Thank you. We now go to the line of Icess Fernandez from
Character Playground. Please go ahead.
J. Goldblum Hello.
I. Fernandez Hello, Jeff, how are you?
J. Goldblum Good. What’s your first name?
I. Fernandez Icess, like the goddess.
J. Goldblum That’s fantastic. Hi, Icess.
I. Fernandez Hi. My first question, and I’ve been wanting to ask you
this for a very, very long time actually. You’re known for playing quite
quirky characters and definitely characters of a different point of
view. And among my favorites is the very short-lived, but quite awesome
Raines. Could you talk a little bit about how you approach a character
and how you use the script to aid in your approach?
J. Goldblum Well, how I approach the script? Okay.
I. Fernandez Yes, how you would approach a character and then use what’s
in the script and then maybe bring something to the table from your own
references to create a character.
J. Goldblum I see. That’s a very interesting question. Well, I love
writers and good writing and literature and stories and a good script.
So I try to, as much as anything, figure out what they meant, what this
thing is about, and there are many nuts and bolts issues that come up in
that vein, in our show or a lot of scripts and stories.
What exactly and specifically? That’s an important question in the
theatrical dictionary, an important word. What specifically do they have
in mind for this, are they trying to depict for this? What reality are
they trying to depict here? This is nothing new. Everybody’s done—and
anybody’s trying to do this, but it constantly fascinates me. And more
and more, I try to give myself over to and serve what they’re doing. And
not only that, but who the writer is and what their whole spirit is, and
inner dynamic and what the message they’re trying to, and feeling that
they’re trying, and song that they’re trying to sing?
And I’m, in many ways the concierge delivering the message up to the
room. And I try to do that as faithfully as I can. And then, beyond
that, just use my own instincts because there’s nothing—it’s not math.
It’s not a science. There’s nothing empirical. Is that the right word?
Measurable. And finally, there’s no foul line that you can either hit
the ball within or go out of. You have to, and everybody’s going to have
their own opinion about it. But you have to use your own taste and
instincts about what it is. And as long as it gets your—once you’re
serving the script, if you can, and you must, get your own mojo working.
And however that takes place. And it’s different every time. The
adventure is kind of a little different every time. That’s what needs to
happen, too. Whatever interests you.
It’s kind of like what my character, Zack Nichols, does in an
unconventional way. He comes to a crime scene and doesn’t really go
well, this is what you are supposed to do. This is what you would do.
This is what logically leads to a deduction from A to B. But as much as
that, and he does that too, but as much as that, it’s kind of hm, what
interests me? What do I notice and what in my stomach and blood and soul
and fingertips and taste buds am I attracted to here? And I trust my
individuality there. He does. And I do in the same—I try to in the same
way that I act. And something like that.
I. Fernandez Ah. Wow, that’s a lot to think about for a writer on this
side. I guess, writing the script or writing the story. So like to think
about the process and to actually translate it for—to help the actor out
or help the reader out with the interpretation.
J. Goldblum Yes.
I. Fernandez So follow-up question. Let’s get back to the show now.
Since earlier you said it feels like a new show. How will this season
continue with what fans enjoy? And there’s lots of little aspects our
fans enjoy of CI. While documenting and exploring a sort of changing of
the guard. I know that has to be pretty fascinating.
J. Goldblum Yes. Well, who knows for whom it will be fascinating? It
fascinates me. And I love these characters that they’ve written for
Saffron and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. They’re great actors and great
people. It’s fun to hang out with them all day because we work 12, 13,
14 hours some days. And you spend your whole life together and doing
these characters and telling these stories. I think people can still
enjoy, I would hope the stories, the creative kind of crimes that are
depicted. And they’re interesting in a way.
And the criminals have interesting intents and the whys and wherefores
and inner motives and configurations, endlessly unique configurations of
what makes a killer do what they do and how they’ve gone off the rails.
And what it means for us human beings and what lessons we can learn from
it. That’s, I think, in the same vein and endlessly interesting to me.
And then, these are new cops, seem to be, however we’re doing it
stylistically, a horror in a personally different way. We’re certainly
effective. And each week, we seem to not give anything away, but we
certainly seem to be—to catch them. And then, with my particular
interest, does seem to sort of uncover at least, the beginning of who
these people are and what makes them tick and what made them tick in
this situation and what that endlessly and infinitely and mysteriously
means for who we are.
I. Fernandez Wow. Well, thank you very much for answering my questions
today.
J. Goldblum Thank you so much.
Moderator Thank you. We now go to the line of Jennifer Williams from
blogcritics.org. Please go ahead.
J. Williams Hi. How are you?
J. Goldblum Hi, Jennifer. Good, Jennifer. How are you?
J. Williams I’m good. So actually, in relation to a couple of the
previous questions, as you may or may not be aware of, a lot of the fans
are actually really upset about Goren and Eames leaving. So I’m just
wondering if you can give the fans any reassurances or encouragement,
reasons to keep watching the show.
J. Goldblum Well, let’s see. I mean, I totally under—First I’ll say to
them, I totally understand you’re upset. Those were as fantastic a bunch
of characters as I’d ever seen. And fantastic actors as we’ve ever had
individually or together. And I’ll be watching for all of them wherever
they go. I know Eric Bogosian is in a play right now here in New York
and haven’t had time to see it, but I look forward to seeing it. And
likewise, Vince and Katie.
As for what we’re doing, I’m doing my best and I’m enjoying it no end.
And I think the writers, who are terrific, have written different
characters but fascinating characters, at least to me.
I know in Saffron Burrows’s case, she’s such a special actress. I would
encourage anybody—I would recommend and as part of this grief counseling
of the loss of the old show and the old characters, I would recommend
that they consider appreciating Saffron Burrows and Serena Stevens, her
character. Saffron is such a uniquely beautiful actor inside and out.
And wildly intelligent. Wildly intelligent. And so that they know, has
passions, if they look her up a little bit, politically and having to do
with the world that are very interesting and compelling to me. So fun to
be around for me.
And she brings all of this to the show. She’s passionate and she’s been
a movie star that I’ve been very interested in for a long time. We did a
movie together called Fay Grim in Berlin some years ago with Parker
Posey that Hal Hartley directed. And I’ve loved her in The Guitar and
The Bank Job and Troy. So I would encourage people to really get into
her and appreciate her. She’s sexy as can be and does this part they’ve
written for her. A very interesting part, this detective from Chicago
who has an interesting back story that we can only guess at a little bit
and a daughter that we can guess at a little bit. We have to imagine
about. But a very whole and multifaceted life.
And then, let me encourage them to get into Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.
And seeing her every week. I adore her. We’d done a play together some
years ago. But for anybody who’s seen her from the beginning in Scarface
or The Color of Money or an eye on the stage here in New York through
the years. She is spectacular, as talented deeply, richly talented and
an actor as there is. Given to a rainbow of color choices in her paint
box. And they’ve written for her just the beginnings already of a
character that is very—that is not only unique, but multidimensional and
colorful and complicated.
So I would, as a fan, I would tune in to see those two. That’s for sure.
J. Williams Okay, great. Thank you.
J. Goldblum You’re welcome.
J. Williams Second question. A fan wanted me, one of my readers wanted
me to ask you if we would ever see a sequel to Mister Frost or if you
would be interested in doing one?
J. Goldblum Well, you see, am I alive at the end of Mister Frost? No,
I’m dead. I’m dead at the end of Mister Frost.
J. Williams That doesn’t mean anything.
J. Goldblum Oh, that’s right. Sure, that’s right. Well, I don’t know.
But thank you. That’s very nice. It’s a specialty item. I don’t think a
lot of people, not as many people saw that as Independence Day or the
dinosaur movies or The Fly. But people come up to me here and there and
it has a devoted following. I loved it.
I loved Kathy Baker. Now, that’s a wonderful actor. And Alan Bates, the
late Alan Bates, was wonderful in that. Yes. We had a good time in that.
We made it in Paris. It was a pretty good time.
J. Williams Okay.
J. Goldblum I haven’t seen it in a long time. I saw it after we did it,
but I haven’t seen it since then.
J. Williams All right. Thank you so much. I have to say real quick, and
you’ll laugh at me, but my mother says hi. She was going to kill me if I
didn’t say that.
J. Goldblum Tell her hello. What’s her name?
J. Williams Cheryl. Cheryl Crawford.
J. Goldblum Cheryl Crawford?
J. Williams Yes.
J. Goldblum You know there’s—well, Cheryl Crawford was one of the
founders. Not the same Cheryl Crawford. One of the founders of the Group
Theatre as you may know.
J. Williams No, I didn’t know that.
J. Goldblum Yes. And your first name is what?
J. Williams Jennifer.
J. Goldblum Jennifer, of course. Jennifer, well, say hello to Cheryl.
J. Williams I will. Thank you so much.
J. Goldblum You’re welcome.
Moderator Thank you. We now go to the line of Nancy Harrington from Pop
Culture Passion. Please go ahead.
J. Goldblum Hi, Nancy.
N. Harrington Hi, Jeff. Thanks for talking to us today.
J. Goldblum My pleasure.
N. Harrington We understand, I’m here with my sister Amy, we’re writing
partners, and we understand that you played a track on Lincoln Adler’s
album Short Stories. And we’re wondering if you have any plans to record
an album of your own.
J. Goldblum You’re so funny, you and Amy sitting there. I love Lincoln
Adler. I love doing that. What did we play? I think I played on Bosoco…Rosario
Rosario …Wasn’t it a song for my father?
N. Harrington Yes.
J. Goldblum As I remember it, yes, that’s right. I have no plans to do
any recording because it’s kind of a hobby for me. If something comes
up, I’d do it but no. I just—the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra we call
ourselves. As is when I’m out of work in L.A., we gig around there. On
the Christmas break, I did a New Year’s Eve gig when I was back in Los
Angeles. And in late May, when I get back there, I’ll be looking for a
place to hook up with my band again and play. But I don’t know. We have
no plans to record anything.
N. Harrington Great. Well, we’ll watch for the gig. That would be fun.
What about—
J. Goldblum So nice you could come and tap me on the shoulder. Where’s
Lincoln? Is he up in San Francisco?
N. Harrington I don’t know.
Amy Yes. Actually.
N. Harrington Not sure.
J. Goldblum Yes. He’s fantastic. Anyway, go ahead. Sorry.
N. Harrington Yes. We also are wondering, we know that you debuted in
the Tony Award winning musical Two Gentlemen of Verona, and we’re
wondering if you would ever consider doing a movie musical.
J. Goldblum Well, yes, I would. I like the movie musical. I enjoyed this
last year of Nine. I enjoyed West Side Story that I saw on stage again.
Made me think of the movie. Yes. In fact, go see—you haven’t seen my
movie called Pittsburgh?
N. Harrington Oh, no. Missed that one.
J. Goldblum Oh. So it’s not really a movie musical, but it’s about an
actor who does, takes a part in a two-week run of a musical.
N. Harrington Yes.
J. Goldblum And it’s called Pittsburgh. And I’m in it. I play the actor
so I sing and dance a little bit. And I helped produce it.
N. Harrington Oh, we’ll be sure to look for that.
J. Goldblum Yes.
N. Harrington Thank you so much.
J. Goldblum Thank you so much.
N. Harrington All right. Bye.
J. Goldblum Bye-bye.
Moderator Thank you. We now go to the line of April MacIntyre from
monstersandcritics.com.
J. Goldblum Oh, monsters. Hi, April.
A. MacIntyre Hi, Jeff. One of the beauties of being at the very end of
the call is that everyone’s seemingly asked most of the questions I had
for you, but you’re really an interesting actor to me. You’re a very
analytical observer in the way that you approach a lot of your roles, if
not most of them.
J. Goldblum Thank you.
A. MacIntyre And when you’re keyed into another actor, I’ve noticed, you
become more alive. Your energy just explodes. And it happened with Gena
Davis, obviously, in The Fly. You guys had a tremendous chemistry. And
I’m wondering, as your character in this series or in any acting
ventures that you’ve done, which actors have really keyed you up and
really made you-- brought your best game out and really energized you as
an actor?
J. Goldblum You are so nice. Yes. I like what you’re saying because it’s
kind of the cornerstone of the training that I got early on by Sandy
Meisner. A lot of people know, Sanford Meisner now. But I studied with
him and part of his, that some people know that’s sometimes
misunderstood or miscommunicated. But he teaches a training system
whereby the early material is an improvisation of a particular kind that
focuses in a big way on interaction. And all good actors are doing it
anyway. But his is a very good method.
And I teach a little bit myself. And enjoy teaching actors to do that
with each other, not only that but other things too. It goes beyond
that. But that’s part of his early thing. So I do like—I love the part
of acting that has me with other actors and allows you to play with
other actors. I’ve been lucky to work with a lot of wonderful actors,
but I’ll tell you the ones I’m talking about today, these two are
particularly spectacular.
And of course, that’s the great thing about Law and Order because it’s
kind of like an anthology series. Like I said before to somebody, where
the cream of New York and the theatrical crop of actors you get every
week. So where we’ve worked with great actors and it’s always fun. But
Saffron-- and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Saffron Burrows are both
spectacular. And working with both of them, I feel like I have to be
worthy of them, come up to my best that I can do and feel like they
bring something good out of me.
A. MacIntyre Are there crimes that your character, Zack Nichols—Do you
think that there are crimes that bother him more than others?
J. Goldblum Yes, I do. There were crimes—I mean, the first couple of
episodes that depict this killing of my friend that I’m personally
involved with. That’s a horrible thing. I think I’m very bothered and
personally—it’s not just a matter of—I’m always bothered in the sense
that I’m passionate and outraged and full of a fierce kind of sense of
justice and wanting to solve this thing. But more so, I’m a very kind of
a susceptible, vulnerable human kind of guy that they’ve written. And
when my friend, and old partner, gets killed. Yes, I think it bothers me
in a whole different and deeper way.
A. MacIntyre Hmm. You’re from the east coast? You work out west, but you
also go back and work in the east, too. Do you think, eventually, when
that day comes that you do retire or settle down or stop working, will
you retire on the east coast? Is that your worldview or are you an east
coaster or do you like the west coast?
J. Goldblum That’s so funny. I wouldn’t take sides with one over
another. And I don’t—now that you brought it up, I really don’t see
myself retiring really. It feels like—
A. MacIntyre Many decades from now.
J. Goldblum Yes. Well, who knows? You never know what even tomorrow will
bring. I feel lucky to be around today and if I get to work tomorrow,
I’ll feel lucky and will enjoy every moment of it. And likewise, when I
find myself here, I kind of enjoy it terrifically. And I do like feeling
the seasons again, although it’s tough. Brutal. Winter is brutal and
summer gets hot. But I kind of like it. It reminds me of when I was this
kid, speaking of this episode, the season change—
A. MacIntyre Yes.
J. Goldblum --that happens here. But I like it out there a lot. And so,
I like kind of coming back and forth and doing things both places. I
don’t know. Even if I wasn’t acting, I imagine I would enjoy being in
both places in a way. And other places, too.
A. MacIntyre Wonderful. Thank you very much.
J. Goldblum Thank you so much.
C. Fehskens Ladies and gentlemen, that’s all the time we have for
today’s session. I’d like to thank Jeff Goldblum for joining us and
remind everyone to tune into the season premiere of Law and Order
Criminal Intent next Tuesday at 10:00/9:00 central on USA Network. Enjoy
the rest of your day, everyone. Thanks again.
J. Goldblum Thanks again.
Moderator This does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for
using AT&T. You may now disconnect.
Back to the Main Articles
Page
Back to the Main Primetime TV Page
We need more episode guide recap writers, article
writers, MS FrontPage and Web Expression users, graphics designers, and more, so
please email us
if you can help out! More volunteers always
needed! Thanks!
Page updated 1/14/13
    
|