How ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ helped Jeff Goldblum find his voice
Only the extraordinary actors of Hollywood cinema are revered both critically and commercially, with the eccentric American star Jeff Goldblum being one of these people. Appearing in classic movies such as Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park and David Cronenberg’s The Fly, Goldblum has also enjoyed frequent collaborations with Wes Anderson, bringing his unique brand of idiosyncratic humour to the table.
Having worked alongside some of the industry’s biggest names, Goldblum is a veteran of cinema who has carved out his own niche that doesn’t abide by the stereotypical Hollywood path to success. Whilst he made a name for himself in the 1980s, Goldblum has recently revived his star persona, appearing in the Marvel movie Thor: Ragnarok with Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett and Tom Hiddleston.
In a way, his career came full circle with this sci-fi adventure. Goldblum’s appearance in the classic 1978 movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers established his distinctive voice many decades ago. The movie should be considered one of the very best extraterrestrial films of all time.
Goldblum believed he developed his unique, distinctive delivery of dialogue throughout the production of the influential sci-fi, in which he staggers and stammers through lines in his own compelling way. Filming a small part in the film, in which he plays Jack Bellicec, an aspiring writer and friend of the protagonist Matthew (Donald Sutherland), the actor recalled a line in the script that read, ‘I never thought they would come in metal ships’.
Reading the line a little wrong, it came out as ‘I-I-I-I never thought they would come in … metal ships,’ but director Philip Kaufman liked the delivery, and Goldblum concluded that he had found his rhythm. Recently addressing the moment in his career during an interview with Nerdist, Goldblum stated of the film: “That’s kind of … I sort of … I think I found something”.
Based on the book from author Jack Finney, Kaufman’s film stars cult favourites Sutherland, Goldblum and Leonard Nemoy as a solitary group fighting against the invasion of strange cosmic seeds, turning the population into emotionless automatons. Equally enjoyably camp and eerily disturbing, Invasion of the Body Snatchers fits snugly into that groove. When cosmic horrors are so difficult to translate from page to film, screenwriter W.D. Richter evocatively brings the body snatchers to life, with some truly horrifying special effects and sound design to boot.
Often, the very best of sci-fi horror takes an outlandish, unfathomable cosmic horror and reigns the spectacle back toward earth, embedding the terror within a deeply humanistic story. Playing on social paranoia and fear of the ‘other’, Kaufman’s 1978 version of the old sci-fi tale is a perfect example of this, embedding horror within the intentions of an unknown evil.
