“I Jeff it up a little bit”: Jeff Goldblum explains his unique line delivery
Skirting the fine line between respected actor and rampant meme generator, anyone who hires modern-era Jeff Goldblum tends to know exactly what they’re getting when they bring the eccentric icon onto their production.
Of course, he wasn’t always a bohemian presence who captured imaginations with his incredibly specific way of constructing sentences and taking dramatic pauses at the most unexpected moments, but it’s long since reached a point that when people see Goldblum, they expect the version of Goldblum entrenched in pop culture.
His early work was hardly defined by his scattershot cadence and bespoke approach to syntax, but it’s pretty much an obligation these days. Michael Winner, Robert Altman, Woody Allen, David Cronenberg, Steven Spielberg, or Barry Levinson didn’t hire him with the intention of mining his memeable presence for all it’s worth, but times have changed.
That being said, Goldblum’s signature idiosyncrasies are tailor-made for Wes Anderson’s aesthetic, which is why they’ve been simpatico for so long across The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, and Asteroid City.
On the other hand, one of the major reasons why Goldblum was recruited for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok was to give it maximum Goldblum, and the same can be said of Netflix casting him as Zeus in the upcoming series Kaos, or the inspired decision to make him the Wizard of Oz in the two-part adaptation of Wicked.
In an interview with The Gentlemen’s Journal, the Academy Award and Primetime Emmy-nominated actor, filmmaker, jazz musician and travelogue host was asked why he speaks in the way that he does, and he offered an answer that was as illuminating as it was entirely unsurprising: “I Jeff it up a little bit.”
Pointing to the aforementioned superhero blockbuster as an example, Goldblum explained that he was instructed by Waititi to add even more Jeff. “In Thor, the director encouraged it, so I Jeffed it up,” he said. “And, you know, I’m sure a lot of it is wheat from the chaff. It’s chaff, you know?”
“It’s unusable and embarrassing but I trust they’ll find a nugget or two that might be usable,” he continued in full-on self-deprecation mode. “Hopefully they’ll stay away from the embarrassing parts and make me look a little better than I might otherwise be. So to answer your question? Because it’s fun.”
At this stage in his career – half a century on from his screen debut as ‘Freak #1’ in Charles Bronson’s classic revenge thriller Death Wish – Goldblum doesn’t need to prove himself to anybody. As a result, when he feels like the character he’s playing demands to be Jeffed up, then he’s going to Jeff it up until the cows come home.
