Jeff Goldblum on Morning Glory, The Fly at 25, and Not Being Dead

Even though it was a recent early Sunday morning when Jeff Goldblum spoke with Movieline, it was impossible to deny the energy coming from this man -- quite the contrast to last year's reports that he fell off a cliff and died while shooting a film somewhere in New Zealand. Not only is Goldblum still very much alive (or, if not, very talented at making you think otherwise), he's never actually ever been to New Zealand. Goldblum, alive and well, returns to theaters today in the new romantic comedy, Morning Glory.

Goldblum stars as Jerry Barnes, a New York network television executive who gives Becky Fuller her shot at producing Daybreak -- a fourth-place morning talk show on the brink of cancellation. Becky must then bring together contentious on-air personalities played by Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton in an effort to save the show. (See Movieline's full review here.) I spoke to Goldblum about Morning Glory and the Annie Hall reunion that takes place on screen, the upcoming 25th anniversary of The Fly (and strongly suggests that I don't have children because of that movie) and why he still gets weepy at the reports of his premature death.

Romantic comedy is an often-done genre -- and often done very poorly. I was surprised, but this movie is delightful.

That's delightful to hear! Yeah, I know what you're talking about. But I think it was nicely attended to, and the writing. And then Roger Michell -- who's a wonderful guy if you ever met him; very obviously smart -- did a terrific job. I always enjoyed Notting Hill myself.

Your character, Jerry -- how do you describe him? He seems like a nice enough guy at times, but other times he's kind of a jerk.

Well, kind of. I didn't think of him as jerky, really.

He goes the wrong way on the Central Park Reservoir. That's a jerk move.

Was that the wrong way?

In one scene he is going the correct way, but in another he's jogging against traffic like he owns the place.

You know, I didn't even know we were making that point or that point had even been made. If I was, I certainly didn't know it. I'm certainly a jerk, that's true, for not knowing. I wouldn't argue with that. But the character, I didn't think of him as any jerkier than me, certainly -- which may be plenty jerky. I thought of him, although he may be tough and severe at times, I think, generally, it's possessed of good will and a good nature. But I think, what interests me as much as anything, is that she seems ripe for this experience that we are going to see Becky go on to have. Because I think my character also, even though you don't see much of it, is also at a point where I'm ripe for that kind of experience and want to be included in it, too. How's that? Do you buy it?

I think so.

(Laughs) I like that idea. At least now, after I've said it.

I feel people should be making a bigger deal out of the Annie Hall reunion between you and Diane Keaton.

Exactly! Oh, exactly! Back together again! At last! Why isn't that on the one sheet? "Reunited!" I know, it would be, "As the camera passes, it passes by a guy on the phone as it's following Annie Hall." Can you imagine? I'm such a fan of hers; I think she's great. I was watching today, as a matter of fact, on my computer snippets again of Love and Death, one of my favorite movies. Do you know that movie?

I do. I was hoping, somewhere in Morning Glory, you were going to use the word "mantra."

(Laughs) "I forgot my mantra." That's right! I know, as homage to our reunion! I should have, good idea. It's not too late to loop it in for the DVD maybe.

Morning Glory is basically the 1977 Best Picture nominees reunion. Diane Keaton and you from Annie Hall and Harrison Ford from Star Wars.

You're so right! Maybe that was the beginning of this brainstorm that the studio had. "Let's do a movie, I don't know what it's about, but let's reunite these folks." Who knows? That's maybe the seeds of it. That's maybe how this started.

J.J. Abrams is the producer of Morning Glory. I feel he does well with female characters like on Felicity and Alias. How much was he involved?

Well, I was there only peripherally myself, but I would bet that he was quite involved. There was kind of an uncommon event at the beginning of this experience, at least for me, whereby we all sat down for a table reading of the script. And what was unusual -- Roger Michell I think cooked this all up -- where the whole cast, including everybody who had a line, a single line or two in it, were around this square table in a big empty room. So it was 30 people around a table and everyone involved in the production sat around ringside style. So there were 100 people in this room for this first reading. It was kind of festive. But I'm remembering because I was sitting next to J.J. Abrams.

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