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

Next year is the 25th anniversary of The Fly. Any plans for something special?

I know. I like it, it's David Cronenberg -- wonderful director. I don't know what they're going to do. Someone was asking me yesterday about that opera, which I never saw, but I know David Cronenberg was involved in that. I'd have liked to have seen that opera.

That movie, to this day, still disturbs me.

I know. I'm sorry. Oh, where she's giving birth to a larva?

Yes.

A big pupa larva?

I don't like that scene. I mean, I like it... but I don't like it.

Oh, sure. I understand completely. Do you have kids yourself?

I do not.

For that reason?

Maybe you've just figured something out here. Maybe I just can't face that happening, no matter how remote the possibility.

(Laughs) Even if there's a slim possibility. Who knows what percentage of a chance? Don't take the risk. I agree.

Last year, when did you first read that you weren't dead?

(Laughs) That I wasn't? I'm still trying to determine what's going on. No, I was sitting at home in L.A. and my publicist called me up and said, "Oh, you're there. Thank goodness. I don't know how to tell you this but it has been reported that you died, that you were in New Zealand. I said, "No, I've never even been to New Zealand." He said, "You were in a movie and fell off of a cliff and it's been picked up by several legitimate broadcasters and organizations, so it's spreading widely and quickly." So I went about calling people like my mom after she'd found out, "Oh, geez, you're here! Golly!" So it was trippy. Remember that movie Gigot?

I know what it is, I've never seen it.

With Jackie Gleason, I saw it when I was a kid. It was the first movie I ever remember getting weepy at. Getting moved by. Of course, he's a poor soul, a town misfit who the town thinks has died. And he hasn't and he peeks behind a tree at his own funeral when they decided how much they care for him. And he starts weeping. I was in the theater; I was, I don't know, eight, and I found myself getting unexpectedly weepy.

You got to do the same thing. You got to see what the press said about you before you died. People were saying nice things.

I know! You know Stephen Covey's book? The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? One of the character exercises that might be fruitful is to imagine what you'd like your best friend to say or what the people you work with would say at your funeral. You know, live your life so that comes about where people are saying that. Then they played that thing on Colbert after they made a funny skit out of it. Then they played the... It was like the CNN of Australia or something. They say, "Oh, yes, it's just come down the wire that he's died. It's true. He was a nice fella, everyone said that he was a good guy." (Laughs) I still get a little emotional when I hear it.

You went into episodic television with Raines and Law and Order. What's tougher: When a movie doesn't perform as expected or a television show is canceled?

Huh. Well, whether it's just rationalizing in some way, I usually don't think of it as anything that doesn't work out. I think everything has occurred somehow perfectly. And my nervous system and psyche seem to follow suit. I can't tell you a project off the top of my head where I go, "Gosh, I'm still grieving." Everything seems to have played itself out in the perfect amount of time. I just did 100 performances of Prisoner of Second Avenue on the West End with Kevin Spacey. I loved it, but at the end I was like, "Geeze, 100, I don't know if I could do 101." Not because it ended prematurely, but because I just have some unexpected residue of creative verve and appetite in me since then. So I'm sort of still working on it in my backyard with some friends of mine.

You should charge admission for that.

Yeah! I like this little production that I'm doing in this intimate way in my guesthouse. I've moved around the furniture and set it up exactly how I want it. I've purchased some costumes specifically for that and gotten some props. When I get back from New York I'm going to see a whole box of props that are ready to go. Yeah, I'm ready to do it; I think it's going to be fun.

[Top photo: Steve Mack/FilmMagic]

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