Monday, January 24, 2011

Now playing! Jeff Goldblum as HIMSELF






I love this guy. I don't care what he's doing, I want to watch him. An old friend and I would watch his movies obsessively! Usually we watch actors and think they're great for how well they do their job at acting, right? We comment on how so-and-so is a chameleon or what's-her-name became her character. That's what actors do of course, right? An actor is a person that pretends to be someone else, someone different. They may speak differently. Walk differently. Have different mannerisms. They may even alter their physical appearance. Not this guy. Jeff Goldblum is always Jeff frickin Goldblum. Ya sure they give his character a name and a back story that's different from his own but it's just Jeff up there on the screen. Jeff as an alien. Jeff running around with dinosaurs. Jeff fighting aliens. Jeff as a human fly. Jeff as a teacher. They all have the same speech patterns. The same hand gestures. The same facial expressions. Is he even capable of being anyone other than himself? Would any of us care? I know I wouldn't. And kudos to Mr. Goldblum for making a career for himself by just being himself! He never has to worry about historical relevance or accents. He just has to learn his lines. I imagine that you can interchange his 'characters' with any other 'character' in any number of his films like puzzle pieces. So you could take the Jeff from "Transylvania 6-5000" and plunk him into "Mr. Frost" and take that Jeff and put him into "The Fly" and then take that Jeff and put him into "Jurassic Park". It would be fine. They all work the same. He's kinda like that sheep Dolly. You know, the cloned one. One of his latest projects is a movie called "The Switch". Just came out of DVD. One of these days I'll rent and enjoy watching Jeff deliver his news lines, to new people, in new settings, while wearing new clothes. But the character won't be new. Because it's just Jeff. Since 1952.

Here's what I call 'Being Jeff Goldblum'.....


This movie is "The Tall Guy". A quirky British comedy. Note the Jeff-ness...

And an Apple commercial...


A childhood story...





"Transylvania 6-5000" Pure stupid hilarity


Same Jeff time. Same Jeff channel.

3 comments:

  1. He is likeable--and quite strangely attractive!

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  2. I never really thought about it before, but you're TOTALLY right!!! He is consistently just HIMSELF. And for whatever reason, it works. One of my favourite scenes is in POWDER when he talks to him and touches his head.
    And I LOVE THE FLY movie!! so good.

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