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Jeff Goldblumhas been changed, truly, for good.
The star of such masterpieces asThe Fly,Between the Lines, andDeep Coverrecently reflected on his role in the first big screen adaptation ofWicked, the musical pulled from the pages of L. Frank Baum that set Broadway afire in the early 2000s.
"I'm lucky. It's uncommon that you get to be doing this over a period of time and get more fertile, and juicy, and interesting, and relevant roles for yourself," he shared on Monday's episode of the British chat showThis Morning.
Goldblum began to count the ways thatWickedand its upcoming sequel,Wicked: For Good, were particularly lucky experiences.
"Working with Jon Chu — amazing. It's changed me. You know, after doing this movie — we talked about the animal cruelty — I stopped eating meat and poultry."
Goldblum joked that "this Christmas and Thanksgiving, I may be having another, something else."
Exercising some of that unique Goldblum charm of being able to thread comic and poignant needles simultaneously, the actor shared, "We need the world to work for everybody on Earth and every creature too."
They're words you'd never catch coming out of the mouth of his character inWicked: the Wonderful Wizard of Oz himself.
In the 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire that writer Winnie Holzman and composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz adapted into the 2003 stage musical, the Wizard is transformed from the blustery tyrant who ultimately softens to the plight of the wayward Kansan Dorothy Gale. InWicked, he's full tyrant, and the evil schemes he perpetrates with the help of the cruel Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeohin the films) are unforgivable.
One of the musical's dual protagonists, the libelously branded Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo), discovers that the Wizard and Morrible have connived to suppress the speaking powers of the realm's animal denizens, subordinating them back into a state of beastly helplessness.
"Something bad is happening in Oz," Elphaba sings in one of the first Act's darker numbers.
Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures
Goldblum has clearly taken one of the key, but often under-sung, lessons ofWickedto heart: Love your animal neighbors like they were your own.
As for the Wizard and Morrible's treachery, Goldblum and Yeoh have an... interesting theory on what might motivate their criminal collab.
"We met a while ago," Goldblum postulated toEntertainment Weeklyin March. "The question is, when did I float in? How many years ago during this drought, which had something to do with this animal business? And what happened between us with that [animal] business, and how close were we?"
The actor thinks the characters "may have been deeply close to each other," but teasing the forthcoming conclusion, he hints, "and as we see us now, we're veering apart."
Read the original article onEntertainment Weekly
