Jeff Goldblum’s extensive acting career has found him in some of the most successful films of his time. Jurassic Park, Independence Day, The Fly, and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou are only a few of his film credits, and yet, somehow, he has also managed to cultivate another career, as an accomplished jazz pianist with his band, the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. This week, Goldblum returns to cinemas around the country to reprise his role as Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic World: Dominion. On the occasion, he shares his key components to the good life, many of which are rather cinematic. —Ashley Baker
Airline: The teleportation pod, as seen in The Fly.
Airport: Mexico City International Airport, my most recent encounter—full of wonder and joy.
Alibi: The unvarnished truth.
App: The one around which I’ve most recently transformed my addiction.
Bedtime: Whenever my body tells me that it needs sleep—and I’ve got my favorite firm pillow.
Bike: The one I rode in Robert Altman’s Nashville.
Birthday: One with a bounce house.
Boyfriend/girlfriend: The one referred to in the song “My Boyfriend’s Back.”
Breakfast, weekday: Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions.
Breakfast, weekend: Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Car: My Mother the Car, starring Jerry Van Dyke—if she was electric.
Child: Thad Jones’s “A Child Is Born,” played by Bill Evans or sung by Tony Bennett.
Cocktail: A Virgin Mary, spicy with plenty of horseradish.
Cocktail appetizer: Pigs in a blanket.
Couple: Oscar and Felix.
Date: Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint on the train in North by Northwest.
Diet: Eating whatever you want in Defending Your Life.
Dinner, weekday: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
Dinner, weekend: My Dinner with Andre.
Disguise: Green false whiskers, as described by P. G. Wodehouse.
Enemy: The movie directed by Denis Villeneuve.
Escape: The Great Escape.
Excuse: The one that remains unspoken, offering instead “I promise never to ______ again.”
Family: Willy, Linda, Biff, Happy.
First Lady/First Man: Michelle Obama/Neil Armstrong.
Friend: Bob Friend, a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1951 to 1965; Johnny Friendly (On the Waterfront); and Lisa Kudrow.
Good-bye: The Long Goodbye, by Robert Altman.
Hideaway: Hernando’s.
Hotel: The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Indulgence: The kind of rationalization that I mention in The Big Chill.
Insult: “So’s yer old man!”
Jacket: Full Metal Jacket, or anything directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Kiss-off: “Later for you!”
Last Meal: The sip of rum that has never been tasted (Chaplin as Verdoux).
Lunch, weekday: The one in Jurassic Park where Hammond serves sea bass.
Lunch, weekend: A sandwich.
Match: Match Game, with Gene Rayburn, from 1962 to 1969.
Movies: The Rules of the Game, Tokyo Story, Citizen Kane, The Godfather, There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men.
Names: Puddin Tane and Charlie Brown.
Neighbor: Jack Lemmon in Good Neighbor Sam.
Nonfiction book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari.
Novel: The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Pants: Clamdiggers or culottes.
Pet: “Teacher’s Pet,” as sung in Waiting for Guffman.
Piece of advice: “Put away your device before crossing the street.”
Podcast: Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.
President: Bill Pullman in Independence Day.
Saying: George Bernard Shaw’s “This is the true joy in life … ”
Second spouse: Yoko Ono.
SHOES: Gregory Hines’s tap shoes.
Singer: Aretha Franklin.
Spouse: Emilie Goldblum.
Television series: Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, Cosmos, and New York: A Documentary Film, by Ric Burns.
Theme song to your life: “All You Need Is Love”; also, “I’m an Old Cowhand.”
Time of day: Now.
Toast: “L’chaim!”
Victim: Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo.
View: Bird’s-eye.
Wake-up time: Now. As Arthur Miller wrote, “The world is your oyster, but you don’t crack it open on a mattress.”
Work of art: Anything by my sister, Pam Goldblum.
WRITING IMPLEMENT: One of the ones that I swiped in grade school that now reminds me never to steal.
Jeff’s Essentials
