Jeff Goldblum reveals that Steven Spielberg almost cut his character Ian Malcolm from the original Jurassic Park. Goldblum boasts over 130 acting credits, but arguably his most famous role is that of the smooth-talking, sometimes-shirtless scientist from Spielberg’s blockbuster 1993 adaption of Michael Crichton’s sci-fi novel about disaster at a dinosaur theme park.
Indeed movie fans’ love of Goldblum’s Jurassic Park character only seems to have grown over time, with help from the internet which has made endless memes centered on Malcolm and his famous moments from the original film. Of course there’s no Malcolm moment more famous than the one where he appears with his shirt unbuttoned and his chest bared, a scene so iconic that it was even for a time commemorated with a statue in London. And thanks to the arrival of the Jurassic World franchise, Goldblum has been able to bring a shirt-wearing Malcolm back to movie screens, first in 2018’s Fallen Kingdom and again soon in 2022’s Jurassic World: Dominion.
As it turns out all that Ian Malcolm history and future almost didn’t get a chance to happen. Speaking to GQ about his most iconic roles, Goldblum talked about going in to meet Spielberg about the Jurassic Park job and finding out that Ian Malcolm was actually on the chopping block:
At that first meeting, [Spielberg] said, "Hey, you know, I wanted to meet you. You know, I've enjoyed what you've done. There's a current consensus and a faction, at least, in my group here, that thinks that the script should develop a little, and we may take your character out of it. And put that character that was in the book, Malcolm, and kind of meld it into the Grant character. So, you know, it's kind of one guy." I was, well, "Ooh, really?" [laughs] I've made a little pitch, you know, in my way, all off the top of my head. "I think you might enjoy having that character there, because- or I, you know, I'd be remiss before I left, if I didn't say that, I think, you know, you want somebody to-" whatever I said, you know. Not that that swayed him in any way, but luckily it wound up in the movie.
Indeed it was very lucky for Goldblum and movie fans that Malcolm ultimately wound up in Jurassic Park as he added some much-needed personality and quirkiness to what otherwise might have been a somewhat dry and straightforward sci-fi thriller. At the same time, it’s easy to understand the reasoning behind wanting to excise Malcolm from the script and give some of his characteristics to Sam Neill’s Grant, just for the purposes of streamlining things. Again, thankfully Spielberg and company saw the value of not only keeping Malcolm in the story but also hiring Goldblum to bring him to life.
It’s actually sad to think of how movie and internet meme history would be different had Ian Malcolm not appeared in Jurassic Park and Goldblum not played the character. And obviously, Malcolm isn’t done making his mark as he’ll be back in Jurassic World: Dominion in what is said to be a substantial role. There are some who might argue of course that bringing back Goldblum, Neill and Laura Dern for Dominion and giving them big roles is a bit of a cop out by producers who don’t think the new movie can stand on its own without these Jurassic Park legacy players being included. But it’s hard to complain about getting to see Goldblum back as arguably his most iconic character, once again creating meme-worthy moments.
Source: GQ/YouTube
