J eff Goldblum is a family man. “This morning, I was working with River, the seven-year-old, on his daily routine,” the 71-year-old actor and musician tells me over Zoom, pointing to the electronic keyboard behind him. At the same time, his wife, Emilie, whom he married in 2014, was downstairs “working with” nine-year-old Charlie on the grand piano.
And before that, Goldblum spent an hour practising himself. Later, he exercised and made his sons breakfast. “Our Oura rings said we both got enough good sleep, even though we got up at 6am,” he adds, proudly pointing to the multicoloured hoop on his finger.
It’s a far more disciplined system than you might expect from a wayward talent such as Goldblum. Though inevitably there are eccentricities. Like the fact that he tells me all this while sitting in a room with a leopard-print carpet on the floor.
“This little guest house I’m in is getting a refurbishment, so the carpet may be on its way out,” he informs me. “I’ll send you a square if you like.” Make no bones about it: Goldblum is hardly your average arty California dad, let alone your average man.
Revered for his roles in classic films ranging from Jurassic Park and The Fly to Independence Day and The Grand Budapest Hotel , he’s one of the most legendary figures in Hollywood , with a career spanning five decades. Born in a Pittsburgh suburb in 1952, he trained in New York under the illustrious Sanford Meisner, founder of the Meisner technique, befor.