Actor Jeff Goldblum walked into our studios looking dapper as can be and was as charming and quirky as you would expect.
For years I’ve been hearing about a weekly jazz residency he does here in LA, so I knew he enjoyed tickling the ivories — so much so, in fact, that when he spotted the famed piano in our performance space, he couldn’t help but serenade us with some standards and seemed incredibly happy doing so.
We learned some interesting tidbits about his life during his Guest DJ set:
- He wakes up to Miles Davis’ My Funny Valentine instead of an alarm. (He describes the musician as “soulful and sad and conversational and unexpected and human”)
- When he was a teenager, used to call around to cocktail lounges in Pittsburgh and get gigs as a pianist.
- He always knew he wanted to be an actor: “When I discovered this acting thing I was set on it and obsessed with it. In fact, every morning I would take a shower and the shower door would steam up and I would write, “Please God, let me be an actor.” But then it was still secret. It had been a secret for many years at that point and I would wipe it off before I got out of the shower, still not telling anybody.”
- Charles Wright’s “Express Yourself” was “a kind of a mantra, credo, landmark of what I was trying to pursue in this so called creative endeavor.”
Twenty years after he saved the planet from alien invaders in Independence Day, he will be reprising his role as David Levinson in July 24’s Independence Day: Resurgence.
Also, you might just find him playing piano in a hotel near you, as he likes to work on his chops no matter where in the world he is!
RR