The story of how Jeff Goldblum almost missed out on ‘Jurassic Park’: “We may take your character out of it”
(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Tue 7 October 2025 14:15, UK
Imagine your favourite cheeseburger without any cheese, the sight of an empty bedroom at the end of a long day, or the 1993 rise of Jurassic Park without Jeff Goldblum: Nightmare fuel, the lot of them.
That last scenario nearly came to pass as director Steven Spielberg and team freestyled on the script of what would become the highest-grossing dino romp, and film in general, in cinema history, even as filming had commenced. Thankfully, Goldblum fought his corner and not only did we get one of the most thrilling monster movies ever, but we were also treated to the sight of Goldblum laconically pouring scorn over the idea of dinosaurs being brought back to life with a shirt opened all the way to the waist, alongwith the lines “Life…uh…finds a way” and “That’s one big pile of shit”.
Before we hear from Goldblum on his narrow escape, let’s examine just what magic he brings to that film, and why his character is absolutely integral. Ian Malcolm, the sexy scientist brought along to the expedition to the dinosaur island, provides the essential link between us as the audience and the likes of Richard Attenborough’s park creator, John Hammond. Goldblum’s mathematician is the one grounded person, rightly asking, “Did anyone stop to think whether this was a good idea or not?”
Based on a mix of a science historian and a French mathematician, Goldblum’s character not only proved so popular with audiences that he was made the lead role in the follow up movie The Lost World, but it also reignited the Pittsburgh-born actor’s career in a transformational way, almost ten years after he had starred in the cult David Cronenberg body horror The Fly.
However, things could have been very different had Goldblum not managed to talk Spielberg out of axing the character altogether. The actor revealed to GQ: “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’.”
Goldblum, aware of what he could bring to the film and already thinking of the effect what he had in mind for the character would have on wider audiences, rebutted, “I was, well, ‘Ooh, really?… 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’,… You know, I’d be remiss before I left, if I didn’t say that, I think… Whatever I said, you know, not that that swayed him in any way, but luckily it wound up in the movie.”
The 1997 sequel was always going to struggle to match up to the first film, but in no small part to Goldblum, it still proved to be a massive hit at the box office, bringing in over $600m, although even Spielberg himself expressed disappointment with it. It wasn’t enough to stop the whimsical actor reprising his role in two more franchise movies, this time with the 2018 reboot Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and then Jurassic World Dominion in 2022.
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