Ian Malcolm's Sexy Pose In Jurassic Park Was Improvised By Jeff Goldblum
Thirty years ago, filmgoers witnessed a powerful image on the big screen in "Jurassic Park." Was it the moment when the Tyrannosaurus Rex escaped and ate a guy on the toilet? No, but that was great. Could it be when Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) saw living dinosaurs for the first time? Lovely, but uh-uh. Was it the first time we heard the velociraptors scream? Negative. No, friends, the magical moment was when we saw Jeff Goldblum, who played Dr. Ian Malcolm, recline on a table with his shirt open. Let me give you a moment to revel in your memories.
Whether you loved that scene with your entire heart or were really weirded out by it, the Goldblum-i-ness of that image has become a famous moment in film history. If there is any chance you missed this film (oh my God, go out and watch it right now, heathen), Dr. Malcolm is one of the people — along with paleobotanist Sattler and paleontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill) — called to determine the safety of Jurassic Park, a theme park created by John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), who had a team of scientists use ancient DNA to recreate living dinosaurs for our viewing pleasure. As you can imagine, it doesn't go well, other than the shirt moment.
Goldblum's open-shirt scene is so famous that it was immortalized in a 25-foot-tall statue in front of London's Tower Bridge in 2018. How did that famous lounging shot come about? Goldblum can't remember every bit of the process, but he does have a reason that it probably happened, according to a few interviews he's done.
'It wasn't in the script'
According to a 2022 interview with Vanity Fair, Goldblum revealed that his shirtlessness wasn't in the script. He said it "had nothing to do with my character. It had nothing to do with the movie. I don't know; it just happened."
His idea about why it happened came out of a 2022 interview on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon." Fallon was showing him a toy of that shirtless scene that came in his character's book from "Jurassic World Dominion" (he's also been a Funko Pop!) and asked how it all came about. The host wondered if director Steven Spielberg told him to open another button. Goldblum said:
"No, no. I don't remember how that happened, actually. It was 30 years ago ... Laura Dern — I was talking to her yesterday ... people have asked me, 'How did it happen?' Did I say, 'Steven, please, let me — as long as I'm here, you know, you don't want to miss this,' or did he say, 'Jeff, please, come on, let's see something?'
"No. I don't think those things happened. I think in the, you know, actorly way, I think my character — even though you see this thing on the leg [indicates bandages on his character on the toy]. My leg, of course, had some difficulty. I think I had an injury that is not depicted here. But in the movie, whether you see it below the screen or not, there's something going on there. If you can get some evidence for that, you know, that will be my story."
Open buttons, uh, find a way
Of course, Fallon gave him a hard time about the "injury," but Goldblum pointed out a tiny bit of blood on his abdomen as evidence. I mean, sure, Jeff. Just wanted to mention that neither that toy nor the Funko Pop have any blood there. It's cool, man. You can just tell us that you wanted to look sexy. I mean, it worked. The scene will live rent-free in our heads forever. On the very sad day, hopefully many, many years from now, when Earth is Goldblum-less, the tribute picture that will inevitably be on every front page and the scene that will be playing behind the newscasters will be a resplendent Jeff Goldblum with his shirt unbuttoned just too low to make anyone comfortable, glycerine sprayed on his chest, giving us all the Goldblum Gaze™.
Goldblum did ask for evidence of that injury, so movie sleuths, get ready. It's time to rewatch that scene a goodly number of times. I mean, for research purposes. Or science. Or ... something. Anyway, happy 30th anniversary to Jeff Goldblum's chest. Many happy returns!