GOLDBLUM Gee, I didn’t know you felt so strongly about me!
NEILL I found it kind of daunting, but the great thing about Jeff is he’s kind of a lovable dork as well. And so I fell in love with them both from day one.
How did your lives change when “Jurassic Park” became the highest-grossing movie ever made?
GOLDBLUM I’m not focused on the commerce of it all — I still consider myself a humble student of the creative endeavor — but I do remember that opening weekend was exciting. Sometimes I do big things that I think are conspicuous, and I’ll tell you, a week will go by, and it’s as if it never happened. I don’t get a single call. That often happens, you’d be surprised.
NEILL One day, Bruce Dern [Laura’s father] came around to my house to drop [her] off, and he took me aside and clapped me on the shoulder. He said, “Son, you know what? You’ve got a meal ticket for life here.” Now, maybe that’s right. I haven’t stopped working since.
DERN You hope that if a moment like this happens, your Richter scale doesn’t shift for how you measure what you want to do. I remember Jeff read a script and said, “This is what you should do after ‘Jurassic Park,’” and it was ‘Citizen Ruth.’ I could have gone back and done, like, the girl in the action movie, but it takes an amazing artist to say, “Don’t do the obvious thing. Do what you love, and be bold.”
GOLDBLUM Over the decades, it’s changed my life considerably. I’m a different person than I ever would’ve been for having worked on that first movie and with these guys specifically — I’m much, much enhanced. And all the people I anecdotally come across that have been moved, touched, delighted, entertained, and are excited about all things “Jurassic” — that’s a big deal.