IMDb does not, alas, have a lot of information about Just Say Julie. Wikipedia has more, but not an episode list. TV.com . . . mentions that the show existed. So I don’t know when I first really noticed Jeff Goldblum. But he was on the show, you know, some time around when Earth Girls Are Easy came out, blatantly hyping the movie with Miss Julie Brown. (My preferred Julie Brown.) I may have seen something he’d been in by that point, though I don’t know for sure, but that was the first I really noticed him. Though I know I didn’t actually see Earth Girls Are Easy until it was released on video.
That was, however, right around the time he was shifting from Serious Actor, which I do think he was trying to be at the time, to America’s Quirky Uncle. He made a few weird ’80s comedies—his movie right before that was Vibes, with Cyndi Lauper—and then settled into being the odd guy in major films. Most people started noticing him, I think, with his role as Ian Malcolm. And I will cheerfully acknowledge that the reason I think Ian Malcolm is popular is not how the character is written but how the character is portrayed.
The sex symbol thing is considerably more recent, and I think he thinks it’s funny. He is, let’s be real, 66 years old. His career is about as old as my sister—my older sister. And somehow, in the last few years, the internet has decided that they desperately want to sleep with him. Everyone. The entire internet. I mean, I’m not saying I’d say no to him. I just think it’s weird that this has happened in the last few years, for the most part, when the shirtless images have been there all along.
There are some roles I’d love to see him take on. He’d be a perfect Discworld elf—tall and lean and otherworldly. I’m astounded to realize he’s never worked with the Coens; he feels as though he’d be perfect for their aesthetic. I’m surprised he hasn’t worked more with Spielberg, honestly; he could do well in some of the more interesting folds of history that Spielberg explores. And is the internet ready for a Herzog movie with Jeff Goldblum? Because I’m not sure I am!
He is also an accomplished jazz pianist who would have made his career in music if he hadn’t been a success as an actor. Because let’s add that to the mix, shall we? There is no one like Jeff Goldblum, and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to write about him. Probably something to do with my constant efforts to find people we weren’t all talking about. But sometimes, when I do that, I lose sight of what’s really important. And what’s really important?
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