WAMG Talks To JEFF GOLDBLUM: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

Welcome, beloved guest-to-be. Upon your check-in to THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL on Friday, you might meet a very important attorney that goes by the name of Deputy Kovacs, who is played by Jeff Goldblum in Wes Anderson’s new caper about friendship, honor, and promises fulfilled. This week, WAMG and a few members of the press sat down (in a roundtable discussion) with Goldblum to talk about the working with Anderson, upcoming projects, and memes. Check it out below!

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL recounts the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars; and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting; a raging battle for an enormous family fortune; a desperate chase on motorcycles, trains, sleds, and skis; and the sweetest confection of a love affair — all against the back-drop of a suddenly and dramatically changing Continent.

So, what’s it like being apart of the Wes Anderson World?

Jeff Goldblum: Fantastic. How long do we have?

15-20 minutes

Jeff Goldblum: We’ll get everything in. It’s fantastic. A real privilege. I’m very proud to be a part of this movie, and he’s a… I don’t have to reiterate, a very important and serious filmmaker and artist. What actor doesn’t want to be a part of that thing? And then him, particularly… he’s particularly a spectacular trip. He’s a great guy, and a real artist, and a real teacher. What’s it like? How would I know? Ten years ago. THE LIFE AQUATIC was when we met, and he’s always full of interesting guidance. He’s a style guide, and a travel guide, a location connoisseur. So, I think we went to some restaurant in New York, and we were put together, and he goes “Oh, well I like you” and I’m like “Wow! Really?” dah dah day… THE LIFE AQUATIC happened, and we stayed in touch over these 10 years, then I got an email that said “I’ve written this part, Deputy Kovacs”… It’s a big thrill, you know.

What’s it like? It’s very creative, you know, as you can see. I dig it. His aesthetic, in particular… the voice that he’s found, and had from the start in a brilliant way. I’m into it. It’s a beautiful thing. And then, you go on set and Adam Stockhausen, who’s here, the production designer – they collaborate, and he turns it into his vision. On that set, you’ve heard, is that department store in Görlitz that they turned into the hotel. It’s a great little installation and museum that you get to go, and I was kind of thrilled and knocked out by everything around me there… But, creatively, you get this script and it’s all rendered together beautifully. That document on it’s own is a beautiful thing. It’s beautifully put. He’s a wordsmith, and a literate blackbelt master. The story is gorgeous. And then, you get there, and I was doing that movie LE WEEK-END [mumbles] which opens a week after this [laughs]

Which you were amazing in?

Jeff Goldblum: Did you see that? I really liked that a lot. With Roger Michell, I loved… Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan… but, I was there shooting that when they were in pre-production. So, I went over as per his request, and I saw the building, the set in that place, and everyone getting ensconced in that department store in Milena Canonero (Costume Designer) and all of her Italian artists. He and I went over to that hotel that we were going to be at. He was already ensconced in that hotel, and we had a, kind of, rehearsal, and he had renderings – beautiful drawings – of all of the characters with your face on it, and his idea for the costume, and the look of it. I saw that. And then Milena Canonero and I got together. Her team pulled several things. We tried on overcoats, hats, dah dah day… There was a guy with trays of vintage glasses, and in fact, I found the exact one there, and I was like “I’ve gotta go back to LA, but before I do… I know some vintage eyeglass people, and maybe I can take a look for myself” and I found them! I found those glasses, and I sent him a picture, and he said “Those are the ones. Bring those” so, I contributed that a little bit. That’s very creative. Then, at the time we rehearsed so called – I don’t think he did this with many other people, and it’s not his usual way… I said “I’ve already worked on this. I world it out” and I showed him what I was doing through few scenes, and he said “Oh, that’s good. How about this? Try this.” and I said “This?” and dah dah dah… we talked about it, and we talked in actorly ways. I think he’s an actors director, one could say, even though he has this fully formed aesthetic conviction which you join up with.

The marrying of an actor, and his whimsical and theatrical vision is very enjoyable, because he wants it to be filled with something honest, truthful, human, soulful, substantial… etc. So, in this so-called rehearsal, we got together and I said, you know “What’s the backstory? How long had I been working for this family?”. I had an idea about that. I had ideas about this whole world that he created, and this situation, and then finally I saw in this little event, in this character, in this scene with Dmitri, with Adrien Brody. What I’m thinking is it’s right what’s under the surface, that I’m catching the conscience of Dmitri here by saying “I think there’s bad stuff afoot here, and maybe we should turn this all over to the authorities. What do you think?” and he reacts how I fear, and suspect might be the case, and he “Don’t… Just keep your mouth shut and go along”.

At that point, I think my character for the first time is at a crossroads, and in an eventful way with the political goings on, and the clouds, and a storm brewing in this continent in the world, and in this family I have to go “Which side am I aligned with? Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to join the war. I’m going to be a soldier. My whole life is going to change starting now.” Then, as the story goes, I’m a casualty early on, so that’s the story. We talked about that, and went over it. Then… this is all an answer to “What’s it like to work with Wes” [laughs]… Sorry I’m so yappy. This is still on the first question. The tape’s run out. This blowhard [laughs] but hopefully this will help you. Let’s see. So, what was I going to say? So then, we rehearsed, and when I came back, and got on set, we’re kind of standing… he’s kind of Altman-esqu – I’ve worked with Robert Altman, and he’s making the shooting itself, the process an art piece – of its own. And the communal family, one of the themes in many of his movies, which he really enjoys.  Kind of a beautiful experience. And it was. And a creative experience and a focused one. A blissful creative experience.

He’s the head chef in that feast and then you go to the thing and the actors, he designed it so the actors aren’t going back to traditional style trailers and da da da da da… instead you have a chef coming to make us dinner every night. So it’s really more like a troupe and family, than some of these movies. Some of these movies sometimes are. And he intends it that way, and then you hang around the set and watch him working and other people working, which is good. So finally when you get to your stuff… and he did a lot of takes on this movie, as you’ve probably heard, but in a way that’s very beautiful, and creative and enjoyable… and it’s the last chance you get to visit with this thing and make the raw material from which they come from. So it’s a great little sculpting collaboration of him going, “ok there’s that, how about another one about this for this section and ‘do that’ and ‘do that here’ and ‘ok try that and another one like that’ etc.” So it’s kind of like that, you get the idea?

It’s a very unique… you should never say very unique, that’s redundant…  so it’s unique and very beautiful. AND! Oh I know something you may have been interested in, but haven’t heard – In a room, that’s communal in the hotel, he’s got not only books of research of old hotels and stuff like that, but a stack of movies. Along with the Stefan Zweig novels that he talks about, but he had a stack of movies that he said were the inspiration for what we were doing here. And I had never seen, ashamedly, GRAND HOTEL, TO BE OR NOT TO BE, THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER, THE MORTAL STORM, Bergman’s THE SILENCE, which takes surreal events surrounding a hotel. So you see it was all very educational and I liked that.

And then he made an animatic, and in our little section that he showed me early on in that rehearsal, pre-production thing, the section where Willem Dafoe is chasing me around the museum before he kills me, he said that this is taken from Hitchcock’s TORN CURTAIN. There’s a section where Paul Newman is being silently chased around, stalked, in this museum. So all of that, it helped terrifically. It’s like I say, very actorly. Even though you hear his voice do all the parts in the animatic, its creatively enflaming and actorly to try and bring yourself to and marry something from you with that vision.

Sounds like a great experience, was there any challenge to that?

Jeff Goldblum: Well, I like the challenge, I like a good, meaty experience for me. The challenge was to do what he needs and make it as good as he wants and as good as it can be. An opportunity like that is challenging and it makes you alert. A fellow like me trying to do your best and everyone else is kind of in that vain too. What else is challenging? Yeah, All the aspects of how this thing can work to try and skin the cat and hit the bulls eye, is it challenging to me? Yeah and I don’t do it lightly. He’s passionately devoting himself to the whole thing and I’m nothing if not conscientious, I must say, so I won’t bore you with it, but I’m going at it with everything I can and then the story off the character, to really get that is pretty good. That’s good. It’s not to fall short of it, but the idea is similar to something like Brandon in On the Waterfront. You know, I’ve been going along with this family, and now I’ve come to a point when I better decide where my bread’s buttered. And geez, I like that, it’s a big idea.

And like somebody said, his movies are full of real and big ideas, if you’re receptive to it of course. Outside there’s this frosting on the cake that’s glorious and trippy, but on the inside it’s like a meat cake like someone said.  So inside you get a nice helping of protein and grilled meats. [laughs]

How much room do you have to bring to the character yourself?

Jeff Goldblum: I like little collaborations where the other thing happens, where it’s half-baked or its improvised and let’s develop it together and what do you want to wear, do you have an idea – all that. That’s fun to and I like that, but it doesn’t take anything away in fact its, for me, enflaming, like I say, and creatively inspiring to have somebody… that’s great. You wanna be in a movie where your part works. That’s the main thing. No matter how you beat yourself working on the thing, if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work, and that’s not up to you, so it’s great when it doesn’t depend on you and leap onto something that you know, “Hey here’s a team and here’s a thing that’s gonna work, and I gotta idea and he’s gotta idea and it’s gonna work together in a way that people haven’t seen you yet,” and that’s all delicious. If his tastes were different, if I didn’t dig his tastes, then that would be something else, but to jump on board something that’s… where you fill in something that’s already been done that ‘s delightful is really good… and then how do I describe… he’s not in any way… tight, constricted in his way of using you. He’s  not only meticulous and full-blown and know what he wants, with a lot of passion and conviction. But he’s somehow, simultaneously free-spirited and loves actors and trusts you, appreciating you, but trusts you, and needs you to bring everything to it. Let’s talk about what I’m thinking and feeling underneath and putting it all out, detailing all of that stuff, finding the glasses and all that, but it really feels like a responsible adult, actorly, creative way to meet what he’s done.

Is part of the fun also working with a terrific cast?

Jeff Goldblum: Oh yeah, and as I was saying, he wants this kind of experience, so we were all staying in the same hotel. Oh yeah, Edward Norton is a sort of fountain of wisdom and information, I’m always interested in craft and I kind of was interested to see how people work and for me it’s a little like lessons at school. Ralph Fiennes was there the whole time I was there. I was there for about 6 weeks, shooting finally and watching him work, talking to him about all sorts of things that I wanted to ask him about. Tilda Swinton I’ve never met, but she’s exquisite and it was great to meet her and talk with her. Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson, great to be around and to make something with them.  What a cast.

Do you know of the internet fame you have? Recent memes and videos…

Jeff Goldblum: Fine with me. It’s okay. I don’t really look for it. People send me a thing or two and that’s okay.  I’m sure it will come and go.

When did you get the e-mail for the part and did you start working write away?

Jeff Goldblum: I should have written down the timeline exactly, but it was like a couple of months before I shot LE WEEK-END and before I had the experience in pre-production. So I worked on it for a month or two, so I had learned all my lines and it was enough time to learn my lines and to work on and get ideas about it. And then I shot LE WEEK-END and visited Gerlitz, and had the experience of the thing, and then it was another month I think that I went back to LA and found those glasses… worked on things more and came back. So something like that.

What’s coming up next?

Jeff Goldblum: LE WEEK-END. I did this play at Lincoln Center, ‘Domesticated’ by Bruce Norris, won the Pulitzer last year, interesting stuff.  Shot a part in this movie called MORDECAIwith Johnny Depp, Ewan McGreggor, and Paul Bettany, and Gwyneth Paltrow. It’s by David Koepp, who wrote the screenplay for Jurassic Park. Then I went to Berlin and then New York, and now I’m here and I do Conan tomorrow and Craig Ferguson next week. Tomorrow night I play Jazz at Rockwell in Los Feliz. All the rest of the Wednesdays this month I’m playing. I also have a gig at Santa Anita, the horse race, where I’ve never been, for a few hours on Sunday.

Fox Searchlight Pictures in association with Indian Paintbrush and Studio Babelsberg present, an American Empirical Picture, THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, directed and written by Wes Anderson and story by Anderson & Hugo Guinness. The film stars Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jude Law, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson and Owen Wilson.

The creative team includes producers Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales and Jeremy Dawson, executive producers Molly Cooper, Charlie Woebcken, Christoph Fisser and Henning Molfenter, co-producer Jane Frazer, director of photography Robert Yeoman, A.S.C., production designer Adam Stockhausen, editor Barney Pilling, music supervisor Randall Poster, original music by Alexandre Desplat, associate producer Octavia Peissel and co-producer for Scott Rudin Productions Eli Bush.

FOR MORE INFO: 

Website: http://www.grandbudapesthotel.com

AKADEMIE ZUBROWKA WEBSITE: http://www.akademiezubrowka.com/

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL OPENS IN SELECT THEATERS ON FRIDAY, MARCH 7