Jeff Goldblum has always been one to take risks, so it’s no surprise when he opens his wardrobe, and his wonderfully eccentric mind, for his ultimate guide to all things style. The actor and musician reflects on his boldest fashion moments, recalls closing Prada’s runway show, and shares the stories behind his signature Cartier watch and cherished wedding ring. Watch as Town & Country’s cover star revisits that unforgettable ‘Jurassic Park’ scene, the night he met Princess Diana, and the wizard-worthy ensembles he wore to celebrate ‘Wicked.’
00:00Hello, my name is Jeff Goldblum, and this is my town and country guide to style.
00:06I'll be your guide.
00:10What are your signature fashion staples?
00:12Hey, good question. I did not prepare myself for that.
00:14What would be my signature fashion staple?
00:18If it were a snake, it would have bit me.
00:21There's my Cartier watch that I like a lot.
00:24It's a little tank watch that I invested in a couple years ago, a few years ago.
00:27It's my go-to watch right now, so if that's, if I understand this staple business, I think that's a staple.
00:33It has nothing to do with the staple singers or the staple center, but this is a staple of my order.
00:39Also, of course, my wedding ring.
00:41I cherish. I'm only taking it off to look at it again myself.
00:45Emily Goldblum. I met her 14 years ago.
00:49I put a ring on it, it being her lovely finger.
00:53Lovelier digits, more symmetrical than I've ever seen on another human being.
00:56Anyway, we exchanged rings.
00:58My spectacles, of course, I'm thinking.
01:01I actually need them.
01:02I'm a little myopic, so I need them, you know, to drive and this and that.
01:06But I can act with them.
01:07If I had to act on the set or something, I wouldn't read a teleprompter without them.
01:11And these particular glasses, by the way, not that you asked, are the Jeff frames from Jacques-Marie Maje.
01:17We've collaborated with them, and I was honored to be asked to have a frame named after me.
01:23And that's our Jeff frame.
01:24It comes in several flavors, you know.
01:25This is my actual go-to.
01:27This is what I would have worn today had I not even known that we were having this date.
01:31Hey, this is already more fun than I thought.
01:32What's the biggest fashion risk you've taken that turned out to be a success?
01:39These are all very good.
01:40I didn't expect these.
01:41Well, success, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.
01:44Everybody's got an opinion.
01:45It's not science, which I highly esteem.
01:47I've played a couple of scientists.
01:48But this is not empirically data-driven.
01:54It's, you know, a matter of taste, of course.
01:56But, you know, reviews will come in, you know, for this and that.
02:00And thanks to Andrew Votero, some of these more conspicuous outfits where I've had to go on stage and do our jazz gigs or be on a carpet of some kind, you know, and get our picture taken there and be at an event like the Met Gala.
02:15What else?
02:16You know, early on, when left to my own devices, I was prone to taking risks.
02:22Now that I'm yapping about, feel free to cut me off whenever you want to, if it's too much fun.
02:28My mother for Halloween, because that's everybody's chance to take some risks and dress up.
02:33She dressed me up in fourth grade.
02:35What was I?
02:36You had five years.
02:37What was I?
02:38Nine.
02:38Nine.
02:39The day we were asked to wear our costumes to school.
02:42It was her idea, I do believe, to dress me up as a witch.
02:46Hey, this is sort of not unrelated to my current witch connection with, you know, Wicked and all that stuff.
02:51She dressed me up as a witch in full kind of drag, as a matter of fact.
02:55She put on one of her brassieres and stuffed it.
02:57I had a long, crinley kind of skirt and some high-heeled shoes and a wig and a ghouls, a white ghouls mask and some gloves with some long fingernails, painted fingernails and a witchy hat.
03:10I dug it.
03:11Anyway, that's enough of chatter about that.
03:14Risks and successes and fanatics.
03:15You closed Prada's 2022 fall-winter show.
03:21How did that collaboration come to be?
03:23Yeah, it's one of the highlights of my life.
03:25I was on the runway with Kyle MacLachlan and several other very beautiful models of every stripe.
03:31Andrew Vitero has transformed my style approach.
03:35About 10 years ago, I met him.
03:36Who's that slamming the door?
03:38Did you hear that door slam?
03:39Now you can see that and hear that you can include the door slam because somebody, in fact, just slammed a door.
03:44I hate when they do that.
03:45Lose their temper.
03:46Hey, what's that song?
03:47Doors and doors and fa-fa-fa.
03:50I talk about the right out loud.
03:53I think that's Joni Mitchell.
03:54Is that Joni Mitchell?
03:55Oh, oh, the Prada runway show.
03:57Yes.
03:57So, Andrew Vitero, 10 years ago, we started to collaborate on all sorts of things.
04:03He's just terrific.
04:04He said, you know, Prada, if I could connect you with anybody, that might be healthy and fun and nutritious and really, really creative because it's great and she's great.
04:15Anyway, so they asked me to be in that fashion show, which was really a thrill.
04:21And I have pictures in my house right now, you know, that I got from that that are framed here and there that my wife has in her office.
04:31Okay, talk to me about your love for trench coats.
04:33Trench coats.
04:34I wore a trench coat today.
04:35We're here, you know, I don't know if you know on the, well, it's probably related.
04:38You know, we're here doing town and country, the wonderful people in town and country.
04:41And we took some pictures.
04:43Anyway, yeah, I wore a trench coat today.
04:44I have a, I think it's a Celine classic khaki double-breasted trench coat that is stylishly slim.
04:54I've worn that and had some other pictures taken of me in that.
04:58But then I got another one made by somebody else that's kind of stylishly floppy and oversized.
05:05I've gotten a big kick out of wearing that.
05:08But then Prada, for one thing or another, I believe gifted me with a black trench coat that I'm wild about, that I cherish, that's sitting right there.
05:22And let's stop there.
05:23I don't want to paint myself as a too luxurious a character.
05:30How involved are you typically in your character's wardrobe?
05:33I've worked, like I say, with some great costume designers.
05:37For instance, let's take Milena Cananero.
05:39I wasn't involved really at all.
05:41I lend myself and I, and they put something on me and I start to play the character and start to move like the character.
05:49And so they see me do that.
05:50So that's a little bit of a collaboration.
05:52How'd the iconic Jurassic Park shirtless scene come to be?
05:55Was that your idea?
05:56I've been asked that before.
05:57How am I, how am I shirtless?
05:59Or it wasn't really shirtless.
06:00It's a little bit decolletage.
06:02Is that the right word?
06:03Maybe so.
06:04Where a button or two is unwisely undone.
06:09I remember that one day we were doing that scene with the great Richard Attenborough.
06:13I think at the last minute, I can't tell you as I sit here whether it was me or Steven Spielberg.
06:18I don't think it was him who said, Jeff, Jeff.
06:20A little bit more.
06:22I don't think he did that.
06:24Nor do I think that I went, I know what I'm going to do.
06:26Hey, I hope nobody notices.
06:28I don't think it was anything like that.
06:29It just happened, you know, we were trying to seriously fulfill the needs of the story and the character.
06:36So I don't know.
06:36I don't know how it happened.
06:40How has your red carpet style changed from your first premiere for Jurassic Park to now?
06:44Wow.
06:45You say there was a premiere?
06:46Yes, I remember some for Jurassic Park in 1993.
06:51We went to London where we had, I think it was the Natural History Museum.
06:57There we had a showing that Lady Diana attended.
07:02Oh, I remember what I wore for that.
07:03His pictures were taken.
07:04And Sam Neill and Mr. Steven Spielberg and, you know, Laura Dern.
07:08We were there.
07:09And I remember the princess was one seat over for me.
07:15And I met her.
07:16And it was thrilling.
07:18And, you know, I watched her seeming to enjoy the movie.
07:20And that was great.
07:21How has your approach to red carpet fashion changed over the years?
07:27Well, this last, as we sit here, I don't know when you're consuming this, but, but this, the first Wicked Movie came out, you know, last November.
07:34It's now 2025.
07:35And the next one of this year, 2025, perhaps you're interested in what I wore last year.
07:40Well, that was as I knew those ladies were going to be dressed up and Jonathan Bailey and Michelle Yeoh.
07:46And I think we thought I should show myself off.
07:48And we had a bunch of things that sort of were wizard adjacent.
07:53You know, they had some green or grand elements to them.
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