Nearly thirty years after Jurassic Park stomped its way into theatres, a couple of scenes, thanks to the Internet, have become part of the pop culture iconography. There’s Wayne Knight’s “See? Nobody Cares.” There’s “Clever Girl.” There’s also the scene where Jeff Goldblum poses with a bare chest after his character, Dr. Ian Malcolm, has been injured by a T-Rex. The pose is what Jeff’s costar, Sam Neill, refers to as “the bleeding Michelangelo Adonis” in a conversation with Vanity Fair. “Yesss….” Jeff, 69, says. “What about it?”
“It wasn’t in the script. It had nothing to do with my character. I don’t know,” adds Goldblum in a video where he, Sam, and Laura Dern discussed their time filming the original Jurassic Park and the upcoming Jurassic World: Dominion. “How many buttons were too many?” teased Sam, 74, when discussing Jeff’s movie-stealing scene. “I don’t remember how it came to be,” said Jeff. “I have no idea. I don’t know. It just happened somehow. I’m sorry, for better or worse. I apologize profusely. Or…you’re welcome?”
“That was the only CGI in this movie,” joked Laura, 55. “Did [Steven Spielberg] muscle you up or something, is that what you’re saying?” Neill asks. “No, no,” says Goldblum. “But I saw the original drawing, and it’s entitled ‘Naughty Tusks.’” After that, Jeff tried to steer the conversation away from his chest by uttering his line: “Anyway, life finds a way.”
Since then, that pose has been emulated and recreated as it became synonymous with Jeff. In 2018, a statute of Jeff was erected next to London’s Tower Bridge. Goldblum was not oblivious to this lust over him: he famously recreated the pose in 2020 as part of a way of thirst-trapping people to register to vote.
“WOW! Thank you to everyone who used my @HeadCount page to make sure that you’re #GoodToVote!” Jeff captioned the political thirst trap. Jeff busted open the shirt and put on the tight leather pants, and really showed that he still had it. “Nearly 3,000 of you are ready for this November’s election. Here’s your reward…how time flies.” Despite it being close to 30 years since Jeff found a way into fans’ hearts, he still looked like a snack in this 2020 picture. “When a sequel is better than the original,” commented one fan.