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CNN Live Today

Interview with Jeff Goldblum

Aired January 29, 2003 - 11:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, in real life, preparing for a possible conflict in Iraq, war correspondents are being moved toward center stage again. Actor Jeff Goldblum is the star of tonight's TV movie of the life of a war correspondent covering a fictional civil war in Uzbekistan.
And Jeff is joining us from our bureau in Los Angeles.

Jeff, good morning to you.

JEFF GOLDBLUM, ACTOR: Good morning, Daryn. So great to be with you.

KAGAN: Looking over your career and your resume, you do like to take parts where bad things happen, aliens, and dinosaurs and now war. What is it about those kind of parts that you think's attracting Jeff Goldblum.

GOLDBLUM: I don't know. I'll tell you, I know what attracted me about this part. Yes, well, it's an important fact of life, war, and these special people, these war correspondents are attracted to go to these places, and they feel nobly enough that people should know about, have to know about, are required to see and know the facts as close as possible about -- and that was Lake Belle (ph) in that clip, a wonderful actress who plays this young, inexperienced woman who becomes my partner to replace a fellow at the beginning of the show who's been my longtime beloved dear friend who steps on a land mine right in front of me, so I'm going through kind of a crisis of emotional stability and idealism when she replaces him, and then I fall in love, I'm wildly in love with this other woman.

KAGAN: She's not your love interest.

GOLDBLUM: No, there's this other brilliant woman who works for a "Newsweek" type paper -- magazine played by Louise Lombard (ph), and I find out my best friend was also in love with her, and had been with her, and now to benefit somehow from his death is also conflicting, and at this point, we get thrown into a part of conflict, and I suspect that we're being used as we try to cover it by either side as pawns, or spies or combatants, and I'm wildly, passionately against that, because, of course, it wrecks the fragile neutrality that reporters enjoy, and their safety such as it is, little that it is, fragile that it is, and I want to get to the truth. So I throw myself into this fevered sort of mission to find out the facts.

KAGAN: Sounds like drama, also sounds like issues that we deal with right here at CNN. What about the timing on this, Jeff? Is this just coincidence? War is at the top of our headlines, top of our newscasts. Was this planned?

GOLDBLUM: No, no, Daryn. It's coincidental. In fact, this story was written before 9/11 happened, originally set in Macedonia, and then they wanted to make it a little more relevant and topical, and no, it's just amazing that this is something of wild interest to me, I know, and to so many people now.

KAGAN: So it's on tonight on NBC, 9:00 p.m.

GOLDBLUM: I think it's 8:00 to 10:00, isn't it, Daryn? I believe so, on NBC.

KAGAN: You should know, 8:00 to 10:00.

GOLDBLUM: Well, check it out. You might be right.

KAGAN: Is it a pilot, or is it just a TV movie?

GOLDBLUM: You know, it was originally intended as a possible pilot, but you know, I just focused mostly on the chunk of material that it was, and it seemed like a great movie to me. You never know even in a movie if it's going to be a sequel or whatever happens, but right now I'm proud of what we produced.

KAGAN: Very good. Well good luck with that, and you didn't come on to talk about this, but I'm going to tell folks to check you out in "Igby Goes Down." You were a very good, slimy, powerful guy in that. Thanks for joining us this morning.

GOLDBLUM: Thank you so much, Daryn.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 29, 2003 - 11:54   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, in real life, preparing for a possible conflict in Iraq, war correspondents are being moved toward center stage again. Actor Jeff Goldblum is the star of tonight's TV movie of the life of a war correspondent covering a fictional civil war in Uzbekistan.
And Jeff is joining us from our bureau in Los Angeles.

Jeff, good morning to you.

JEFF GOLDBLUM, ACTOR: Good morning, Daryn. So great to be with you.

KAGAN: Looking over your career and your resume, you do like to take parts where bad things happen, aliens, and dinosaurs and now war. What is it about those kind of parts that you think's attracting Jeff Goldblum.

GOLDBLUM: I don't know. I'll tell you, I know what attracted me about this part. Yes, well, it's an important fact of life, war, and these special people, these war correspondents are attracted to go to these places, and they feel nobly enough that people should know about, have to know about, are required to see and know the facts as close as possible about -- and that was Lake Belle (ph) in that clip, a wonderful actress who plays this young, inexperienced woman who becomes my partner to replace a fellow at the beginning of the show who's been my longtime beloved dear friend who steps on a land mine right in front of me, so I'm going through kind of a crisis of emotional stability and idealism when she replaces him, and then I fall in love, I'm wildly in love with this other woman.

KAGAN: She's not your love interest.

GOLDBLUM: No, there's this other brilliant woman who works for a "Newsweek" type paper -- magazine played by Louise Lombard (ph), and I find out my best friend was also in love with her, and had been with her, and now to benefit somehow from his death is also conflicting, and at this point, we get thrown into a part of conflict, and I suspect that we're being used as we try to cover it by either side as pawns, or spies or combatants, and I'm wildly, passionately against that, because, of course, it wrecks the fragile neutrality that reporters enjoy, and their safety such as it is, little that it is, fragile that it is, and I want to get to the truth. So I throw myself into this fevered sort of mission to find out the facts.

KAGAN: Sounds like drama, also sounds like issues that we deal with right here at CNN. What about the timing on this, Jeff? Is this just coincidence? War is at the top of our headlines, top of our newscasts. Was this planned?

GOLDBLUM: No, no, Daryn. It's coincidental. In fact, this story was written before 9/11 happened, originally set in Macedonia, and then they wanted to make it a little more relevant and topical, and no, it's just amazing that this is something of wild interest to me, I know, and to so many people now.

KAGAN: So it's on tonight on NBC, 9:00 p.m.

GOLDBLUM: I think it's 8:00 to 10:00, isn't it, Daryn? I believe so, on NBC.

KAGAN: You should know, 8:00 to 10:00.

GOLDBLUM: Well, check it out. You might be right.

KAGAN: Is it a pilot, or is it just a TV movie?

GOLDBLUM: You know, it was originally intended as a possible pilot, but you know, I just focused mostly on the chunk of material that it was, and it seemed like a great movie to me. You never know even in a movie if it's going to be a sequel or whatever happens, but right now I'm proud of what we produced.

KAGAN: Very good. Well good luck with that, and you didn't come on to talk about this, but I'm going to tell folks to check you out in "Igby Goes Down." You were a very good, slimy, powerful guy in that. Thanks for joining us this morning.

GOLDBLUM: Thank you so much, Daryn.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com