Let’s get the most important thing out of the way first: I absolutely loved Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs. As a huge fan of his first stop-motion movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox, I wasn’t sure he could top such a special film, but I’m pleased to report he did. And while I loved everything about Isle of Dogs, I have to give a special shout out to the production design and level of detail in every shot. It’s like Anderson took what he did in Fantastic Mr. Fox and said, “Okay, this was good, but now let’s put ten times as many things in every shot and amplify the level of detail by a factor of ten.”

As I watched Isle of Dogs, I had to pick my jaw up off the ground a number of times because I couldn’t believe the level of detail and depth in every shot. Even though I always prefer the theatrical experience, this is one of those rare films I can’t wait to watch at home when I can pause each frame and study the smallest detail. Trust me, Isle of Dogs is one of the best stop-motion films I’ve ever seen and strongly recommend checking it out.

With the film opening in limited release this weekend and expanding nationwide in the coming weeks, I recently got to participate in a roundtable interview with Jeff Goldblum at the Berlin Film Festival. During the wide-ranging conversation he talked about getting to work with Wes Anderson and how he pays attention to every detail, what it was like in the recording booth, his reaction to the finished film, and so much more. In addition, since we had so much time with him, the conversation veered in a number of other directions and it’s one of those really fun interviews that I’m confident you’ll enjoy.

If you’re not aware of the Isle of Dogs story, the film takes place in a near-future Japan where, after an outbreak of dog attacks, all dogs have been banished to live on a garbage-filled island—the Isle of Dogs. A young boy ventures to the island in search of his own dog, and with the assistance of a pack of newly-found mongrel friends, he begins an epic journey that will decide the fate and future of the entire region. The film also features the voices of Bryan CranstonBill MurrayScarlett JohanssonF. Murray Abraham, Tilda SwintonKunichi NomuraHarvey KeitelAkira ItoAkira Takayama, Koyu RankinYoko OnoCourtney B. VanceGreta GerwigFrances McDormandBob Balaban, and Liev Schrieber.

Check out what Jeff Goldblum had to say below.

You’re a Wes veteran right? 

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Image via Fox Searchlight

JEFF GOLDBLUM: No, I wouldn’t say veteran. Why do you say-

You’ve done three.

GOLDBLUM: Whatever that makes me. Well, it makes me very lucky. Most people never get to work with him. To work with him once is enough, spectacular, twice is more than my cup runneth over, three times is some kind of miracle.

So it’s never routine, it never feels dull?

GOLDBLUM: He is the opposite of routine, as I am sure many people have said better than I’ll be able to say. He is the opposite of routine- I think he is some kind of guru, or some kind of enlightened figure. (laughs) You know, master artist and master teacher just in cinema. Everytime you work with him and everything about him- you know I like to take his course. He will have a stack of DVDs, before Grand Budapest Hotel, of, “these are the movies I’m thinking about.” With this one, obviously, too, I’d love to see-I have not seen Tokyo Story, but I’d like to know everything about- I’m just going to start to read that and I want to know more about what he has been doing for four years. All this, his whole knowledge about this thing-but, I was going to say, his other mastery is that, no, he is the opposite of routine. He is conspicuously present and full of adventure, supreme life, enthusiasm, fertile imagination, whimsy, humor, elegance, graciousness, kindness- you know all of that. Every time, in my experience, that you’re around him is a kind of a magical- just like his movies come out- the experience is a kind of magical adventure and delicious, unexpected, non-routine, kind of a thrill ride.

Whether it’s all the details that he has attended to with the location of restaurant, where I first met him, or where we shot Life Aquatic. You know, where Fellini- I’ve seen Fellini shoot a day there once. Then we shot in Gore Vidal's villa in the south of Italy. These places- and then with the cast he assembles are, you know, a dream group. All the artisans around him, all the people- I just met them, and I’ll read about them, who made all the things, you know, very special types, and like him. He’s reminds me of my sister, he’s a kind of a un-narcissistic, true artist. You know, I can imagine him just doing that very happily. But, to see him on a set, and he is a people person too. He loves people, and he loves putting these groups together. He reminds me of Robert Altman. I think he was a fan of Robert Altman. He thinks of the shooting experience as an art piece in itself. That’s why Altman would invite us to the dallies, where he would say, “That’s the movie, that’s all our work, and that’s what you should see.” What we cut it down to and the result is important to me, and of course to him, and he’s got something very particular in mind, and makes a beautiful masterpiece. The experience is an art piece too. So, etc., etc, etc.

What did you see Fellini shoot?

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Image via Fox Searchlight

GOLDBLUM: I saw a day, when Michelle Pfeiffer and I were doing press in Rome for Into the Night in 1983. I’ll be darned if he wasn’t shooting Ginger and Fred. I peered in and saw just a little bit of him with Guillette Masina and Marcello Mastroianni, for heaven sakes, shooting this thing. I saw him go over and it looked like he was saying, “Don’t say this, don’t say that,” and then he put on music- loud music and they do their thing and I guess, loop it later, just like that. (laughs).  Pretty good. But then there we were with Wes, and you know, there is a connection to the thrill of the location, the style, the currents. These movies that Wes is making is going to be- someday I think people will, and now they’re saying it, but I think these will live on and take their place in landmark cinema history. People will say, “You were there? What was it like?” Etc., etc.

They’re doing that now.

GOLDBLUM: Yeah, I know. Well I am.

Do you think he’s a trendsetter? How?

GOLDBLUM: Well, yeah, I think he’s original. He doesn’t follow the trend of what’s come before. He is a student of what’s come before; stands on his favorite shoulders of favorite giants. No, but because he is original, he is a pioneer and forging his own way and has his own brave, however one comes up with it, I guess what’s called an artist. They have their own vision- “Here’s what I want to do, and here’s what I like. Here’s the color that I like, and here’s the shape that I like. I like that actor, he makes me laugh. I think she’s interesting.” You know, like that. So, all of that- it comes out into something original, I think, and progressive.

What do you think he sees in you? What is the connection that the two of you have?

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Image via Fox Searchlight

GOLDBLUM: I wonder, you know. I just feel lucky. I am almost thrilled that- you know, today I walked by him, I’ve never worn this suit before, it’s the first day I’m ever wearing it. He went, “Oh.” (laughs) You know the way he seems to appreciate me or find me interesting always is surprising and delightful to me. He was like, “Oh, what a delicious suit,” or something like that. (laughs). I always walk around him, I’m excited, and what to kind of open up and share something. I say, “Oh, did you see my tie?” I was wearing at the time, etc., etc. You know, so- what was it that you were saying?

He brings something out. The question is: what does he bring out in you?

GOLDBLUM: Oh, what does he bring out in me? Why is he attracted to me, too. Well, if you’re lucky to be around- but I think I was in a couple of movies and worked with people where, you know, if I hadn’t worked with those other people he may not have been aware of me, or thought, “Hm.” You know, I think I had done a movie or two, or three or four, and that movie Buckaroo Banzai, I think he kind of liked. He used the ending of that movie a little in the ending of Life Aquatic. You know, as we all kind of join that parade. So, you know, I’m just kind of lucky. I don’t know how I- why I qualify to be in his- of interest to him.

He sounds very exact. He can’t necessarily be ridgid, too. You’re a musician, a jazz musician, so you’re open to improvisation. Is he as well?

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GOLDBLUM: Here’s what I’m sure other people have talked about: he is terrifically meticulous, prepared, detail oriented, knows what he wants. In Life Aquatic he said, “You’re going to wear this baby pink scarf that I have and Mark Mothersbaugh my friend has these glasses that we’re going to borrow. You’re going to wear those glasses.” Etc., etc., etc. It’s great to be used in such a way- and you know it’s going to be good. You’re going to look interesting. The beard that he trimmed himself in The Grand Budapest Hotel a few different times, and said, “No we need to take a little more off of this.”

That’s not stifling, right?

GOLDBLUM: No. After all of his preparation, it leaves him to be wildly present. He is, like I say, a master appreciator. You feel connected with him. Within this, as if you’re doing a play, he didn’t want me to change a “the” to an “and.” I remember in a big speech in Grand Budapest Hotel, and I was like, “Oh, OK.” Then he does 27 takes and kind of within a particular range, there’s beautiful detailing that he does with your behavior and his direction.  He goes, “Try it like this. Maybe you want to do something-” Whatever he says. He is very actorly, very smart, and makes you laugh. I go, “Ok, OK, that sounds good.” So it’s very enjoyable, and within it, the final experience is a very kind of free, creative, little swim. It’s really like that. It’s both things at the same time. Sometimes you need that. I’ve done movies- and Taika Waititi recently, we made up lines and did things. He said, “Just watch me do this dance,” and I went, “Oh,” and I’m doing this dance.

You were wonderful in that, and free in that.

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Image via Fox Searchlight

GOLDBLUM: Aw, thank you. I like doing that; I like improvising. I like the other too. I teach- when I teach I remind students that this Meisner exercise of improvisation is part of the puzzle. Don’t get too religiously devoted to that because you’re not going to be able to do David Mamet, and Wes Anderson, and The Coen Brothers, and Aaron Sorkin. They’re going to want you to this and some cinematographers are going to say, “Do that,” and “Nope we see the glare in your glasses.” You gotta go, “Ok,” and justify why I want to be here. You’re free to use your imagination, and think and feel what you want, etc., etc. You have to do it both. He, Wes, gives you the experience of both at the same time. I don’t know how; it’s a kind of miracle.

How does that meticulousness work in the recording booth?

GOLDBLUM: Well, here was my experience. He invited me- I’ve done other voice movies, a couple- and I’ve said on my own, “Hey, don’t you want to get me and Sandra Bullock playing my sister, don’t you want to get us in the same room? Don’t do that thing where they- I’ll do my lines and you’ll put it together with her lines.” I’m an actor who- I get a lot out of seeing if it lands, and listening and answering. So, they did. So they did it on that movie, I remember. On this movie, he said, “We want to get you, fly you to New York with Bill, with these guys. You’re the dogs, you’re this pack of dogs. We’re going to get you all together because you’re all going to overlap.” I said, “That sounds great.” We couldn’t work out the schedule. I couldn’t work out- I was working. So, I had to do my stuff all by myself in Los Angeles, with him on the phone. Wes was on the phone. But, it was great because as much as I like to get something out of that, working with Wes when nobody else is- when you’re not sharing him with anybody (laughs) as you can imagine. Everybody is kind of, “Wes, Wes.” Everybody wants to be with Wes. To just kind of, you know, get him to yourself- even if he’s on the phone. With tape, it’s different than if the sun is going down or the hair is not right. You can just keep doing the thing, and then I’d say, “Let me try this,” and he’d say, “That’s good, how about this?” In the same way, “Try it like this but I like when you do that.” So, it was a little work session like that which is a lot of fun.

Knowing that you didn’t read the entire script-

GOLDBLUM: I did. I read the script.

Lucky.

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Image via Fox Searchlight

GOLDBLUM: Yeah, he sent me the script. It wasn’t like Woody Allen, where he only sends you the thing. He sent me the whole script. It was rich. I am a little bit of an idiot and even when I’m reading, I’m a little slow, and I read it. I kind of got it, but I had to read it again and again. It is very rich.

My question was when you saw the final film, what surprised you the most? Was it last night?

GOLDBLUM: It was last night, I only saw it last night. It was a while ago that we recorded and a while ago that I read the script. So, I forgot some of it and and then last night- that movie is so rich in every frame and in the story, twists and turns it takes, that I have to see it again, many more times. It’s nice to see on a big screen because it’s gorgeous. I’d like to see it at home, where I can stop it and look at it, like that. So, I was surprised at everything. You know, even your part- I guess I remember the description but, you’re in scenes where you’re not talking and your character is acting. (laughs)

What did you get paid for those scenes?

GOLDBLUM: I got paid for that too, but you know. And, it’s beautiful. When artisans like this get- just like when they’re drawing, when they’re doing animated things, I oftentimes think, it’s a different technique and sometimes I like working with Taika and you go, “Hey, I’ll do this,” and that’s the way it comes out. I sometimes think, “If I had to put in, to scenic acting, all the time that it takes for them to make decisions, how do we want to move his hair.” It would be something. It would be something I would tell my students, or myself, you know, do as much in putting the scene together as they do when they have to do it like that. Examine a moment that’s like- when she says that to you, you go, what happens to you inside, what happens to you outside? It’s fun to examine that and try to render that in some case. But anyway, so when I saw it- it’s beautiful to see your acting rendered in such a gorgeous and examined way, that has taken four years to make. That’s something. Then the rest of the movie, oh my god. Alexandre Desplat I’m starstruck with.

Anjelica Huston is credited in the movie?

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GOLDBLUM: Yes, yes. Well, I heard the story about that. Anjelica Huston, who is in both of those- who is in Life Aquatic, who is just wonderful. I heard she had a conversation during the process where she said, “Hey, I want to be in this movie. I want to be a dog; maybe I can be a poodle.” I’m just telling a story that somebody told me. That they said, “Good idea.” But then, throughout they couldn’t find it, so anyway. They credited her with a “weird poodle.”

So, you’ve been in three of Wes’ films. It’s safe to say you’re going to be in another one- or two or three or four.

GOLDBLUM: Well, you know, some people say, there’s a word called “Dayenu,” which means: if nothing ever happens, I’d be entirely satisfied. (laughs) So even though I would love to be in more, if nothing ever happened besides this, it would be enough.

Well, not to tempt fate, but I’m wondering if when you get that call to be in Wes’ films, is there some sort of character, or location, or some dream scenario that you would like to be directed in. I know his films are so self-contained that it’s impossible to predict.

GOLDBLUM: Yeah, and his imagination- I wouldn’t want to. If he left it up to me I would go, “you figure it out!” (laughs) No, I couldn’t dream up something any better than what he has already come up with. I wouldn’t have said, “Make me an oceanographer….or make me this lawyer...or make me this dog.” I would just put yourself in his hands and imagine. I’m not a writer, I’m not a filmmaker. Even if I were just to imagine myself, I would be interested in the next, or just these three ways, that he has imagined me and how I look in those movies. I couldn’t have come up with that look for Life Aquatic or Grand Budapest Hotel. The way he uses- that’s what you want from a director. To be used, in a way that works, it somehow works. That is surprising, and somehow interesting, and hey, we haven’t seen Jeff that way exactly- he knows how to do that too. That’s really nice.

Do you feel like Duke was written specifically for your voice?

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Image via Fox Searchlight

GOLDBLUM: I don’t think I have ever asked if was thinking of ten other people, or if ten other people weren’t available when he wrote it or rewrote it. I don’t know.

Did it feel natural?

GOLDBLUM: Yeah, well mostly my stuff is about gossip. (laughs) “Hey, have you heard about blah blah blah.” I wonder, has he overheard me doing stuff like that? (laughs) I’m a little stupid like that, that’s a dangerous thing. You’ve gotta limit yourself. It always feels too easily good to go, “Hey, oh you don’t know this? Let me tell you who died” or something. “Have you heard the news this morning? No? Oh…” It’s too easy. Maybe he has heard me do that.

Do you like dogs? Do you have a dog?

GOLDBLUM: I love dogs. We had a dog when I was a kid. Our current dog is Woody, a red haired standard poodle. A dream angel. We have two kids, a two and a half year old boy, Charlie Ocean, and a 10 month old year old boy named River Joe.  [Woody] loves them, and he protects them. They are pack animals, and we’re the alphas, so he knows immediately that we’re bringing this thing home and so he’s protective of that thing. The kids love him. Charlie, who is already two and a half- the other one is a little early and kind of, “What is this thing?”- but Charlie wrestles on him and leaps on him, and hugs him, and feels him, and does things, and he just kind of lets him. It’s very sweet. And [Woody] sleeps with us and he’s just great. He’s just great.

Was he an inspiration for your performance? We heard it described also as you were just human beings who just happened to be dogs. It’s not very dog-y

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Image via Fox Searchlight

GOLDBLUM: Yeah, it’s not very dog-y. I think we had- I don’t know if they used it much in the thing, I want to see it again- but I think we had, besides the lines, he said, “If we need stuff, do some dog sounds, do some [imitates growling].”

Can you do how a dog sneezes?

GOLDBLUM: [Imitates sneezing] Does my dog sneeze? [Imitates more sneezing] I have funny sneezes in life. I do serial sneezes. I never sneeze, except at 6, 7 or 8. Then, I do these little girly sneezes. [Imitates sneezing] People say, is that a real sneeze? But that’s my sneeze.

Does your family tease you about that sneeze?

GOLDBLUM: Yes. My wife has a very loud sneeze. She has a very manly sneeze, and when she sneezes [imitates wheezing] it always goes through me a little shockingly. We did [imitates growling]. I did some growling and stuff. Most of it was human thinking of the situation. If a human being, of me for instance, with my sensibilities, if I was impaired otherwise- got 6 teeth knocked out and was sent to a horrible place, I wouldn’t do so well. That would be difficult for me. Maybe I’m sturdy and have a constitution, I have demonstrated. I feel good, but I don’t know if I’m really rugged or really survivalist in a way that would be- I thought of that, probably, and that experience so it was kind of human. But, I must say, was my dog an inspiration- I do look at my dog sometimes and I wish I could be like him in many ways. First of all, he’s athletic and rugged, but the way he- when I go to the bathroom or something, he just sits there looking at me, and I look at him. The way his eyes move, the way he goes [imitates look], he seems sentient and sensitive, and he seems like he’s thinking, or feeling something. It’s just familiar. I don’t know how, but it feels like he’s human and thinking something. I can’t believe it. You know he’s a sensitive- (laughs).

I wanted to ask, one thing you’re most famous for I think is your cadence, your way of speaking. I’m wondering if you’re even more conscious of that when you’re doing a specific voice role.

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Image via Fox Searchlight

GOLDBLUM: I don’t think so. I don’t think I want to infect the thing with any particular “Goldblum-isms.” I think I wanted to fulfill Wes’ idea of musicality and rhythm of Duke there. I think that’s what I wanted to do there. But other times-

Are you conscious of having “Goldblum-isms”?

GOLDBLUM: I guess. (laughs) Yes.

But you’re not conscious of doing-

GOLDBLUM: No, I don’t do it for affect or haven’t developed it for some kind of thing. This is just the way it’s kind of developed. I know when people say this or do imitations of me, I go, “Oh, yeah I get the idea.” Or when they say, “Oh, do it like Jeff Goldblum,” I can do a kind of imitation of myself where I stammer and stutter or something. (laughs)

As a young actor, was that something you were wanting to get away from? Or was it always embraced by directors? Going back to Greenwich Village it was there.

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GOLDBLUM: Oh yeah, it kind of was. Well, I improvised Greenwich Village a little bit. I felt appreciated by- and found myself through the appreciation of directors really. I remember Phil Kaufman having a day on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1978, when I said, Nancy Bellicec, my wife, Veronica Cartwright said to me, “Well, why have we always thought that they would come in metal ships?” And I said, “I never thought that they would come in metal ships.” Phil Kaufman- the way he said, “cut, that’s good, print, let’s move on. That was good Jeff.” The way he appreciated the way I did that, and the way I had done it- it wasn’t a big Goldblum-ism or anything. I thought, “Ah, I think I found something.” Not that I want to put myself into every part, but it became useful and I think I found something. Likewise, Paul Mazursky, who was a kind of appreciator, and said, “Oh, I like what you did there. It kind of came out well.” I improvised with him. It was fresh off of my training experience and he did the off screen line. We said, “Hey, Charlie, Clyde Baxter. What are you doing? No, shut up. No, I’m not telling you about that. I’m talking about you. Yeah, yeah, well.” Something like that. He improvised with me, I did it, and I stormed out. That was kind of a moment of finding myself a little bit. Through him…through his allowance and appreciation, likewise Wes. I feel appreciated and welcomed in some way by Wes. All those guys have been teachers, and have allowed me to sort of find this thing. Which I can jettison, if I need to characterize.

But why would you? Why would anyone want that?

GOLDBLUM: Well, you know people…that’s right. Thank you so much.

Congratulations on the film.

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