Decades after his rise to fame, actor Jeff Goldblum is still going as strong as ever. He recently portrayed the Grandmaster in true Goldblum fashion in last year’s Thor: Ragnarok, and this year he’s returning to the role that most folks from my generation were introduced to him in. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom will see Ian Malcolm returning to the dino-fold for the first time since The Lost World: Jurassic Park hit theaters back in the ’90s.

With Jeff Goldblum being inexorably tied to that very specific (very eccentric) character, it’s hard to imagine that they would have taken him out. But, as Goldblum revealed in a recent interview with Vanity Fair, that’s exactly what almost happened. When Goldblum was first made aware of the potential role for him, he read the book, as instructed, and prepped to meet with Spielberg, who had some potentially sad news.

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“I [read] that Michael Crichton book — Ian Malcolm, wow! Smart, funny, interesting character… [Spielberg] said, ‘You know, there’s a sort of movement afoot… to have that part removed from the script. So since we’ve had this meeting, there’s this little wrinkle that may render this moot.’ I kind of said, ‘Well, gee!’ I felt moved to advocate for my inclusion!”

Spielberg and co. were considering merging in the character of Malcolm into the Alan Grant character, played by Sam Neill. Of course, Goldblum pushed for them to keep that character in the script, and while it’s unclear why they decided to keep him in, the important thing is that they did. The rest is history.

Now, despite him being a secondary character for most of the films, Malcolm carries a lot more weight with the franchise for many fans than Alan Grant does. We can thank some of the Goldblum magic for that, I suppose.

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SOURCE: Vanity Fair