Glenn Close and Jeff Goldblum had a ball making The Big Chill, which follows a group of 30-somethings who reunite for a weekend after a friend’s unexpected death. There were dance parties, pranks, and lifelong bonds formed on the set of Lawrence Kasdan’s film, which was packed with actors who would go on to become big stars: Tom Berenger, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly, and JoBeth Williams, in addition to Close and Goldblum.
In the 42 years since Close and Goldblum starred in that seminal film—which earned the former her second Oscar nomination—the actors have remained close while building diverse, powerful résumés. Proof of their illustrious careers comes just minutes into our Reunited conversation, when Goldblum asks Close if she’s kept a lot of her costumes, and she reveals that she’s actually got some 1,000 pieces archived at Indiana University. “It makes me so happy,” Close says.
This year she took on another transformative role as devout church lady Martha Delacroix in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, while Goldblum reprised his role as the Wizard in Wicked: For Good. Each a legend in their own right, these two continue to surprise audiences with whimsical but grounded characters—and they’re the first to say they’re having a blast doing it.
Here, the longtime friends discuss The Big Chill’s lost epilogue, what they do when they’re not agreeing with a director, and working with legends like Mike Nichols, Kasdan, and Sanford Meisner.
Vanity Fair: What do you remember about the first time you met?
Glenn Close: We did a table read [for The Big Chill]. Did you do the table read in New York?
Jeff Goldblum: No. I was out here and had an audition or two with Lawrence Kasdan and [producer] Michael Shamberg.
Close: I had dated Kevin [Kline]. He’s remained my friend, but I had dated Kevin and he was dating my best friend—
Goldblum: Mary Beth Hurt.
Close: And then he had broken up with her for Diane Venora. Mary Beth was asked to read the part that Mary Kay [Place] ended up taking. And Diane Venora read the part that JoBeth [Williams] got, and Mary Beth found herself riding up in the elevator, I think, with Diane Venora—and she still was in love with Kevin. And Bill Hurt was her ex-husband!
Goldblum: Wow. That’s a movie.
Close: I always thought that’s why she didn’t get the part. It was too politically laden.
Goldblum: That’s a riot. How long did you go with Kevin? I don’t want to pry.
Close: Not very long. I think maybe we broke up when he ditched me for Gilda Radner at the Tonys.
What do you two remember from filming The Big Chill?
Close: We had the best time. Do you remember? There was an epilogue to The Big Chill originally, and it’s actually what made me really want to do the movie, because it made me cry. This epilogue was all of us at college. We all flew to Atlanta and we shot the epilogue first.
Goldblum: Yes. With my big fake beard and a wig. Did you ever see a cut of that movie with that in?
Close: Yes.
Goldblum: I did too. I’ve always been moved by that too.
Close: Remember the epilogue [which was cut from the final film]? It was Thanksgiving, and of course [my character] was organizing everything. Everybody was around the table, and I had asked Kevin Costner [whose scenes were all cut from the finished film] to carve the turkey. And the last line was Kevin Kline saying—
Goldblum: “We need you in here.” It was fantastic. It was a little bit of an homage to The Godfather. It said in the script that he’s trying to cut that turkey, but it’s so perfect. It’s so whole. He can’t decide how to make a cut in it.
Close: It made me weep.
Goldblum: It was poetical and beautiful. But then [Lawrence] said when he saw it, it was a little tough to sell and you didn’t need it. I think he says it was a little literary.
Close: I remember him saying that it opened up a whole other can of worms.
Goldblum: We were all eager and bushy-tailed [back then]. I remember Bill Hurt—I can’t tell this story publicly. I had a moment or two with him that was colorful and memorable, as you can imagine, as he was in those days. It was actually my very first encounter with him, and he had already had a cocktail or two. I think he had said something salty to me, which was his opening remark—which was then kind of reprised later at the Johnny Carson kickoff party in Malibu. I was by myself in the lobby, and Bill was sort of splayed on a chair, already having had a cocktail or two. And he said something to Johnny that I witnessed, that I can’t talk about.
Close: When we were shooting down in South Carolina, we decided to get everybody in the cast red union suits with “The Big Chill” on them. And we delivered them at night and it was freezing cold, and Bill was literally howling at the moon.
Goldblum: He was an amazing character. God bless him. And what a great actor and a great fellow. He was an avid runner, and he would run when it was early in the morning. He’d show up sweaty, and he would cut a half of an onion—if I’m remembering it right—and eat the onion.
Close: So Kevin and Jeff shared a house. There was a piano and there was a record player. Then the girls had separate apartments. And I am not a social person by nature—I’m quite introverted. Literally, Mary Kay came to me one evening and said, “You have to come. We’re all having dinner.” We would play Michael McDonald and Linda Ronstadt.
Goldblum: I remember that album.
Close: One time, the girls went to Walmart, and we got the biggest bras and panties that you could buy. The guys had a fan in their living room, and when they weren’t there, we hung all the underwear on the fan. And you didn’t know that it was there until you turned on the fan and all this underwear went flying.
Goldblum: That was fantastic. I remember when you came over and when you started to let loose and dance. You were fantastic. You were a wonderful dancer. And then we would play charades. I thought it was cute and charming to cheat a little bit. And so I’d reach in when nobody was looking and look at the clues. JoBeth caught me, and she got into a tower of fury and read me the riot act, and I burned with shame. And since then, I’ve never cheated at a game. And I tell my boys, who also like to cheatL “It makes it no fun. It’s no fun if you cheat at that or anything else.”
In Wicked: For Good and in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, you both play characters that could seem sort of fantastical, but manage to root them in reality. How do you find that balance?
Goldblum: Well, Glenn, you tell me. I sit at your feet. She’s the eighth-degree black belt master at doing the most elevated, poetical, magnificent, out-of-this-world things.
Close: I remember when Annie [Close’s daughter] was three, she came up to me and she said, “Mommy, I want you. I want all of you.” And what that meant to me is that when we’re working, of course we’re usually away from our children. But then when we’re home, you’re in their mind a lot. I remember that so vividly because I knew exactly what she was saying. For me, a lot of it is just imagination. You take something from the page, and then you just imagine yourself in the details. That’s the joy of it. The fact that my partner in that final scene was Josh O’Connor, and we spent two days just gazing into each other’s eyes, you can’t ask for anything more than that.
Goldblum: I love everything you’re saying. My current thinking is that you can’t be good in a movie unless the movie is good. And then, of course, as you say, the presence of the other actor and being present with them gives you a ton of stuff.
Close: Jeff, having just watched you, that last scene [in Wicked: For Good]—what was lovely is that they stayed on your face for as long as they did, and it really, really registers.
Goldblum: Oh, you’re so sweet. Thank you. Even though there’s a logic to it, it’s a musical, and it has all the whimsical poetry and other extraordinary, on-the-outer-edges-of-realism [stuff] that, when you’re acting it, it’s sometimes a little tough to work backward.
Which directors had a significant impact on who you are as an actor?
Close: It was [The World According to Garp director] George Roy Hill, with this wonderful casting lady, Marion Dougherty—who, I keep thinking, must’ve been whispering into his ears. I remember when I got nominated for that, he said, “Just promise me that if you ever win an Oscar, you mention my name.” Of course, if I ever do, I will. And then Larry Kasdan, of course—huge in my life. He’s another fantastic human being. Mike Nichols, Tom Stoppard—two geniuses. I mean, that was such an amazing time to come to rehearsal [for The Real Thing] every day. At one table was Tom Stoppard; the other table was Mike Nichols. I’ll someday hopefully be able to write something about it, because it was so instrumental. Jeremy Irons had the flashy part. He had all the wonderful words. My part—she was right but not articulate, and it frustrated me. And I remember Mike saying, “No, no, just bring your day onto the stage with you. Just bring your day.” It was such a wonderful direction.
If you have a possibility to have a new experience, really, you don’t want to repeat yourself. I’m sure you feel the same way. So to do Knives Out with Rian Johnson, who is another not only wonderful director, but I think he’s going to be a very treasured friend. I think he’s a wise person, and I think he’s an incredibly smart person, and I need wise and smart people in my life. Then I just did The Hunger Games, and had as much fun developing the five looks that that character has with this incredible hair, makeup, prosthetics person. It was joyous. But that’s what we do, Jeff. The moment that you don’t have any joy in it, you should just do something else.
Goldblum: That’s why I got into it. It was a wild-hearted adventure of passion. You made me think about many things. First of all, I had a teacher, Sanford Meisner. I went to the Neighborhood Playhouse, and he was teaching there before his laryngectomy. He was in full form. He was the real deal. He said, “It takes 20 years of continual work before you can even call yourself an actor, before you’re living the life inside of an actor. And then, if you’re lucky enough to have work the rest of your life, until your dying breath, the possibility of getting better and better.” I kind of took that to heart. Just like you’re saying, somehow I feel lucky that, even now, I feel I’m doing my best, freest, most enjoyable work, and the best things are ahead of me.
Close: I still feel very much an outsider. I mean, I’ve never lived in Hollywood. I don’t think I can. Not anything against Hollywood—I feel like I’d be like a piece of toilet paper in a stream and would not last very long. I’m basically a character actor. I’m not a great beauty, but I am a character actor, and I love that. I think that’s what we do.
Goldblum: I disagree. I think you’re a great beauty, by the way. And as much a movie star as has ever graced the screen.
Close: I think I was really bad at auditioning. I’d come into somebody’s office, and I don’t know why I’m supposed to be. I think, in some ways, it’s not done well for me because people think, Oh, she just played that woman in Hillbilly Elegy—she can’t possibly play this. You know what I mean? I think, in some ways, it’s kept people from imagining me in certain parts.
Goldblum: Well, you’re so unlimited—speaking of the songs from the movie. But I guess we have to forgive them their limitation that they can’t fathom you sometimes. Your range is out of this world, and you can do anything and everything. It’s amazing.
Jeff, did you ever feel pigeonholed like that—like people couldn’t imagine you playing a wide variety of roles?
Goldblum: Oh yeah. I’ve had to sort of push back—“Hey, yes, I can do something that you may not be thinking of me for.”
Close: But that’s why I would always audition.
Goldblum: I like auditioning. Even if I don’t audition, if they say, “Here, you got the part,” I go, “You and I get together.” I like to get together with the director and show you everything that I’m thinking about this. And you tell me if I’m not right for it. Let’s figure it out now. And if I’m on the wrong page, steer me in. I love to be directed. Steer me in another way, and let’s see if this works. That’s kind of what you’re doing when you audition anyway. And I love that whole thing.
Close: Sometimes I’ve asked [for an] audition to try to change somebody’s mind.
Goldblum: Yes. If my representatives say, “Jeff Goldblum,” [and they say], “No way, absolutely no way,” I like to go in and talk to people.
Close: That’s the famous story about Fatal Attraction—that they were so, so sure that I was wrong [for the role]. That they were embarrassed to bring me in because they didn’t want to humiliate me and blah, blah, blah, blah. And Sherry [Lansing] wrote about it in her book. She didn’t come to meet me. She was too embarrassed.
Goldblum: And you want to be surprising. You want to surprise yourself and surprise other people.
Close: Have you ever been with a director when they say, “Do this,” and you say, “No, I really don’t think that’s the right way to do it”? Has that ever happened to you?
Goldblum: I’ve had most all positive experiences, but oftentimes I’ll have to use my people skills. I’m not so good at confrontation and making trouble. I’ll kind of make it work for myself, especially on film. You go, “Here, watch this,” and then you do what you want anyway. And if it’s good, they go, “Right, right. Good, good. Exactly what I was talking about.” Or I go, “Hey, could you explain to me again what you want and how I can serve what you’re trying to do?” And: “Here’s a way that we can both win.” And maybe that’s a better idea than the thing I could come up with by myself anyway.
Close: I’m old, and I’ve been in it for more than 50 years. There are people I label as “life is too short” people. You want people who just bring their best game. And you know what? That then frees you to do your best game. And that’s the most wonderful feeling in the world.
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