In the original Jurassic Park, there are more iconic scenes than one movie can typically manage. But among them, it’s tough to forget Jeff Goldblum’s Ian Malcolm laying shirtless and sweaty midway through the movie. This moment was even once commemorated via a giant statue in London. But as Goldblum was recently asked about how the scene came to be, he got honest that Laura Dern actually had to remind him.
Nearly thirty years following the release of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, fans of the 1993 movie are still talking (and gushing all over) that shirtless scene. While speaking to SiriusXM, Goldblum shared that he couldn’t recall why and how Ian Malcolm came to create that beloved and steamy image. In his words:
[Laura] said, ‘Oh, no no. I think, whether you see it,’ and I don’t think maybe you see it much, but I think I was injured also around [my abdomen]. And there were bandages and there was blood and I think we were attending to that, etc… I forgot about it entirely, it was just Laura that reminded me yesterday that’s maybe what happened.
The new movie release of Jurassic World: Dominion brought back Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern and Sam Neill on the big screen together for the first time since the original Jurassic Park. While promoting Dominion, Goldblum shared that Dern recently reminded him why he might have been in that iconic shirtless position. As he said in that interview and previous ones, he apparently doesn’t remember. To refresh all our memories, here’s the image, and there’s a bit of blood on his hand and around his chest:
Dern perhaps refreshed his memory, sharing that Ian Malcolm actually had an injury in his chest area, and his shirt was open and being tended to when that specific shot takes place. Dern is correct that there are people around him in other shots around that scene where they are treating an injury. But, of course, because of Goldblum’s magnetism, most of us don’t remember the circumstances of the shirtless scene.
Jeff Goldblum also joked that he certainly didn’t ask Steven Spielberg if they could do a take where he showed “a little more” and some big shirtless scene wasn’t explicitly in the script. But, no matter, as it became a classic moment in Jurassic Park. Goldblum even recreated it in late 2020 to inspire others to vote in the Presidential election. Check it out:
As far as Jurassic World Dominion goes, the movie disappointed critics overall, including CinemaBlend’s own Eric Eseinberg giving it 1.5 out of 5 stars in his review, but it generally pleased moviegoers, earning an A- with fans on CinemaScore. In its third weekend at the box office, it was in third place under Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis. The movie has made over $756 million worldwide. Jurassic World Dominion effectively wraps up the Jurassic World trilogy by bringing together the original and new cast, which included Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, but it’s proved tough to top the classic nature of the 1993 movie.