Jeff Goldblum on How He Sees Technology

The actor and cinematic scientist talks to us about the wonder of technological inquiry and human connection and how it all ties into his Emmy-nominated Disney+ show.

- CHANDRA STEELE

What would you see if you could look at the world through the eyes of Jeff Goldblum? Science and metaphysics don’t quite have the answers yet, but a Disney+ show does its best to answer the question. The World According to Jeff Goldblum is in its second season, and follows various topics through Goldblum’s meandering musings.

“Geez, I love science,” Goldblum says in the first episode of the series. And while there’s mystery in each episode, there’s science and technology, too. Sometimes they’re one and the same, as in an episode that captures the surrealness of street magic while also showing the neuroscience behind Goldblum’s own eyes deceiving him as he watches Penn and Teller do their thing. Both the trick and the tech that unveils it are treated with the same wonder at the whiz-bang by Goldblum.

“People might not know the extraordinary elements of these things that they may take for granted,” Goldblum said in a conversation with PCMag. Although he helps to decide the topics explored in each season, Goldblum said he likes to step back from the rest of the planning process so he can experience discovery along with the viewer. He leaves it to the production team at Nutopia to do the research and set up interviews, while, as he puts it, he does “just enough to get the daisy fresh and minty smell smelling, so then I can drop myself into these situations.”