How Having His Own Band Prepared Jeff Goldblum for “Once in a Lifetime” Wicked Role (EXCLUSIVE)

It takes brains, heart, and courage to be an elite entertainer — and Jeff Goldblum's got all three!

In addition to his storied career as an actor in seminal Hollywood blockbusters like Jurassic Park and Independence Day, Goldblum is also an accomplished jazz pianist, having fronted his very own band — The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra — for three solid decades and counting. The group was named after a friend of Goldblum's mother, "a lovely woman" from the suburb of Pittsburgh where he grew up. So when it came time for director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights) to seek out the perfect person to play the Wizard of Oz in Universal's two-part film adaptation of the Wicked stage musical, the choice was clear.

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"I like music," Goldblum told NBC Insider. "I’m a student of music. I like to sing, as you see. I’ve got a little band, I’ve got [another] record coming out. It was a dream come true because ... when I was a kid and decided to be an actor and got the bug, I sought [out] some musicals. Our parents went to New York and came back with records from musicals. Then my first professional job was onstage, The Two Gentlemen of Verona. So doing this was kind of a dreamy, once-in-a-lifetime thing."

Is the Wizard of Oz the bad guy in Wicked?

Yeah, kind of. Despite his glowing, larger-than-life reputation throughout the land of Oz, the Wizard in Wicked is nothing more than a bigoted, power-hungry despot secretly hoping to use Elphaba's (Cynthia Erivo, playing the future Wicked Witch of the West) magical abilities for sinister ends. Not exactly the same man who helped Dorothy and her friends back in 1939, but it does offer a nice change of pace from a well-worn character audiences have long been conditioned to see as a deeply selfless and caring figure. 

"How did I do it?" Goldblum replies when we ask how he made the role his own. "With the help of others. Jon Chu is a master director. I put myself in his hands … Surrounded by Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Looking into their eyes, how could I not come up with something?"

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