Jeff Goldblum’s Met Gala Look Made Him Get Emotional

Jeff Goldblum has only found himself getting choked up by clothing twice in his life. The first time: when he wore the Wizard of Oz’s costume, designed by Oscar-winner Paul Tazewell, in Wicked. The second time: right before speaking with me, when he tried on the custom Wales Bonner look he’s wearing to this year’s Met Gala.

On the eve of the Met Gala, Goldblum hops on a Zoom call with me from his room at The Mark Hotel. He laments only having half an hour to speak—"I wish we had a podcast where we could talk for three hours," is the first thing he tells me—and it’s evident that fashion really is something Goldblum could easily spend hours chatting about (although I suspect you could spend hours chatting with him about anything and everything). The 72-year-old actor doesn’t just appreciate clothes—he understands them. Specifically, the clothes he just wrapped up a fitting for.

"Grace [Wales Bonner] and her team of three other women were here, and I think it was them and their quiet care that they’d obviously taken, and their effort and their attention, and our excitement as I put this on that started me," he says.

"Feeling it and seeing it—it’s this fabric that feels so good. It’s obviously so well-done. The buttons, when I buttoned it and unbuttoned it—it’s so unbelievable. There’s this overcoat. We tried it with me putting it over my shoulders. It’s such a grand and elegant feeling. Everything fits so nicely, I just felt special and delightful. It really got to me."

"My heroes and models of style have been some jazz players that I’m particularly enraptured with—you know, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis, people who are known for their meticulous style, too. And of course, this aspect of style is a political and cultural gesture also. I find that inspiring, and worth study and deep reflection."

For this year’s "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" theme at the Met Gala—which Goldblum has been reading up on—he and his longtime stylist, Andrew Vottero, collaborated with Wales Bonner for a meticulously tailored, double-breasted, aggrandized tuxedo. It’s quintessentially Goldblum at its core—a little bit playful, a little bit traditional, impeccably-designed—and a maximalist celebration of menswear, with a pinstriped suit crafted from a wool-and-silk slub fabric, plus a navy cashmere-and-wool overcoat with a Mongolian shearling collar and irregular antique buttons on the cuffs. The outfit is finished as every opulent outfit should be—with a bow tie and patent leather Manolo Blahnik opera shoes.

"I just played the Wizard, and I’ve played a couple of these other parts that are larger than life, and this is really something," says Goldblum. "It’s really something."

Really something is an apt descriptor of the ensemble. Goldblum speaks of it the same way he speaks of everything else during our conversation—with the kind of good-natured reverence that makes you appreciate the thing just as much as he does. Ahead, Goldblum dives further into his Met Gala look, his personal style, what he anticipates from Wicked: For Good, and even indulges my own wildest fantasy of a Jeff Goldblum-themed Met Gala. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

"I grew up in Pittsburgh, and I was always a little bit fixated particularly on clothes and style. I had some flair for drawing and painting early on."

"Just now we said goodbye to Grace Wales Bonner herself, actually. She was with us, and three people from her fabulous team. I put on this outfit, and I tell you, it’s rarely happened before—I could tell you one other time—I got choked up. I was emotional. I thought it was so special. Grace was so obviously brilliant and sensitive and graceful and kind and generous, and we were just tweaking the last couple things of it, and I got choked up. Now they took it a away and they’re going to do a few more little tweaks on it, and then I got in touch with you. That’s my day so far.

"I have a few more things going on while I’m in New York, so I’ve got to figure out what I’m wearing for that. Emilie [Goldblum] and I are going to do something together where we raise money for the Los Angeles Food Bank and also for Oceana, this organization that is the best organization to heal the world, so we’re doing something for that. That’s the idea. And looking forward to tomorrow and to see who’s going to be there [at the Met Gala], reading up more on what tomorrow is about. I’m inspired and excited about it."

"I can tell you now, nobody knows this yet, they’re going to make a little change where they get a tie-it-yourself bow tie, because I like to tie it myself. Somebody else could do it for me, but I like to do it myself, and it’s a whole different kind of feeling and look."

"Oh, you should have seen it. We took some pictures earlier, but I’m going to read you this. 'Jeff Goldblum'—that’s me—'wears a wool cashmere coat with turn-back satin cuffs.' You should see these things, with specialty buttons on them, they’re all different in a very beautiful way. And a Mongolian shearling collar—can you imagine what that is? I’m telling you, I got choked up. It was very beautiful.

"Underneath that is a wool and silk slub fabric suit in a midnight indigo. If you can imagine a silk shirt, whitish, and a silk bow tie. They had a lovely bow tie they put on me, but they’re going to make a little change. I can tell you now, nobody knows this yet, they’re going to make a little change where they get a tie-it-yourself bow tie, because I like to tie it myself. Somebody else could do it for me, but I like to do it myself, and it’s a whole different kind of feeling and look. I like that a lot, and then on my feet, such as they are, I’m going to wear Manolo Blahnik opera shoes. They’re patent leather and they’re pretty spectacular. That’s the description of the look, but it doesn’t do justice what it actually is."

"I’ve been reading about it a little, and you know, of course I worked this last year with Paul Tazewell, who won the Oscar for his work on the Wicked costumes. And that was the other time I got sort of choked up. He was so brilliant, and he won the Oscar. Of course, he was the first Black costume designer to win that award, and I’m so proud of him. It was amazing. And my heroes and models of style have been some jazz players that I’m particularly enraptured with—you know, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis, people who are known for their meticulous style, too. And of course, this aspect of style is a political and cultural gesture also. I find that inspiring, and worth study and deep reflection."

"And a Mongolian shearling collar—can you imagine what that is? I’m telling you, I got choked up. It was very beautiful."

"I grew up in Pittsburgh, and I was always a little bit fixated particularly on clothes and style. I had some flair for drawing and painting early on. I went to this special art class, and I remember for a couple of weeks steadily, I kept doing these thumbnail sketches, which they required you to do, of men's collars—different shaped collars and ties. I don't know why I got so interested in that.

"I remember I had a couple of outfits that I would enjoy being photographed in. And then, around that time, Sammy Davis Jr., for instance, was sporting a kind of a Nehru jacket and a turtleneck and a medallion that I found particularly fascinating. And my mom took me to, I think it was Joseph Horne's or Kaufmann's, the big department stores there in Pittsburgh. We found some inexpensive version of that that I said, 'Yeah, that's what I want.'

"Then I started to study with Sanford Meisner and serious acting teachers, and seriously tried to develop my craft, and not only working from the inside out, but the outside in inspired me. Being in New York for the first time on my own, and this is the early 70s, I started to shop around where I could—some army surplus stores—and get unusual things, and I realized that dressing a character could open the doors to embodying that character and acting it well.

"The kind of shoes you wear and how that makes you feel, and the colors that you wear and the tactile sensation of everything was something I was always interested in anyway, as time passed on. I did certain movies and worked with very interesting costume people. Wes Anderson works with a great costume person and so I would do that, and my band and I had to figure out how to present myself and what to do. And Andrew Vottero and I got in collaboration about 10 years ago, and many things changed after that. My closet got kind of recycled and turned over, and we've been cooking things up for now this last decade."

"I know they’re editing it. Myron Kerstein, who was nominated this last year, is great. He’s kind of finalizing it, I’m sure. And the great Jon M. Chu is a genius director and I can’t wait to see it. I haven’t seen it yet. John Powell did the score, which was the other music besides the great Stephen Schwartz songs, and Stephen Schwartz wrote a couple of new songs for this one, which I haven’t heard.

"It follows something along the lines of that second half of the show after intermission, which the first movie takes you up to. And all of the great people, of course, are still in it. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey and Ethan Slater and Michelle Yeoh and Marissa Bode are going to be fantastic in it. So I’m looking forward to it, but I think I’m going to be surprised about many things in it. Eyes as wide as saucers as I first take it in, you know."

"I aspire to be kind of free-feeling and thinking and spontaneous in a jazz kind of way, inventing as I go along, and being ultra-present in order to be creative and entirely free."

"It was just a blast. I really enjoyed seeing a lot of people there that I knew, and some who I enjoyed meeting. That’s always fun. That’s kind of the big thrill for me. And seeing the display at the Met was great last time, I can’t wait to see it this time.

"And then last year, the secret performances that nobody knew about until it happened—Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo sang, which was a knockout. And Anna Wintour, I’ve had a chance to connect with her on several occasions now, and she’s just great. So I’m looking forward to that, and everything else. It’s a real event and a spectacle, but I love that it’s about something serious this year. I really think it’s worth supporting and worth shining a light on."

"Being in New York for the first time on my own, and this is the early 70s, I started to shop around where I could—some army surplus stores—and get unusual things, and I realized that dressing a character could open the doors to embodying that character and acting it well."

"Oh, my gosh. Hey, that’s funny. I can’t imagine this ever taking place, of course, this is kind of a whimsical dream. I aspire to be kind of free-feeling and thinking and spontaneous in a jazz kind of way, inventing as I go along, and being ultra-present in order to be creative and entirely free. So anything that Jeff might have going on in the landscape of his interior, feeling and thinking in his brain, could come to light in a costume or a presentation or an outfit of some kind. Which means the sky’s the limit. You can be anything."