PERPETUAL MOTION

The relentlessness of Jeff Goldblum

- JOE COSCARELLI JON CARAMANICA

At 72, Jeff Goldblum has not lost a step. He may, in fact, be picking up the pace.

An unmistakable screen presence since the mid-1970s, when he stole scenes in Death Wish, Nashville and Annie Hall, Goldblum has recently hammed it up as the Wizard of Oz, in last year's Wicked (and this year's sequel), and Zeus himself, in Netflix's Kaos.

Beyond film and television - where he's also popped up in recent years on RuPaul's Drag Race and the millennial-skewering Search Party - Goldblum has become a fixture in the worlds of fashion (attending two consecutive Met Galas), music (having recently released Still Blooming, his fourth jazz album) and the internet variety show circuit (gamely eating hot wings and shopping for sneakers).

To each role, fiction and non-, Goldblum brings a contagious enthusiasm and plenty of Jeff Goldblum, working his amiably offbeat public persona, born from defining roles in The Big Chill, Jurassic Park and Independence Day, into everything he does.

To watch him move through the world is to witness that immutable movie-star magic incarnate as he kisses hands, asks questions and makes the days of strangers with solicitous eye contact and effusive approachability, seemingly without ever flagging. (Goldblum is also the father of two children under 10, who are being raised by Goldblum and his wife, Emilie, a former Olympic rhythmic gymnast, in Florence, Italy.)

It can all seem exhausting - and that's before learning that Goldblum found the time to personally sign thousands of copies of his new album, which features appearances by his Wicked co-stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Yet in a recent interview on Popcast, the actor and musician insisted that the perpetual Goldblum experience influenced by his study of the Meisner technique is not an act, but his lifeblood.