CANNES — Jeff Goldblum has never played a video game.
The 66-year-old actor-musician made the stunning revelation during a Cannes Lions talk on Thursday while talking about the video games for which he’s voiced characters.
“I know nothing about gaming even though I’ve been the voices for, what was it called? ‘Call of Duty.’ ‘Black Ops,’ I think,” said Goldblum to guffaws from the crowd.
“We were killing zombies, I think. ‘Jurassic Park,’ I did that thing where I play my character Ian Malcolm … so I’m involved in that, but I’ve never in fact played a video game in my life.”
Goldblum’s cartoonish persona entertained the crowd for 45 minutes and he also made it clear that he and his fictional “Jurassic Park” character have a lot in common. In the iconic 1993 film, Goldblum’s character famously says of bringing dinosaurs back, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
During his Cannes Lions panel, Goldblum managed to seamlessly transition from discussing gaming to artificial intelligence and evolution and echoed the concerns of his “Jurassic Park” persona after watching an endearing commercial in which a boy with an underdeveloped arm meets Tony Stark (portrayed by Robert Downey Jr.) and receives a bionic arm.
“The species [humans] may change not only in connection with and melding with intelligence and computers but cyborg-style, too … where we may have a matter of new arms and things to make us another kind of species,” Goldblum mused.
“It’s real interesting. I am excited. There may be dangers, risks and challenges ahead, but opportunities. You can imagine all the risks if there are people who can afford to make themselves into another kind of healthier, longer-living, stronger, smarter species and others who are left behind. That’s a very different kind of thing.”
Despite his scientific worries, the star of “The Grand Budapest Hotel” said he’s also inspired by what the future holds.
“As long as we all have something wholesome and sincere in mind … I’m inspired by the idea that the world can work for everyone,” he said.