“Life, uh, finds a way” is one of the most quoted, most recognizable lines in film — and it was almost never said at all. Or, it was almost never said by Jeff Goldblum, whose role of chaos man Dr. Ian Malcolm, the mathematician who basically predicts that the perfect, closed system of Jurassic Park is in no way sustainable, was almost cut from the script.

The revelation comes directly from Goldblum himself who, in a mesmerizing video for Vanity Fair, chatted about his long career in film and mentioned that he almost never played one of his most iconic roles.

I [read] that Michael Crichton book — Ian Malcolm, wow! Smart, funny, interesting character. [Spielberg] was so nice… but he said, ‘You know, there’s a sort of movement afoot… to have that part removed from the script. So since we’ve had this meeting, there’s this little wrinkle that may… render this moot.’ I kind of said, ‘Well, gee!’ I felt moved to advocate for my inclusion!

Well, gee!

I can’t even imagine Jurassic Park without Ian Malcolm (though I may be biased because it is my favorite movie of all time). He’s responsible for a lot of the humorous beats that keep the movie from becoming too scary and dour, and watching him unsuccessfully flirt with Laura Dern will never get old. And if he’d never been in it, we’d never have gotten to see the photo currently being used as a header image in this article.

Here’s the entire video if you’re interested in hearing the rest (trust me, you’re interested):

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