Jeff Goldblum talks dinosaurs, alien invasions, and boyhood shower secrets.

Recently, Liam Hemsworth had this to say about his “Independence Day: Resurgence” co-star Jeff Goldblum: “What you see is what you get. And all of us could benefit from dropping that front we hold on to a little bit.”

The 63 year-old grimaces when he hears it repeated back to him.

“That is very sweet but I’m always questioning what I say. I’m probably too open for my own preservation,” Goldblum says. “‘Oh did I say the right thing? Should I have said that to him?’”

Hollywood could learn a thing or two from this man.

A living legend, Goldblum got his first movie break with a silent role as a nameless thug in “Death Wish” with Charles Bronson in 1974 and used his towering, bookish good looks and charismatic spirit to win supporting roles in “Silverado” [where he met first wife, actress Patricia Gaul], “The Big Chill,” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”

His breakthrough came in the mid-Eighties in David Cronenberg’s remake of “The Fly,” which thrust the actor into the A-list [it’s also where he met second wife, Geena Davis], and he followed that with a string of modern classics including “The Tall Guy” and “Earth Girls Are Easy” [also with Davis].

Then came a lead in what was to become one of the biggest movies in history — "Jurassic Park.” Together with Steven Spielberg and a bunch of ferocious dinosaurs, Goldblum charmed audiences with his performances as sardonic Dr. Ian Malcolm to a bountiful tune of over $1 billion at the box office.

Surely he could never match that in his career?

Three years later, he did just that with Roland Emmerich’s sci-fi juggernaut, “Independence Day,” an earth-shattering saga in which marauding aliens bring havoc to the planet. “ID4,” as it was known, also took in just about a billion.

Goldblum was the king of the blockbuster.

And while attempting to leave behind his CGI roots with a series of indie hits over the years, a la “Igby Goes Down,” “Le Weekend,” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” when Goldblum was tempted back for another adventure with the dinos in “The Lost World,” we knew a second go-around with the aliens was destined to happen.

Alongside original cast members Bill Pullman and Vivica Fox,  he returns as David Levinson, numerical genius and now head of the ESD [Earth Space Defense] which, for the last 20 years, has been preparing for a second invasion.

At 63, steadfastly youthful in a black leather biker jacket, the actor chats about the genesis of the sequel and why Roland Emmerich waited this long to finally step back in the ring with the extra-terrestrials.

He also chats about fatherhood, welcoming his first son with his third wife, Emilie Livingston–a son who was born on Independence Day last year.

And in frank, typically chatty form, he looks back on his career, questions a return to the dinosaurs, and explains why he’ll never stop learning.

Was a sequel always in the cards and was it simply a case of waiting for it to happen?

I had a feeling it would happen. I was never certain but you know, you have a feeling. I’m good like that. Intuitive intuition. Very tapped in. No, Roland [Emmerich] and Dean [Devlin] have been cooking this for twenty years, not to brag but I knew about it, [laughs] Not to brag but I knew about it…I’ve heard whispers on the green. But for Roland in particular, this is a very personal project. It was never a product he wanted to push out for the box office return that would have been the easy option. He wanted the script just right.

No one working on this movie ever expected it have this global response that has reverberated and resonated over the past 20 years. It completely exceeded expectations. We knew we were on to something great, but you can’t predict that breed of universal reaction. And for 20 years, we’ve all been asked when is there going to be more, when is it going to happen? And now we’re finally here, pretty much 20 years to the day it came out. Perfect timing.

“I’m nourished by the act of acting. That’s what absorbs me and delights and appetizes my spiritual palate.”

So four years ago, I met with them, they were going to proceed, they had the script, they had cracked it and everyone was very happy with it. He almost had it right but then the engines were reversed for about two years because he was uncomfortable with the script. It took a while to get things going again.

It wasn’t the studio getting nervous also?

No, it wasn’t a difficult production to get off the ground. Far from it, the studio has been waiting for 20 years. They were ready with the starter’s gun, they just needed Roland’s say-so, who is a director I’ve been passionately wanting to work with again. He really is the Da Vinci in his genre, the Shakespeare, the Plato. A defining artist.

And we got the cast back, actors who I have tremendous respect for; Bill Pullman, Brent Spiner, Vivica Fox, and then the new cast, Liam, Jessie, Sela Ward, the talented Charlotte Gainsbourg, do you know her? Have you seen her in Lars Von Triers’s “Melancholia?” “AntiChrist,” “Nymphomaniac?” Tremendously gifted.

You seem to have really made an impression on Liam…he says he’s in love with you!

And it’s reciprocated. There stands a beautiful man, inside and out. Yea, really was a pleasure being in his company. Beautiful values and morals, treats everyone he meets with the utmost respect. Like his character, there’s that brooding heroism. He is and will be an important actor on our cinemas’ screens.

So explain to me what David is up to 20 years later?

He’s the head of the ESD, the Earth Space Defense which means I am now, the coalition director of all things national defense, an international cooperative which crosses all borders. I’m kinda an important guy .

Makes sense, he was responsible for offering what little forewarning they had the first time around.

So yes, so who better to man the barracks if the aliens were ever to make a tumultuous return!

Which when I read the script first, I thought it was an expected career change. What now? He went from working at a cable TV company to this. He was an underachieving guy, who rode a bicycle, frustrated by his surrounds.

And as well, I always thought of him as a scholar, as an environmentalist, he’s used much of the downed alien technology to solve many of the world’s global environmental problems, simplify out energy needs, rebuild. But as a previously vocal pacifist, there’s this contradiction because he’s also used this technology to arm a fleet against another attack. Which he knows is coming. He’s anticipating a war.

He was in that mothership, he enjoyed and endured a brief taste of their mind set. This is what 20 years has done to David Levinson. He’s a changed man.

How is this invasion different from the last?

How is it different? I think, I…what is interesting about this invasion, it poses interesting questions about them and quizzically, ourselves also which is the creative prowess of Roland Emmerich’s writing. There’s so many questions that weren’t answered in the last one. Where did they come from? What was their intent? Did we really beat them?

The last time, it was an interpretation that they wanted to exterminate our species, all life on the planet and drain our resources. But from this visitation we infer things about them which shines a light on ourselves, our current situation, and what we need to work on.

That’s pretty deep for a summer blockbuster.

That’s the ever-metamorphizising genius of Roland Emmerich.

I have to say, you haven’t aged a day in 20 years. What’s the secret?

No secret, no elixir, because I would gladly take it if there was. I look after myself, I eat well and healthily, I work out from time to time, I don’t have any debilitating vices.

And I “think” young. I don’t think of myself as a young man, because I’m not, I’m far from it. But I try to see things from a younger, more optimistic perspective which can help you look younger. Thinking younger, looking younger. And I’m not saying, trying to physically look younger because that generally has the opposite effect.

I’m also a father now. Charlie Ocean, he keeps me young.

Ocean, I love that name!

Thank you! We hope he will like it too.

And he was born on Independence Day! Sure the studio loved that…

It doesn’t get better than that. Joyous coincidence. You know, we were told July 4th but you give allowances for a couple of weeks before, and after — normally a first baby is supposed to be overdue. But sure as you know it, Emilie says, “Ohh, I think something is happening,” and along came Charlie Ocean on Independence Day. You couldn’t make it up.

Now that you’ve come back to “Independence Day,” when are we going to see Dr. Malcolm come back to “Jurassic Park"?

I don’t know, I’ve never received any call to reprise the role for the last one. I wasn’t even in the third one either so the answer to that is, I don’t know.

Would you like to?

I did the first two with Spielberg and I don’t know if there’s a place for the character is the new world.

Between fighting green screen aliens and green screen dinosaurs, you’re a green screen veteran.

It’s just an extension of acting, all that green screen stuff, although in “Jurassic Park,” some of the dinosaurs were done by Stan Winston’s exemplary puppeteering, which was something to marvel at.

Ohh, wow you’ve never seen anything like that.

But acting always has some element of imagination, and in these movies, it’s not meant to be. It’s fantasy and I’m pretending, that’s what I do as an actor. In everything I’ve done, plays I’ve done, you’re often pretending you’re in a place you’re not really in, but that’s what it’s all about. It’s a game.

When did you first decide you wanted to be part of “the game?”

When I was a kid, I got the idea early on to be an actor just from watching the greats like Peter Sellers. Ohh the magnificent Peter Sellers in “Lolita,” Clouseau, “Being There.” Then Brando, people I adored, still adore. And then I remember when, during my last years in high school, every morning I would have a shower and on the steam on my shower door, I would write, “Please God, let me be an actor,” and then I would wipe it off before anyone could see it. It was kind of a secret

Then I left Pittsburgh, moved to New York for four years and studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse and learned under the great Sandy Meisner who taught me to learn to be a piece of nature and appreciate the moment and the movement around you. “Use what exists,” he would always say, which has a rainbow of different meanings, but it’s my mantra in life. I never stop learning. Even to this day, at this moment, I will never stop learning. Acting is a constant education.

You’ve been acting now for 40 years, haven’t you learned enough at this stage?

These are my acting studies, it’s like gardening, it takes constant excavating and over a long period of time, you see growth and life. And it’s enjoyable to be in the process of trying and digging and I hope that never ceases.

You starred in two of the biggest box office-grossing hits of all time but you tend to work on more indie movies lately like “Le Weekend” and “Grand Budapest Hotel.” Which are you more comfortable in?

I’m nourished by the act of acting. That’s what absorbs me and delights and appetizes my spiritual palate. I’m more interested in, what it’s about and people, if they see it, will they be nourished by it? That’s what I care about.

There’s many different ways to answer that but predominantly, I don’t know. I’m not a determined [person]. From the day I got my first job, there was never any structure or plan. I fell into this because it was a passion that I loved, I went with my gut, and followed what I loved to do. That’s a success at life right there.

Photo: Getty Images/ Vera Anderson

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