‘It changed me’: Jeff Goldblum says he stopped eating meat after working on Wicked Evil: for good

Actor Jeff Goldblum credits working on the Wicked films with his decision to turn vegan.

Speaking on This Morning, Goldblum, 73, said he was so affected by the film series’ themes of animal cruelty that he stopped eating meat.

“Work with [director] John Chu [is] “Awesome,” he said. “It changed me. You know, after we finished this movie, we talked about animal cruelty, and I stopped eating meat and poultry.

He added: “We need the world to work for everyone on earth and for every creature as well.”

Goldblum plays the Wizard of Oz in the films, the first of which was released last year and received 10 Academy Award nominations, and the second of which is in cinemas on November 21.

“It’s unusual to do it over a period of time and get more fruitful, interesting, interesting and relevant roles for yourself in that period of time,” he said of the experience.

Wicked: For Good takes place a few years after the events of the first film, with Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba – now known as the Wicked Witch of the West – a fugitive fighting for animal rights, while Ariana Grande’s Galinda is the public figure of Glinda the Good, watched over by Goldblum’s evil leader.

Both Grande and Erivo have been vegan since 2013. Transitions to veganism are not uncommon. James Cromwell, now a prominent vegan campaigner, gave up all foods containing animal products on the second day of filming George Miller’s Babe in 1995. “I broke for lunch before everyone else,” he said. “All the animals I worked with that morning were on the table, cut up, fried, roasted and grilled. That’s when I decided to become a vegetarian.”

A number of actors have credited Woody Harrelson with converting them to veganism, such as Sadie Sink on the set of The Glass Castle, Thandie Newton in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and Liam Hemsworth while working on The Hunger Games.

Other notable vegan or vegetarian actors include Natalie Portman, Jessica Chastain, Brad Pitt, Tobey Maguire, and Zendaya.

In 2020, Joaquin Phoenix used his Academy Award acceptance speech for Best Actor to campaign to end dairy farming.