Daily News from New York, New York • 518

34 DAILY NEWS Wednesday, December 30, 1987 XTR A ENTERTAINMENTC 1 By BART MILLS rOULD YOU LIKE TO TAKE off your feet?" Jeff Goldblum is asked. "No, just the ing some lunch between his blue lips. "I like to think of myself that way, anyway. I've got a terrific appetite for sophisticated characters characters who aren't all one thing." Goldblum continues, ambiguously, "I hope there's material out there that can accommodate me I say that humbly, deeply humbly. Not that I wouldn't be able to play what might be called a straight-ahead guy.

I suppose I'm pretty confident" Through the years, leading up to his part of a lifetime in "The Fly," Goldblum's material has been variable, but he always has stuck out He first attracted attention in "Next Stop Greenwich Village," playing an overbearing out-of-work actor. In "The Right Stuff" he was a bureaucrat prone to sea-sickness. In "The Big Chill" he was a slea- A z. SHIi't v' "i Jh uMl -K Atrn ym win ii iiiimi- 1 1 in amaaaaaMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiifn fc-sat i ti hith iiviriiirriiiiio' hands," he answers politely. Goldblum corkscrews his lanky blue frame into a chair in his motor home on the set of his latest film and prepares for a serious lunch-hour discussion of his life and times.

Did I write "blue?" Yes, the 6-foot4 Goldblum is sitting there completely blue blue and furry. He is blue and furry all over, except for his eyes and the inside of his mouth. Goldblum, last seen as a fly in 'The Fly," now is playing an alien in "Earth Girls Are Easy." The musical satire, due for release next spring, reteams Goldblum and his real-life girl friend and co-star from "The Fly," Geena Davis. Keep Goldblum's blueness in mind if only because he never forgets his color. "I have an appetite for poetry and whimsy," he says, explaining why playing fly-men and extraterrestrials comes naturally to him.

His spidery blue arms waving in the air, he repeats, "Poetry flights of fancy but I do think of myself as serious, too, you know." Goldblum's off-centeredness is his stock in trade. He's skilled at portraying everyday weirdness, the wacky looks and actions behind the facade of normality everybody puts up. "I don't know about that," he hesitates. "Hopefully, it's the humanity in characters like the one I did in 'The Fly that make them successful. I like playing human beings.

This alien in 'Earth Girls Are Easy'-I think of him as nakedly, purely human." The film is in the genre of "Gulliver's Travels" the stranger in a strange land, marveling at all he beholds. Goldblum and his two crewmen crash land in Geena Davis' pool. Luck-ily she's a manicurist who knows where they can get a body wrap, and soon they're on the streets in multicolored pants and, in Goldblum's case, blue suede shoes. The transformation is a great opportunity for an actor of Goldblum's range. He can go from playing the humanity of the all-in-blue alien to playing the oddness of the apparently hu-man.

"I'm somewhat, uh, uh, sophisticated," Goldblum says, shovel BLUE SUEDE SELF: Jeff Goldblum in "Earth Girls Are Easy" 'When I left Pittsburgh and went to New York, I had no strategy. I just knew I had to. Becoming an actor was the only thing that could happen. zy magazine reporter who somehow retained everyone's affection. Going for broke is Goldblum's habit From the day he declared himself an actor at 17 and left for New York, he has taken what others think of as risks and what he thinks of as the inevitable course.

"The idea is," Goldblum offers, his speech full of tics and pauses, "the idea is that I haven't really gambled. I don't really take long shots. I got the idea from somewhere to follow your heart "When I decided to leave Pittsburgh and go to New York, I had no strategy. I just knew I had to. Becoming an actor was the only thing that could happen.

I prayed for it. Better than that, I worked for it I took off on sheer will and appetite. And seemingly lucky things happened. "That's still what I'm going on. Helen Keller said, 'Life is either a daring adventure or nothing al I'm happiest when I'm living in a way that's con- gruent with that" Goldblum's bony blue arms are weaving their own spell in the air throughout, his eyes often searching the ceiling for the right words.

As he does on screen, he follows the advice of his old acting teacher, Stanley Meisner: "Act before you think. Leap before you look." nHE DIRECTOR OF "EARTH 1 1 Girls Are Easy," Julien Temple, notes that Goldblum likes to sit between takes and read until the last possible moment before the camera rolls. "Yes!" Goldblum confirms excitedly. "P.G. Wodehouse! I enjoy reading books like 'Ripe Old Jeeves' out loud.

I drove Cyndi Lauper crazy she's so concentrated and serious. I'd whisper, and that would really get to her." Lauper is Goldblum's co-star in "Vibes," a movie he made before "Earth Girls" for release next summer. Goldblum's preferred co-star, however, is Geena Davis. "We met two years and four months ago," he says, beginning a rhapsody. "She's great! What a rare bird!" So they'll be working together a lot in the future? Goldblum's blue face goes neon at the prospect "Let me break this news: The next thing we do together should be deep highbrow.

Or maybe it'll be totally silly. I'd like to make one thing perfectly clear I'm not a silly person. For the third time," he says with mock-severity, gesturing at the blueness of himself, "I'm a serious person." (Bart Mills is a free-lance writer in Los Angeles.) lippiiiaif Jplfalllif I lllllllllllf SII SONGSTRESS MARGARET Whiting performs at the legendary Roseland Ballroom on New Year's Eve (Grace Jones will be there, Dancing to two live bands starts at 8. Admission is $30 and includes hats, noisemakers and balloons. 239 52d St (212) 247-0200.

New York's favorite campy lounge singer, Buster Poin-dexter, will be in concert at the Beacon Theater (74th St and Broadway) with his band, the Banshees of Blue. Gilbert Gottfried, the most manic of stand-up comics, will open the show. All seats are reserved at $30. Margaret Whiting Bustr Polndaxtar.