Jeff Goldblum gave up eating meat due to Wicked: For Good's animal cruelty themes

Jeff Goldblum “stopped eating meat” after grappling with the theme of animal cruelty in Wicked: For Good.

The 73-year-old actor stars in the upcoming musical blockbuster as the Wizard of Oz - who uses animals as a scapegoat to maintain his totalitarian control over the Emerald City and Oz - and Goldblum has now revealed he has become a vegetarian after playing the villain in Wicked: For Good “changed” him.

During an appearance on This Morning, Goldblum said: “It’s uncommon that you get to be doing this over a period of time and get more fertile and juicy and interesting and relevant roles for yourself at this period of time.

“Working with [director] Jon M. Chu [is] amazing. It’s changed me. You know, after doing this movie, we talked about the animal cruelty, I stopped eating meat and poultry. So this Christmas and Thanksgiving, I may be having another something else.

“We need the world to work for everybody on Earth and every creature, too.”

Wicked: For Good - which is based on the second half of the Broadway musical Wicked - follows Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande) as their relationship is pushed to its breaking point when the Good Witch is forced to choose between her best friend and the Wizard of Oz (Goldblum).

The movie - which hits cinemas on November 21, 2025 - also stars Jonathan Bailey as Prince Fiyero, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Ethan Slater as Boq and Colman Domingo as the Cowardly Lion.

Chu recently teased the “stakes are way higher” in Wicked: For Good, with the film exploring the complex and heartbreaking friendship between Elphaba and Glinda.

Speaking with Collider, the 46-year-old director said: “It's all about the girls, as they say. As we said to each other over and over, ‘It's about the girls, stupid.’ These girls, if you thought they were great in movie one, in movie two, they actually get to shatter the dream. They actually get to rebuild these characters.

“They actually get to give them a wickedness and a goodness, and then have to forgive each other and be rebirthed into a new form. To me, this is the reason we made Wicked.

“Of course, there's bigger action, bigger drama. The stakes are way higher. But at the end of the day, it's this beautiful story of this friendship, and the things that hold us together as a world, and I think we need that more than ever.”

The Crazy Rich Asians filmmaker also admitted he wasn’t ready to let go of Wicked.

He told People: “When you live with something for five-plus years, and you dream about it and you wake up with nightmares right in front of you, it sticks with you. I have not processed it yet.

“Everyone was very emotional, and I couldn’t feel it yet. I was like, ‘No, I’ll see you next week.’ But I think the office is empty now, which is really sad.

“It’s one big story to me, and now, finally, I get to let it go.”