Our lord and savior Jeff Goldblum made his feature debut over ten years prior in the original Death Wish, playing a rapist punk, but it was perhaps his portrayal of Seth Brundle in David Cronenberg’s The Fly that turned the actor into a true movie star. To this day, Brundle is one of Goldblum’s truly iconic characters… one of many.

It’s also the role that made Goldblum into a quirky sex symbol of sorts, and Goldblum was asked to reflect on that particular thought in a new chat with Yahoo.

“I had my flowy locks at that point,” Goldblum recalled, trying to figure out what it was about Brundle that made him sexy to so many. “If anything is attractive, at least for me, it is somebody who is passionate and interested in something, and focused on something, and has some brainpower too, and that character is supposed to be kind of a smarty pants. So, you know, maybe that was attractive.”

He continued. “And of course, once I get mashed up with the fly DNA, I’m given to great power, volatile storms and a sexuality, a fevered unquenchable sexuality.”

Goldblum also reflected on The Fly‘s standout, Oscar-winning makeup effects.

“Chris Walas won the Oscar for that, yes. And Stephan Dupuis, for five hours, put me in a dentist’s chair and applied that thing,” Goldblum remembered. “And then another hour after we were done… ya know, rub rub rub… took it off. Kinda squeezed on this suit… rubbery suit… so I look all boily… misshapen. And then prosthetics.”

“It’s not the most comfortable thing but it wasn’t bad. It was a fun thing to do.”