Jeff Bridges Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

I worked nude offered to practice this and I can remember once in my office practicing it you know nude in the corner and my wife Sue coming in and opening the door and seeing her husband huddled and you know a fetal position nude on the floor first a little shock and they should all know you're an actor okay okay cause it kind of you know confused the last picture show wing Johnson oh the last picture show I was sure lucky to get on board with that one you know my agent said to have a casting call I went out I think according to Peter Bogdanovich I was the first one cast you know every once in a while you go through the door and they say oh that's the guy and I guess that was the case with me so I'd really lucked out what a wonderful film that is it's not like any movie and no movies like it it's just sits there by itself as far as preparing for the role there was a young man he's about 16 years old fella by the name of Lloyd Catlett hired for a small part in the movie as well as teaching us California kids how to be Texas kids Lloyd did a wonderful job and he kind of fell in love with the circus you know with the movie biz and now it turns out I don't know how many years later that is 50 years later or whatever in it Lord has been my stand-in for all of those movies for over 60 films together I was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor that year for a blast picture show these were in the days when there was really no a campaign or anything like that I remember it was just a 19 year old kid somebody both waking me up about 4 o'clock in the morning said oh my god I couldn't believe it big surprise putting the boat in Lightfoot Lightfoot and that was Michael Jimmy nose first film that he directed and he wrote it as well as you you might know Clint Eastwood who was the producer and star of that film he likes to do maybe one or two takes I was the punk kid who can I go to Mike to me know I say I can't and I do you guys do one more I gotta ask the boss you know and so it would say I'll give the kid a shot go go ahead so I really appreciated that and then later in the Heaven's Gate oh gosh we would take you know 40 50 60 takes some time so it was quite a bit different Michael Jimmy no I remember now this I'm gonna kind of this is this is gonna be a little kind of a long story but it might be a good one that was early on my career of this thunderbolt and Lightfoot and I remember being very anxious and I didn't really feel like the character at all and I went into Kamino today before we shot and I was really upset I said Mike I'm sorry I'm doing this but I gotta tell ya I think you got the wrong guy for this part I don't know how to do this part and I I'm really you know I don't feel like this guy at all and he gave me a brilliant piece of direction that I still hold close to my heart he said you know the game tag and I said yeah yeah he says well you're it I think what do you mean he says you are the guy there's no ifs ands or buts or whatever you do that's what the guy does yeah you're you're you're it tag you're it King Kong see I remember growing up in the ditching high school or not in a high school grammar school pretending I was sick when I would look in the TV Guide and see the King Kong that old you know one from the 30s was on I love that movie and so when I got offered the part in the updated version I was all excited about it we shot that movie for nine months I think and it was a beautiful location in kawaii and a wonderful cast Charles Grodin Jessica Lange it was Jessica Lange's first movie I believe and I thought she just nailed to nailed that part Rick Baker I think that was one of his first big extravagant makeup assignments he played the monkey for a while and they had a big statue of the monkey but I can remember one moment where they had a giant hand that was gonna hold and Jessica Lange the hand was built in Italy and they had a separate Italian fella on each finger to move the faders like this and the director John Gill irma he was very frustrated because he would he would say all right tighter tighter and then the Italian guy would say all right whoever tighter and it was very hard to communicate so John Gill Herrmann finally said just watch my hand and he held his hand up over his head and he had all these Italian guys on these levers looking at John trying to end his Jessica in the middle of this giant hand and well you had to be there it sounds frightened because he almost got crushed to death you know but it was one of those things that's humorous and frightening all at the same time that was a long-winded weird story I don't know that bad cause one end Stephen lists burger came up with this idea of Tron what would it be like if a person was sucked inside a computer and Wow a wild idea and he had such a great imagination back in the day when we did the first Tron it was shot in black-and-white 70 millimeter black-and-white we were all on these leotards with soccer helmets on I think they were ice hockey helmets I can't remember we were all encouraged to wear colorful clothes to work because everything was black and white when we were shooting all hand tinted in Korea I think you know later sequels are wonderful when you have a character that you get to play again and Tron's a good example of that Joe Kaczynski was the director of this one it was his first movie can you imagine directing a you know 200 million dollar movie for your first movie but Joe took me on to it like a duck to water he created a great atmosphere was very very easygoing and I think the film turned out pretty good the star man yes Tom man I remember going in for an interview with John Carpenter the director of that fell and I had this idea of storm man who's was really impersonating a human being as best as he could it wasn't a very good impersonation at first if he was leaning on something for instance you know us human beings we wiill it you know we lean and there's a purpose to it but star man would do that same thing but it would be assuming the position but he wouldn't put his weight on it that kind of thing John seemed to like that Oh often when I'm making a movie elf say who of my friends remind me of this character and I was looking through my phonebook say what friend would I not be surprised to find out was an alien from another planet I came across this wonderful fella Russell Clark was a dancer and we worked quite a bit on that beginning scene when star man is being born and I figured if I could get that in his movements then I could just gradually become more human as the movie went on Karen Allen was just remarkable in that movie if you're playing a king in a movie and nobody's treating you like a king well then you ain't a king you know and that goes for being an alien in the movie too and she made it all all come together made it all so real The Big Lebowski played the dude what can I say let's see gosh such a good time I've got to work with my good buddy t-bone Burnett who did all that wonderful music and of course the Coen brothers you know God those guys they're their masters you know they make it look so easy and it's such just such a terrific movie you know I'm another guy who looks at a lot of my movies on TV or whatever but when that movie comes on I get hooked you know I I'll say I'll just watch it you know just watch till tuturro licks the ball and then I'll you know click I'm a clicker guy going something else but then I'll say oh no I'll just wait for that's in there and I ended up watching the whole thing it's just made so well that that film years later a friend of mine Bernie Glassman who happened to be a Zen master said you realize in many circles the dude is considered a Zen master I said what are you talking about we never talked spirituality or Buddhism or nothing I said he says oh yeah who wrote and directed the film the Coen brothers a Coen are these Zen questions like you know what is the sound of one hand clapping these sort of things and he says that movie The Big Lebowski is filled of modern-day Cohens I said really he said sure you're like the dude abides that's it Buddhist kind of thought or that's just like your opinion man the Coen brothers you know there's such terrific writers I find a lot of people you know are wondering if there was a lot of improv in that movie because it's kind of the dialogue seem so natural and no there was not it was all down the page every every man you wanted him in the right spot because it was like music in rehearsal we would improv to kind of find the life of the same but when it got down to shooting I mean I was always looking at the strip to find out where the man is you know where the f-bomb is you know those guys the Masters True Grit Rooster Cogburn True Grit well I get to work with the Cohens again that was you know so so wonderful great cast Josh Brolin and Hailee Steinfeld just nailed that that part very difficult part you know I get to ride - man I get to do that baby put that you know playing cowboys contender president Jetson I'm pretty fussy you know I try to work as little as possible you know because I know what it implies yeah you're gonna work and it takes you away from your family and all your other interests and also it when you do in that movie you're unable to do this movie coming down the pike that you don't even sure what that movie is but you might like it better so I really try to hold out as long as I can prior to the getting the script of the contender I'd held out pretty long time and I read that script and I remember yelling out to my wife sue I think we got one it's wonderful in the film when the writer knows the world that he's writing about Ron Laurie really knew what he was talking about he was a reporter and he got into the reporting business so he could talk to filmmakers because he was really interested in directing films then the other big plus for that movie was working with Joan Allen who I'd worked with in Tucker years before she played my wife and that hearing I was getting it support her in this wonderful role as far as you know role models for that film you know who I used is my father Lloyd Bridges who I learned all my basics from my dad acting basics but the main thing I learned from him was something not in words or anything like that but just observing how he was when he worked on a set he enjoyed this thing that we do so much that it was contagious and I kind of spread through the company and if oh yeah this is kind of fun and I thought that was the same kind of energy that this president President Jackson had I think and Clinton the editor he really enjoyed being president you know and I think Jackson did too Iron Man is staged well a lot of funny memories come to me John Favreau and Robert Downey jr. were on board and we thought the script needed a lot of work we had two weeks of rehearsal and we met together and we really ironed the thing out quite well I'm we all fought and then a day before shooting we get a message from the Marvel folks this was Marvel's first superhero movie they said oh no no no either script you changed it all wrong we said oh my god what are we gonna do well what we did is that we would often meet in my trailer before work for two or three hours trying to figure out what we're gonna shoot that day there was no script you know the crew would be in there tapping their foot waiting for us and we'd be in there you know playing each other's parts and improvising you know John would be calling the writer friends of his and it was driving me absolutely crazy you know I I like to know my lines until I'm a little adjustment inside and it turned it all around and that little adjustment was me talking to myself and just said Jeff please relax you are making a 200 million dollar student film that's it just have fun you know you've got John Favreau and Downey they're so good man relax and have fun I said oh that's right so that's what we did we just jammed had a great time and I think it's up there on the on the screen you got Downey who was a master and Favreau he's so skilled at so many things that are important making a movie not only is he great improviser and actor and writer and director and all that stuff but he can talk with the suits you know he knows how to not blow it and get the job done and you know look at his movies it's wonderful crazy hard bad play crazy hot ah man again got to work with my good buddy t-bone t-bone Burnett I remember turning that movie down quite a few times because there was no music to it so I thought oh you know it would be great to do a musician a little playing guitar but the fact they don't have to be music I can let that one go and then I ran into my buddy t-bone and he said what do you think about this crazy heart script I said well there's no music dude he says oh that's the easy part I said what are you interested in doing is it but I'll do it if you'll do it and I said really so off we went and such a joyous experience Scott Cooper it was his first movie that he wrote and directed he's by far one of my favorite directors to work with the part of playing a you know a country singer was so wonderful I've been playing guitar since I've been a kid it opened to my my music world in such a beautiful way I have a band I go out in the road with now called the abiders and that all I think all that came from crazy heart hell or high water Wow hell or high water david mckenzie great director I was a big fan of his film called startup and I figure this guy is gonna do wonderful and many sure did oh one of the great pleasures for me in that movie was working with Gil Birmingham who I had most of my scenes with wonderful actor you know you're very lucky when you're making the movie when you get an authentic version of the guy here plan and we were so fortunate to have walking Jackson who is one of the foremost Texas Rangers on board oh man he taught me so much not only you know how the guys look in their attitude but just being in them proximity one of those guys you seem to know something just kind of comes over when they open when they're open to you you know and what keen certainly was bad times at the El Royale father Daniel Flynn it's wonderful when you when the writer and director of the same person you know because you got the source there directing you on the thing and when you get a director like Drew who is a very strong opinion of how it should go but he's also open to everybody else's ideas that's my favorite and drew was certainly that type of director and really created a great environment on the set for assault of to have a good time and you know do our best work by keeping us relaxed you know but the movie is by no means a relaxed kind of movie there's lots of twists and turns and a lot of surprises it was more the story than the character I love what the story was saying with the movie was saying I enjoyed working with the Nick Offerman who played my brother and all the guys you know Jon Hamm Chris Hemsworth what wonderful cast jeez I've made a lot of good movies huh you

Channel: GQ

Views: 1,882,583

Rating: 4.9579434 out of 5

Keywords: celebrity, iconic, jeff bridges, iconic characters, jeff bridges interview, jeff bridges iconic characters, jeff bridges 2018, jeff bridges characters, jeff bridges the dude, jeff bridges roles, jeff bridges movie, jeff bridges movies, jeff bridges films, jeff bridges the big lebowki, jeff bridges big lebowski, the big lebowski, jeff bridges breaks down, jeff bridges explains, the dude, jeff bridges best roles, true grit, gq, gq magazine

Id: pfRrpBYvDQY

Length: 16min 58sec (1018 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 12 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/ISO2000]

Hey, he didn’t mention R.I.P.D

[u/RustyDetective]

The Dude! Man, I'd love to just sit at a bowling alley bar and talk with Mr. Bridges.

[u/Superawesomecoolman]

It seems like he has a real warm spot for the Tron movies and that makes me happy.

[u/dating_derp]

Honestly Jon Favreau doesn't get enough credit for Iron Man 1. Usually director's have enough on their plate. This guy had all the usual stuff and improvising a ton on the script / dialogue.

[u/notHiro]

I could listen to him talk about anything.

[u/niche1111]

“Hey I made a lot of good movies.” You’re damn right Jeff Bridges.

[u/Kimkowski]

Fisher King ?

[u/AccountsArePointless]

When actors break down their characters like this, it is never inline with what the Internet believes

[u/BradyDowd]

Watching Arlington Road now.