Jeff Bridges, John Goodman And Steve Buscemi Talk ‘The Big Lebowski’ In Extended Inteview | TODAY

we want let's get down to business no I sure does who's doing open times away yeah let's just go this way when you first read the script what do you think was hysterical it's we kind of hit it off with the first movie we did together and I was I was really catch as that they sent it to me and it's laugh-out-loud funny and that script with the addition of a couple of lines like human paraquat and something else was was what showed up on the screen because I had a lot of people ask me if we did improv yeah I thought the bowling alley stuff was in profile I'm not that good I need to I need that script what did you think Seamus yeah John just you know I loved it there writing really just you know shown and it around the page it felt like it was improvisation improvisation we're on the page and but no man we stuck to it when we had a couple of weeks rehearsal and we did some improv to kind of get the life of the scene but when they got down to shooting I you know did I hit get the man in the right place you know did another f-bomb or exacta that you wanted because it was like me it's like music you wanted to put it right word with the guys playable we had their rehearsal who said I think they're really cemented everything yeah it got us all go on and then but yeah I think it was a vital yeah did you know what the movie was about I mean before I read the script so when you read it what do you do things like you know I loved it I thought it was really kind of like wild weird and funny but I have to say when I was reading the part of Donnie I I kind of didn't get it I was i I was felt bad for the guy exactly I thought what is Walter bully him all the time and I and as I'm reading it up I thought how am I gonna tell Joe Nathan that I don't want to do this I don't want to do and then I got to the to the last scene well Donnie's Lessing and then I saw the relationship I saw how much Walter really loves Donnie and how they're like brothers and and I found it very moving you know and then my favorite scene is Theodore Donald Kerr about those what are the funny things I think I told you guys this there was a fan that came up to me and since I have a theory about Donnie does that remember the 90 and the theory is that Donnie does not exist he's a figment of Walter's imaginations he's an old war war buddy that died because when you think and I said well that's interesting because I don't ever really relate to you I think I say you know what Thank You Donnie when you say the I could just say that to just be busted Walter's chops after we had cut the fight in the park oh and you bit that guy's ear off no Peters ear off nice tonight oh and I remember the brothers they loved flea you know the bass player of what's hot chili peppers he was in it and he gets knocked in the testicles with a bowling ball or something and he just I remember that just crawl three or four minutes and be closed up and the brother says that's gonna be the trailer [Laughter] [Music] so when you're making the movie for those of us cultists this is a source of enormous joy was it fun to do oh yeah on top of the world nobody else's oh yeah and all the guys come to remember the date - Turo showed up you know the ball Liam thank you oh yeah all the great characters and they beg you know yeah gosh I were just him you years before that David Huddle's they're amazing yeah right it's why I mean isn't that interesting you know making movies they're like little incarnations and you'll like work with a guy who owned a time we would do of course terrific scenes you know Sam right and how many bombs in the movie did anybody ever count I would I bet you I would imagine it's the record isn't it do you think do you remember do you remember doing correcting all the f-bombs and the TV version yeah oh we get big not very creative the night I had beat up the Corvette nobody told me that they bought the neighborhood do you remember whines do you remember lines from the movie oh really [Laughter] that's really like you and Julie just chuck filled them wonderful guys so do you ever watch it I if it's on TV that's right not to things I don't want everyone get burned out off yeah but I have to watch it every once in a while just yeah but I usually don't most it feels like in my conversations with actors over there's a lot of guys just shoot the thing you might see it once and then forget about it or not watching it all how about you I mean it's been a while since I've watched it I watched it with my son you know when when when he was you know and that was great you know to kind of sit to see that I we I saw a piece of it remember when we did the Lebowski Fest oh yeah we did this panel we couldn't even hear each other so I wanted to stay and watch the film because it look like yeah like that's how I want to see it no no I wanted to stay in Endicott weird okay you take it yeah I I'm a cook you know I watch TV I'm a clicker guy just you know get a little Boris just spin it but I see Lebowski it's like okay it's just like do you guys know about to Toros pederast movie character is it done is it finished nobody seen it so you make a movie like this you love this ring you love working together and then nobody goes to see it yeah that's right that's true it was it wasn't a big thing yeah yeah it was you know it was a weird thing that it came after Fargo yeah they mention and here's these guys could have done anything he's very like strange a movie to make fun following that I loved it but I you know I was like oh well I guess you know that one yeah all right yeah and it took like five or six years before people started coming up to me it's a bigger hit yeah but you know what it was a lot of college kids who'd come up to me uh-huh like about five years five or six years after we made it work maybe even longer and the thing that struck me was how many times they saw it like it would be I've seen that movie ten times yeah yeah what do you keep seeing new stuff in it yeah I know and now I get it coming to life it continues to read can we swear hair hair is this not a good idea it's so good it's all good yeah we pretty much did it with straight faces too yeah yeah oh yeah we didn't we didn't have no there was there was one I remember I remember one time when I broke up with sand with Sam yeah you know when he was thing though cuz here's Sam Elliott and that voice over the top of the movie yeah with that old yeah I set the stage it just kind of sits sits by itself that movie I can't think of any movie that it's kind of like that or its I know it's not kind of like what what is it like what yeah what genre is this it was like we oughta Marlowe yeah [Laughter] so I think it was the Washington Post actually went and looked at own reviews and then talked to the reviewers to say you want to do over oh it's uncle I haven't found the time to go back because it was the world that said it was not seen particularly favorably haha well you know that's a thing that humans like to do we like to set guys up you know like win the award and then knocking down Melissa some reason I must have blocked all that stuff I don't leave reviews anyway you have it on the snob or anything but you don't remember being kind of night blowers yeah I had so much fun doing it I really didn't care I well I think I do remember that people didn't know what to make of it that date you know that this is me and then I think what the movie does so brilliantly is that once you know what it is then you really enjoy like every moment of it you get to know the scenes that are coming you just enjoy it I don't know what it is but I love it it's just you know it sees great characters and relationships well we understand like you know the I'm just you know now as we sit here in title the memories are flooding that kid his housekeeper she's so good and what about Jack Jack last name begins with the K my landlord and his [Applause] Oh brilliant yeah proper Nawaz and the guy who played Jackie she was looked like he was right he was writing notes and see oh he's the guy he's the drawing with the erection that's what you end up like yeah the more bizarre you could be yeah we're what it wasn't like Frank Sinatra's house or something very famous yeah so when people come up to you on the street and can you tell a Lebowski fan is coming or right I used evening from a mile away and what do they say what's the usual do they say lines to you yeah we have no way to put this on television just when we actually think about it I thought about they show says those guys there are how many through 275 f-bombs in the unit is that right Zoey that's what a single scene on yeah they would let us when we loop the film to take the cuss words out yeah say whatever you yeah and we had some weird ones you know my god it was something to do with wouldn't you say with the car when you were doing the stream yeah yeah yeah so maybe we tried to get creative yeah we did and it was pretty funny what do people say to you when they when they come up to you Lebowski dude abides you know I was sitting next to a Zen master at this dinner party and he leans over to me kind of Bernie Glassman and he says you realize in many Buddhist circles the dude is considered a Zen master I said what are you talking about and he says oh yeah he says well look who wrote and directed the Coen brothers and he's all about bringing Buddhist thought into modern times and he says let's write a book because there are so many modern-day cons in Lebowski you know I said you're kidding because we had no spiritual talks or nothing like that I said what do you mean give me an idea he's what the dude abides it's very Buddhistic right there but well that's just like your opinion so we wrote a book called the Zen master and did that so there is a there is a religion Judaism yeah right it has I think somewhere between four and five hundred thousand priests you can't marry out of them everyone's a breeze yeah I didn't see my brothers die facedown in the mud I was wondering if Walter over really served I think it was in the rear with the hair I think he was in but he was just then back at the PX or so you know I wondered the same thing I thought I wonder if he's a fake well I never meant of that that was an erection they've talked about much right those watches Walter photography you must have been scared by something his ex-wife I wondered how how the dude and Walter became friends like such different guys good friends I thought I'm singing there too the whole notion of the three of you is being it seemed to me unlikely bowling team members that strong true maybe a system like a bowling thing you know you kind of find your fellow boulders because you were every time you we Bowl we were not called out right [Laughter] but the expert bowler who came to teach us you remember and there's like this you know he's like a master bowler and his apprentice or his sidekick and I'm saying you know what do you how do you think the dude might prepare to bowl you know is it kind of like an art cart you know Art Carney it's thing you know and Jackie Gleason you know loosen up before he throws the ball and I look over there at the mat bowling masters assistant he goes what's going on nothing come on guys and the master says god tell him going then the guy says no you're telling me so the master bowler says yes is that and that's exactly what happened to me is that you know bowling it's like you know the zen and the art of you know archery the pins are either up or down even before you pull your hand back you've got to get in the right mindset so he would do that you know that Art Carney thing did you know make sure he was right in the the empty space do all these things and the guys on the bench championship games would say Rob I say so what happened he says oh it ruined my career I had to take you know year off and you drank and I said well so what do you do now he says I just was the last shot in the movie that guy you see the guy throw the strike right right after Sam has that long did you work with him that much but just enough to act like I knew what I was doing yeah cuz that only hit one shot or smoke the cigarette I've got a shot of you I don't know what you were doing where you were like you were cooling your face on the hand oh yeah yeah Jeff chef is this great camera that is like what 180 Jerry and he was shot pictures and he gave everybody a really great photograph yeah really cool does it seem like 20 years that was a little goofier back then but yeah it doesn't it doesn't it's strange but there's a whole generation now that's growing up with the stuff kids in college yeah they say it for the first time have you worked with the brothers I work with them before they for that was my course yeah and then I did first was Miller's Crossing oh wow you've got five or nine but then I did parrisha Tim they they did like this short film in this film this feature film that had 10/10 shorts in it from directors from all over but we did a live like radio staged plays oh yeah called Sawbones good they wrote that they wrote that uh there were two two other writers yeah yeah no but no she was in Charlie Callas was though it was like yes how many have you done I've done two say Raising Arizona this Barton Fink we bit peckish oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah yeah yeah and their God think got something else coming out now don't think I'm what works the Cowboys have like with Tim Blake's in that it's on Netflix now you can see it now I don't I don't think you can see it yeah oh yeah what's it like to work for those guys it's it's fabulous I mean and they really do both do direct I mean it took a few years yeah Ethan now is you know also credited as a director but Houston used to be Joel was a director Ethan was the producer but they both direct yeah it was kind of a cliche date for the Chiefs other sentences and both like minded and I I got a lot with him for the first time I auditioned for him for raising Arizona we just sat in a room and laugh for an hour yeah and I kind of didn't care if I got the movia and figured yeah I was pleasantly surprised sorry can't hear them laughing sometimes during a take yeah Ethan Ethan walking around with a stick or something he's like walking around the only time they ever disagreed because that you know I was wondering when I remember I first got the gig what is gonna be like to work with two directors brothers you know I mean I love my brother but to direct the movie with I don't know man and the only ruffle that they had you know that wasn't an argument because a disagreement was when I was going to go in the dream and hit my head on the bowling pins and Joel said to me now I'm on my little skateboard we're going about to go just now when you hit those pins you're kind of you know kind of like you know wins because it's gonna be painful you know you and Ethan so really no I thought he'd be kind of smiling and kind of the delightful thing and they did that a couple of times and and then if I said well just shoot it both ways that's it

Channel: TODAY

Views: 2,163,905

Rating: 4.9349666 out of 5

Keywords: The TODAY Show, TODAY Show, TODAY, NBC, Celebrity Interviews, TODAY Show Interview, pop culture, big lebowski, jeff bridges, the dude, john goodman, steve buscemi, lebowski, cult films, cinema, reunions, reunion, comedy, big lebowski cast, the big lebowski, big, the big lebowski jeff bridges, brothers, clip, movieclips, the big lebowski scene, the big lebowski movie, inter, int, interview, big lebowski cast interview

Id: KNzquU4hjpk

Length: 26min 51sec (1611 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 18 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Pizzanigs]

Jesus christ Goodman lost a ton of weight

[u/JakalDX]

Steve's point about people not knowing what to make of it the first time is dead on. People I know who see it for the first time, they feel like they wasted their time on a story that didn't mean anything, but when they watch it again, knowing that it's not "going anywhere", they sort of settle into the scenes, and the brilliance comes out.

[u/[deleted]]

LMAO @ "Turturro's pederast movie"

[u/DrakesYodels]

God this interviewer is really clinical.

[u/[deleted]]

"I didn't see my brothers die face down in the mud for this kind of religious mockery"

[u/s1me007]

I think Jeff Bridges has the best hair on earth

[u/modix]

All three have such interesting voices. All immediately recognizable and distinct. One person like that and they steal the show... Three and it's kind of almost distracting.

[u/dime_a_time]

Is this your homework Larry?
I'm going to show you what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps. (TV Version, which makes no sense at all)

[u/workin_on_a_sponse]

This is what I needed