Jeff Bridges Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters
Released on 10/12/2018
I worked nude often 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 stoddled
in you know a fetal position, nude on the floor.
First shock and then oh no, you're an actor.
Okay, I see and then close it, kind of you know confused.
(upbeat rock music)
The Last Picture Show, Duane Jackson.
Oh The Last Picture Show.
I was sure lucky to get onboard with that one.
You know my agent said they have a casting call.
I went in, I think according to Peter Bogdanovich
I was the first one cast.
You know every once and 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 really lucked out.
What a wonderful film that is.
It's not like any movie and no movie's like it.
It's just sits there by itself.
As far as preparing for the role there was a young man,
he was about 16 years old,
a fellow 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 it is,
Lloyd has been my stand in for all of those movies.
For over 60 films together.
I was nominated for Best Supporting Actor that year
for The Last Picture Show.
These were in the days where there was really no
campaign or anything like that.
I remember I was just a 19 year old kid.
Somebody waking me up about 4:00 in the morning
saying you've been nominated for an academy!
I said oh my god, couldn't believe it.
Big surprise.
(upbeat rock music)
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.
Lightfoot, that was Michael Cimino's
first film that he directed and he wrote it as well.
As 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 I'd go over to Mike Cimino
and I'd say can I do one more?
He says I got to ask the boss you know
and Clint would say oh give the kid a shot.
Go ahead, go ahead.
So I really appreciated that
and then later in Heaven's Gate, oh gosh
we would take you know 40, 50, 60 takes sometimes
so it was quite a bit different.
Michael Cimino I remember,
now this is gonna be a little, kind of a long story,
but it might be a good one.
That was early on in my career
this Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
and I remember being very anxious
and I didn't really feel like the character at all.
And I went in to Cimino the day before we shot
and I was really upset.
I said Mike I'm sorry I'm doing this,
but I got to tell ya I think you got
the wrong guy for this part.
I don't know how to do this part.
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 do you know the game tag?
And I said yeah, yeah.
He says well, you're it.
(laughing)
I say what do you mean?
He says you are the guy.
There's no if ands or buts.
Whatever you do that's what the guy does.
You're it, tag you're it.
(upbeat rock music) King Kong, Jack Prescott.
See I remember growing up
and ditching high school,
or not high school, grammar school,
pretending I was sick when I would look in the TV Guide
and see that King Kong,
that old one from the thirties was on.
I loved 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 Kauai.
And a wonderful cast, Charles Grodin, Jessica Lange,
that was Jessica Lange's first movie I believe
and I thought she just 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 then they had a big statue of the monkey.
But I can remember one moment
where they had a giant hand
that was going to hold Jessica Lange.
The hand was built in Italy
and they had a separate Italian fellow
on each finger to move the fingers like this
and the director, John Guillermin,
he was very frustrated because he would say
all right tighter, tighter
and then the Italian guy would say all right.
(speaking gibberish)
Or whatever, tighter, and it was very hard to communicate.
So John Guillermin 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, and here's Jessica
in the middle of this giant hand and uh,
well you had to be there.
It sounds frightening because she 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 if that's bad.
(upbeat rock music)
Tron, one and two, Kevin Flynn.
Uh Steven Lisberger came up with this idea of Tron.
What would it be like if a person
was sucked inside a computer
and uh wow, wild idea
and he has 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 in these leotards
with soccer helmets on I think they were
or 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 Kosinski was the director of this one.
It was his first movie.
Can you imagine directing you know
a 200 million dollar movie for your first movie,
but Joe took to it like a duck to water.
He created a great atmosphere, was very easy going
and I think the film turned out pretty good.
(upbeat rock music)
Starman, yeah Starman.
I remember going in for an interview
with John Carpenter, the director of that film,
and I had this idea of uh
Starman 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 lean
and there's a purpose to it,
but Starman would do that same thing,
but it would be assuming the position
but he wouldn't put his weight on it.
You know, that kind of thing.
John seemed to like that.
Oh god what a day huh?
[Woman] Yeah.
(film whirring)
(screaming)
Often when I'm making a movie I will say
who of my friends remind me of this character
and uh I was looking through my phone book saying
what friend would I not be surprised to find out
was an alien from another planet
and I came across this wonderful fella,
Russell Clark who was a dancer
and we worked quite a bit on that beginning scene
when Starman 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 a movie too
and she made it all come together,
made it all so real.
(upbeat rock music)
The Big Lebowski, playing the Dude.
What can I say, let's see, gosh such a good time.
I got to work with my good buddy T Bone Burnett
who did all that wonderful music
and of course the Cohen brothers, you know,
god those guys, they're masters.
They make it look so easy and it's such,
just such a terrific movie.
I'm not a 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 say I'll just watch it you know,
just watch til Turturro licks the ball and then I'll,
you know click, I'm a clicker guy.
Go on to something else, but then I'll say
oh no I'll just wait for that scene
and then I end up watching the whole thing.
It's just made so well, 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 none of that.
He says oh yeah, who wrote and directed the film,
the Cohen brothers, a koan 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's filled with modern day koans.
I said really, he said sure.
Like the Dude abides, that's a very Buddhist kind of thought
or that's just like your opinion man.
Liam and me, we're gonna fuck you up.
Yeah, well you know that's just like
your opinion man.
The Cohen brothers you know they're such terrific writers.
I find a lot of people you know are wondering
if there was a lot of improve in that movie
because it kind of, the dialogue seems so natural
and no there was not.
It was all down the page, every fuck, every man.
You wanted them in the right spot
because it was like music.
In rehearsal we would improve
to kind of find the life of the scene,
but when it got down to shooting
man I was always looking at the script
to find out where the man is
you know where the f-bomb is.
You know those guys, the masters.
(upbeat rock music)
True Grit, Rooster Cogburn.
True Grit, well I get to work with the Cohens again.
That was you know so wonderful.
Great cast, Josh Brolin and Hailee Steinfeld
just nailed that part, very difficult part.
You know I get to ride too man.
I get to do that thing, put the and I'm like
(imitating guns firing)
you know it was fun, playing cowboys.
(upbeat rock music)
The Contender, President Jackson.
I'm pretty fussy you know.
I try to work as little as possible you know
because I know what it implies
you go to work and it takes you away from your family
and all your other interests.
Also when you're doing that movie,
you're unable to do this movie coming down the pike
that you're not 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 getting the script of The Contender
I held out a pretty long time
and I read that script and I remember
yelling out to my wife Sue,
hey I think we got one!
You know.
(laughing)
It's wonderful in the film
when the writer knows the world that he's writing about
and Rod Lurie really knew what he was talking about.
He was a reporter and he got into the reporting business
so he could talk to filmmakers
cause 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 in that and here
I was gonna support her in this wonderful role.
As far as role models for that film,
you know who I used is my father, Lloyd Bridges,
who I learned all my basics from my dad,
the 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 is was contagious and it kind of spread
through the company and oh yeah this is kind of fun.
And that's the same kind of energy that this president,
President Jackson had.
I think and Clinton had it.
He really enjoyed being president you know
and I think Jackson did too.
(upbeat rock music)
Iron Man, Obadiah Stane.
Well (laughing)
Lot of funny memories come to me.
Jon 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 we all thought
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, the script
you've changed it all wrong.
(laughing)
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 were 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 playing each other's parts
and improvising, you know Jon would be calling
writer friends of his
and it was driving me absolutely crazy.
You know I like to know my lines.
Until, I made a little adjustment inside
and it turned it all around.
And that little adjustment was
me talking to myself and just saying Jeff please relax.
You are making a 200 million dollar student film,
that's it, just have fun.
You know you got Jon 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 screen.
You got Downey who is a master
and Favreau he's so skilled at so many things
that are important in making a movie.
Not only is he a great improvisor 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, he's wonderful.
(upbeat rock music)
Crazy Heart, Bad Blake.
Crazy Heart, ah man,
again got to work
with my good buddy T Bone, T Bone Burnett.
I remember uh 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, I love playing guitar,
but the fact they don't have any 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
and I said well there's no music to it.
He says oh that's the easy part.
I say well are you interested in doing it
and he says well 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 country singer was so wonderful.
I've been playing guitar since I've been a kid.
It opened my music world in such a beautiful way.
I have a band, I go out on the road with now
called The Abiders
and I think all that came from Crazy Heart.
(upbeat rock music)
Hell or High Water, Marcus Hamilton.
Wow Hell or High Water.
David Mackenzie, great director.
I was a big fan of his film called Starred Up.
I figured this guy is going to do wonderful
and man he sure did.
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 a movie
when you get an authentic version of the guy you're playing
and we were so fortunate to have Joaquin Jackson
who was one of the foremost Texas Rangers on board.
Oh man, he taught me so much,
not only how the guys look and their attitude,
but just being in the proximity of one of those guys
you seem to, I don't know,
something just kind of comes over.
When they're open to you you know
and Joaquin certainly was.
(upbeat rock music)
Bad Times at the El Royale,
Father Daniel Flynn.
It's wonderful when the writer and director
are 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 has 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 us all to have a good time
and 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,
what the movie was saying.
I enjoyed working with Nick Offerman
who played my brother in it.
All the guys you know Jon Hamm, Chris Hemsworth,
wonderful cast.
Geez I made a lot of good movies, huh?
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