Jeff Bridges Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters

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.

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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?