The Untold Truth Of Jeff Bridges
Jeff Bridges has been in somewhere around 100 movies, but since the 1998 cult hit "The Big Lebowski," he's always and forever going to be The Dude. Unlike a lot of actors who are angry at being so remembered for a single role, he told GQ he's totally cool with spending the rest of his life being The Dude.
It's not entirely surprising: After all, The Dude abides.
His film career actually kicked off when he was just a baby, according to The Guardian. His mother, Dorothy Dean Bridges, was on a film set with him when they came up short one crying infant. She handed the happy little baby over with strict instructions to the actress who was going to be holding him: "Oh, just pinch him, Jane." In a weird twist of fate, that actress was Jane Greer, and Bridges co-starred with her again 35 years later.
Jeff Bridges might have grown up in a family of Hollywood royalty, but he's anything but pretentious. He hasn't just had an amazing career, either, he's had a fascinating life filled with, well, a lot The Dude could relate to.
His award-winning, candid, behind-the-scenes photography
In 2013, Jeff Bridges added another award to his shelf: an Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography.
For years, Bridges has been taking a ton of candid, behind-the-scenes photos from the sets of his movies, and they're pretty amazing. According to Esquire, his hobby started while he was filming "Starman" in 1984 and continued throughout his career. While it's likely most of the world will never get to see the majority of his photos, he has released some of them to the public. In 2006, he put out a book simply titled, "Pictures," a pricey hardcover that was also a fundraiser for a nonprofit that provides Hollywood industry workers with support post-retirement.
He's also been known to release some of his photos on anniversaries of films, like he did in 2018 on the 30th anniversary of "Tucker." That one, says USA Today, was a particularly poignant release as it featured some massive stars Hollywood had since lost, including Martin Landau and Lloyd Bridges. The film marked the father-son duo's first collaboration as adults, and that makes the photos extra-special.
What he learned from Dad
It's no secret that the Bridges family is pretty much Hollywood royalty, going all the way back to Lloyd Vernet Bridges Sr. That Bridges — Jeff Bridges' grandfather — managed a San Francisco nickelodeon, the earliest version of large-scale outdoor theaters in modern entertainment. He had originally encouraged his son to get into law, but thankfully, he didn't listen.
Lloyd Bridges Jr. (above) passed away in 1998, but not before he eventually encouraged all his children to follow in his footsteps. In 2014, son Jeff talked to The Hollywood Reporter about some of the most important life lessons his father had instilled in him (and his brother, Beau).
"He loved all the aspects of show business: knowing the crews, the traveling, the adventures you get involved in. He reveled in everything from the actual work to signing autographs and doing interviews."
And it's the attitude he suggests is more important than any other part of the business. He's told The Telegraph that his father was "a joyous cat," and he's told Larry King, "The thing I learned most about acting from him was just the joy in which he approached the thing. ... When you're joyous, it's contagious." And no one can argue that joy makes the world a better place.
He honed his skills on a flatbed in a supermarket
Everyone has to start somewhere, and while Jeff Bridges has been on movie sets since well before he can remember, he does remember sitting down with his father and learning the basics — like how to make every take seem like the very first one, even after doing it a dozen times. But he told NPR that he learned some invaluable lessons from his brother, Beau Bridges, in an epic way that could only be the brainchild of a teenage boy.
By the time Beau was about 15 (and eight years older than little brother Jeff), he hit on the idea of renting a flatbed truck and using it to stage traveling shows. (They were different times.) Jeff reminisces, "We would pull into a supermarket ... and we would stage this fake fight, and a crowd would gather around in the parking lot watching these two guys go at each other, and then [they'd try to] break up our fight and we'd say, 'No, we're putting on a show!'"
They'd usually stay until the police came, and if responding officers weren't down with improv and being included in the staged drama, they'd head out, drive to another supermarket, and do the whole thing over again.
His Dude-like opinions on some heavy stuff
Fans of "The Big Lebowski" should be psyched to know that when it comes to heavy stuff like politics, climate change, and religion, Jeff Bridges definitely has some opinions that would make the Duderino proud. In June 2017, he talked to the Associated Press about Donald Trump, and simply said, "I'm rooting for him to do well by our country. I'm rooting for him as a human being to do the cool thing." While conservatives jumped on that as evidence he was a supporter, he clarified to the Daily Beast a year later that he's anything but: "A lot of where Trump's leading us is disappointing to me, and rather than wallowing in my disappointment and throwing up my hands ... I'm using it to inspire me to take action."
Bridges has been a longtime supporter of the No Kid Hungry campaign, and he's on the council of Everytown for Gun Safety. He's totally down with whatever religion people want to follow, too, as long as that religion inspires them to make the world a better place and step up to become stewards of the planet mankind has been given. Deep? Absolutely. Powerful? For sure. As he says, "Whatever brings us to the party, man."
Sensory deprivation, LSD and staring at goats
Jeff Bridges was in the slightly historical war comedy "The Men Who Stare at Goats," a strange story of a top-secret military group who are trying to use paranormal powers to end war. It's probably the last movie anyone would expect an actor to have any firsthand experience of, but Bridges totally did.
"I found myself remembering my own experiences in the 1970s when I hung out with John Lilly, who invented the isolation tank and did experiments with trying to communicate with dolphins," he told the LA Times. And he didn't just hang out with Lilly, he was a test subject.
Essentially, that involved spending some time floating in a sensory deprivation tank, at the mercy of silence and the mind's own weird tricks. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he called it a "new and tender space," saying there's a rush of hearing the sounds of your own organs, the claustrophobia, the bizarre thoughts, and the fears. Strange, sure, but it was all done to explore the limits of our own minds. Bridges said he was fascinated by Lilly's research and the prospect of inter-species communication, and if it becomes a thing, he says he would love to talk to whales and hear their life stories.
He served his country
Jeff Bridges isn't just an actor, he's also a military veteran. Military.com says he joined at 18 years old, spent seven years in the Coast Guard Reserves, and absolutely didn't get special treatment because of who his father is. In fact, he even told the AV Club that it was maybe the worst job he'd ever had.
"I was chipping paint when I was in the Coast Guard while on a buoy tender, and being stationed there for several weeks. We would start at the bow and chip paint, then red lead, and then paint it. ... And by the time you're down at the stern, it's time to start all over again." He adds that while it was back-breaking work, he was also making great memories and building relationships, so it wasn't all bad.
And the Coast Guard is proud to have him. In 2011, he, brother Beau, and father Lloyd were all awarded the Lone Sailor Award in recognition of their service. Even more, The Georgetowner says it's an award given to veterans who use their experiences in the military to not only become successful outside the military, but who represent "the core values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment."
He didn't want to become an actor
Being the son of two movie stars who encouraged him to go into show business makes it sound like his career was always a given, but that's not the case. Jeff Bridges wasn't sold on film as a career even after snagging a best supporting actor Oscar nomination in 1971 for "The Last Picture Show," and it wasn't until 1973 he caught the acting bug.
According to The Telegraph, that was when he was offered a part in "The Iceman Cometh." With pressure from his agent, he decided to do it as an experiment. He didn't want the part, so he would take it — because that's what professionals had to do. "And for eight weeks I was hanging out with all of these great old actors that I admired, and seeing how they dealt with their own anxieties; all of that led me to feel I could do this for the rest of my life," he said.
Bridges says filming a movie exhausts what he calls his "pretend-muscle," and that's led him to a Dude-like attitude about his career where he doesn't really seek out new projects. He told the LA Times, "My MO is resistance; I try not to do anything at all. I only take projects that come to the point where I have no choice. Whatever sucks me in, whatever beats my resistance, those are the ones I did."
He lives in a whorehouse
The Michael Cimino western "Heaven's Gate" has the dubious distinction of being one of the biggest box-office failures in movie history, and a misery for cast, crew, and studio execs alike. After the success of "The Deer Hunter," Cimino was given full control over his next film — one that had a star-studded cast and included Jeff Bridges. While most of the cast remember filming the simplest scenes dozens of times (the BBC says waking up Kris Kristofferson's drunk marshal took 52 takes), Bridges took some other things away.
The first was this sentiment, posted on Facebook in 2016: "Michael Cimino was a splendid filmmaker. Getting to work with him was a great pleasure and honor, a real stroke of luck, a blessing." Bridges also took the Hog Ranch, the whorehouse of "Heaven's Gate."
Business Insider says he not only bought the set building, but disassembled it, drove it to his Montana property 200 miles away, reassembled it, and still lives in it. He's added a few buildings, but the set itself was reconstructed exactly as it stood in the movie. They've even left the bullet holes in the walls, and Bridges has said, "Every couple of years we'll watch the movie and it's like watching home movies, seeing the ranch on-screen."
He goes through a cycle of work and reward
Every actor and athlete has their pre- and post-game rituals, but Jeff Bridges takes it to extremes. He's been pretty candid in talking about it, too, telling The Hollywood Reporter that for him, things go completely off the rails post-filming.
"I have a cycle that is not particularly cool, but it's a cycle: trash myself to reward myself. When I've done a good job, I've worked my a** off in a movie and been very disciplined, then to reward myself I'll take that governor off and say: 'Go ahead and do what you want, man. You want to get drunk? You do whatever you want."
That's alcohol, pot, and other unspecified drugs, and Bridges said there was a time when he had a problem. Now, not so much, just his regular indulgences. It's made even weirder by the fact that his long-time wife has been completely sober for years.
There's a little bit of irony here, too, and it involved "The Big Lebowski." For the role of the laidback stoner, Bridges told The Telegraph he gave up pot for the duration of filming because he wanted a clearer mind.
Jeff Bridges finds his Nirvana
When GQ talked to Jeff Bridges in 2017, they found he not only is interested in everything Buddhist, but he occasionally designs his own labyrinth. He sketched it on a napkin while he waited for lunch, and says that the labyrinth — not a maze — is mowed into his lawn. The idea is to walk the paths while meditating, and he does.
"Sometimes I'll do it in a dance," he added. "Sometimes I'll do it for Easter."
That's wonderfully cryptic, and the sentiment picked from an interview he did years before, in another GQ piece where he talked a bit about how he tried to make it a point to meditate every day. Meditation itself isn't strange, but what is strange is that he ties it to a sort of repression therapy in a comment that's equally cryptic and made during a chat about fidelity. "Suppression can kind of get you into trouble, too," he says, and clarifies: "The difference between suppression and refraining. When you touch something hot, you don't have to repress the desire to touch it again."
So ... do something for the sake of teaching yourself not to do it again, and achieving a sort of freedom from it? Maybe!
He's boiled every conflict down to one single argument
Jeff Bridges has some seriously thought-provoking life lessons to impart, too, and when GQ asked him about what it took to stay married as long as he had, he had some fascinating advice to give about marriage, relationships, and conflict on any scale.
"I think ... it's the same fight that everyone has with everyone — everyone. And basically the fight is: You don't get it."
He goes on to say that the root of all conflict is basically the inability for any person to see and feel as another person truly does, and once you understand that, you can better understand other people and be at peace with each other. "None of us, none of us, get each other. So you just have to be with that."
Wise words, indeed. Now, if only every argument could be ended with, "Yeah, well, you know, that's just like ... your opinion, man."
Beekeeping, Mother Nature and his weird contract rider
Jeff Bridges used to have a house in Santa Barbara, California, until it was destroyed in a flood. Ironic, because Bridges has been a staunch environmentalist for years. He was even a beekeeper, until he lost his hives in the same flood that took his house, and he was good friends with the eccentric inventor R. Buckminster Fuller.
Who? Fuller invented the geodesic dome, and he was also the brains behind the trim-tab, an invention Bridges uses to describe his thoughts on climate change and the environment. The trim tab is basically a mini rudder for large ships that makes course corrections alone, and that's what Bridges calls his environmentalism: trim-tabbing. "The point is," he told Philly.com, "that a small thing can affect a big thing. And I think we can all do a little trim-tabbing. The problem of the environment seems like something too big for any one person to have an impact. But there is something we can all do."
For him, that's supporting the Plastic Pollution Coalition. His endorsement was partly inspired by his father's show "Sea Hunt" and the family's close connection to the water. It's also how he promotes an easy bit of trim-tabbing: avoiding plastic bottles, using reusable metal or glass bottles, and non-plastic containers. He even works that into his films, making it a part of his contract that no plastic containers will be used on set.
He was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2020
It's no secret that 2020 was a nightmare of a year, and it was in October that Jeff Bridges tweeted, "As the Dude would say.. New S*** has come to light. I have been diagnosed with Lymphoma. Although it is a serious disease, I feel fortunate that I have a great team of doctors and the prognosis is good."
Bridges kept everyone updated, with posts that included a photo he shared on Instagram in December. The smiling Bridges had shaved his head, and he also had an adorable new addition to the family: a puppy named Monty. That was, fortunately, followed by some good news: People reported in 2021 that he was officially in remission, and he wrote that he was feeling good.
In 2022, he spoke during a virtual press tour (via The Wrap) promoting the television series he had been working on when COVID shut down the world, and cancer shut down his days. He had nothing but gratitude to share with the cast and crew of "The Old Man," saying that everyone was super supportive and considerate while he was getting better.
That included co-star John Lithgow's brother, David. He had been handed a similar diagnosis, and when Bridges found out, Lithgow says "he immediately got in touch with him, he'd never met the man. He's the most bighearted person. ... It's been a real privilege."
He was hit hard by COVID
There's an old saying: "When it rains, it pours." That certainly seemed true for Jeff Bridges, because it was while he was undergoing chemotherapy treatment for his lymphoma diagnosis that he was exposed to COVID-19. It wasn't long after the exposure that both he and his wife (pictured) ended up in the ICU. She stayed there for five days, and he was there for a shocking five weeks.
He wrote a social media post about it back in March of 2021, the Los Angeles Times says, but refrained from posting anything until he felt he had a handle on at least the COVID. That wasn't until September, when he shared this eye-opening statement: "My dance with Covid makes my cancer look like a piece of cake."
He went on to say that while COVID made him very sick, he was feeling a lot better. He also gave a massive shout-out to his physical therapist, as he had needed to do a lot of work to get back on his feet — and even when he was, he had relied on an oxygen tank: "The sound it makes reminds me of Darth Vader," he wrote.
Still, at the time he posted, he felt as though he was in a good place. Most importantly, he had been able to walk his daughter down the aisle at her wedding, and dance with her afterwards.
Where did that 'Seventh Son' accent come from?
In 2014, Jeff Bridges starred in "Seventh Son," and it was the sort of fantasy movie that fans had high hopes for — particularly because it reunited him with his "Big Lebowski" co-star, Julianne Moore. Bridges plays the wise old master trying to teach his young apprentice everything he needs to know to save the world, and unfortunately, Rotten Tomatoes wasn't kind. It came in with just a 12% rating, and that's a bummer.
Still, if there's anything that sticks with anyone who watches it, it's Bridges and his weird accent. It's not even really an accent, it's just kind of an odd way of talking? Maybe? Fortunately, Cinema Blend brought it up when they talked to him (and Moore) around the film's release, and asked him where it came from.
From, it turns out, the character — or so Bridges explained. He said that not only did he have to wear fake teeth throughout the whole film (which are hidden beneath his impressive facial hair) to get it just right, but he said that the voice came to him while he was meditating. His character entered his consciousness while he was in mid-session, he was given the voice, and when he approached the director about using it, he was given the go-ahead.
Hey, everyone has their methods!
He fights forgetfulness and distraction with some weird techniques
Jeff Bridges has played several characters with Alzheimer's, including his character in "The Old Man." Bridges has said (via The Wrap) that he was able to use his own cancer diagnosis to give him an insight into the character: "In times like that, it seems like all your philosophies and spirituality comes to you. It tests you."
Way back in 2018, he spoke with the Independent about playing another character with Alzheimer's, in "Bad Times at the El Royale." He said that in the process of researching the disease, he found he was shocked at the brutality of it. He admitted that he had moments where he wouldn't be able to come up with the word he was looking for, where he would forget where he was going with a train of thought, and said even if you "magnify that 100 times," it's not even close.
The interviewer asked him, then, how he stayed focused when he was on set and shooting. Bridges gave a surprising answer: He purposely confuses himself, utilizing tactics like humming something silly, making himself dizzy, and otherwise just fooling around. "Acting is fooling yourself, to a large extent," he said. The oddness, he explained, "puts you in a certain space to receive what's coming down."
He has a fascinating take on getting involved and prepping for roles
A 2010 interview with Jeff Bridges (via Tricycle) talked about something that his mother called "abulia." He admitted that it had been a lifelong problem for him, and it basically meant that he had — and has — a hard time committing to do something.
Even when he does commit, he has a pretty interesting way of making sure that he doesn't burn too brightly, too fast — and ultimately, burn out. He says it's crucial, because in spite of the sheer number of movies he's been in, hobbies he has, and charities he's worked with, he admits to being quite lazy.
How does a self-professed lazy person get so much accomplished? Bridges says that it's all in the approach and explains it like this: "Preparing for a role, sometimes I'll have to get in shape fast, lose a lot of weight. But I don't want to work out so hard the first couple of days that I'm sore and I don't like it. ... So, I go toward the light ... and then I'll take little baby steps toward it."
Bridges adds: "Instead of just being gentle, [be] kind." The world could use a little more kindness, and that's some pretty incredible advice — right from the Dude.
Jeff Bridges made the Coen brothers break their own rule
Jeff Bridges might seem like the most laid-back guy in Hollywood, but according to what Joel Coen (pictured) told the Team Deakins podcast (via IndieWire), there was a bit of conflict on the set of "The Big Lebowski" — and Bridges was so miserable that the Coen Brothers broke a long-standing rule.
Generally, the Coen Brothers are incredibly efficient filmmakers. At the end of shooting they'll have surprisingly little film to review, and Joel Coen explained that when they made the switch to digital film, it was tough to convince some actors that no, they didn't do another take. They just wanted to keep going, so one of their rules was not to have playback monitors on set. Coen called it a waste of time, but Bridges absolutely hated not being able to watch footage that had just been shot.
The Coen Brothers stuck to that for the first two weeks of shooting, but Bridges "was so miserable at the end of the second week that we ended up getting playback." That was in spite of the fact that they were wary it was going to slow everything down, but in the end, it worked out.
"Jeff, who grew up making movies ... he used it very well. Every now and then he would come over and look at the playback and he was great. He would say, 'OK, I get what the problem is,' and he was useful. He is an exception," said Coen.
He's had the same stand-in and stunt double for 50 years
W Magazine called Jeff Bridges "an honorary Texan," because even though he's from southern California, he's played a Texan so many times that he's lost count. He credits one person with helping him get it right, and that's Loyd Catlett. They met on "The Last Picture Show," hit it off, and have been in more than 70 movies together.
Catlett had been a cowboy back when they met in 1970, and the experience was so great that he decided he wanted to become an actor. By the end of shooting "The Last Picture Show," he and Bridges had become good friends, and they stayed in touch. It ended up being fortuitous: Catlett needed a job, Bridges asked him if he wanted to head off to Europe to be his stand-in in another movie.
"I didn't know it was going to last for 50 years," Catlett told The Hollywood Reporter.
Catlett also reads scripts, helps Bridges choose projects, and sometimes, he gets a little carried away. Just before filming began for "Iron Man," Bridges sent him a photo of himself with a shaved head. Thinking that's what they were doing, Catlett shaved his head, snapped a picture, and sent it back. Catlett said, "He calls right up and says, 'S***, Loyd! That was a bald cap. We were just experimenting with looks. I was just joking with you.' I guess Jeff felt bad, because he ended up shaving his head for the movie."
He's been deeply impacted by climate change
In 2017, NPR talked to Josh Brolin about the movie he was starring in with Jeff Bridges. It was called "Only The Brave," and it was the story of 19 firefighters who died in the 2013 Yarnell Hill Fire in Arizona. Brolin commented on how wildfires were very real and very deadly — something Bridges had experienced first-hand.
He went on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2018 and talked about just what kind of damage he'd seen. When Kimmel asked him if he was living in the wildfire danger zone, Bridges shared that he had already had one home burn down about 20 years prior, along with losing his entire Santa Barbara home in a mud-and-debris flood that happened after a nearby wildfire. "I heard it coming, and it sounded like a train," he said. "You look out the window, and the clouds were all red, because all these gas lines were blowing up. And here it comes: BOOM!"
He was actually caught in his house in the middle of the mudslide and described a terrifying scene of 3 a.m. darkness, flying boulders, a waist-deep mudflow, and writing "SOS" on a white sheet in hopes of getting someone's attention. It worked — helicopters came in and plucked Bridges and his wife from the ruin of their home.
"This is the crisping of our planet, man," he sighed. "So many people died in that thing. We were the lucky ones."