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.
Bridges doesn't even mind being thought of that way, and in a lot of ways, he's The Dude
in real life.
Here's the untold truth of Jeff Bridges.
"I'm the Dude!
So that's what you call me!"
Like father, like son
It's no secret that the Bridges family is pretty much Hollywood royalty.
Jeff's father Lloyd Bridges, who passed away in 1998, was an icon of the silver screen,
but it was his off-camera demeanor that most affected his son.
Jeff told The Hollywood Reporter,
"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."
"The thing, the thing I learned most about acting is just the joy in which he approached
the thing.
When you're joyous, it's contagious."
All in the family
Jeff's big brother Beau Bridges is also a Hollywood star, but the two of them started
their showbiz careers in a much less glamorous fashion, staging improvised mock fight scenes
in grocery store parking lots on the back of a flatbed truck.
Jeff told NPR,
"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!'"
Serving his country
Bridges isn't just an actor, he's also a military veteran, having spent seven years in the Coast
Guard Reserves.
He told AV Club that the back breaking work was a far cry from Hollywood.
"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… and then paint it…
And by the time you're down at the stern, it's time to start all over again."
Still, he values the "fond memories" of his time in the Coast Guard and they value him
right back.
In 2011, he, brother Beau, and father Lloyd were all awarded the Lone Sailor Award in
recognition of their service.
The Dude cometh
Being the son of a big star may have given him a head start in Hollywood, but Bridges
wasn't always sure he wanted to take it.
Even after snagging a best supporting actor Oscar nomination in 1971 for The Last Picture
Show, Bridges wasn't convinced acting was what he truly wanted to do.
So in 1973, he accepted a role in The Iceman Cometh specifically because he didn't actually
want to do it.
He figured it would be a good test of whether he wanted to stay in acting professionally.
He told The Telegraph,
"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."
And to think, if things had gone the other way, we never would have gotten the Dude!
"I don't watch my movies on TV except, like, if that comes on, I’ll say I’ll just wait
until Turturro licks the ball, but then I'll get hooked man!"
He lives in a house
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.
Considering how zen Bridges is, though, it's no surprise to learn that he actually has
fond memories of the shoot, saying on Facebook,
"Michael Cimino was a splendid filmmaker.
Getting to work with him was a great pleasure and honor, a real stroke of luck, a blessing."
In fact, Bridges enjoyed the experience so much, that when the film ended, he bought
the set of the film's Hog Ranch whorehouse, moved it to his ranch in Montana, and still
lives in it today.
Photographer
Besides being a great actor, Bridges is also an artist and a photographer, winning an Infinity
Award from the International Center of Photography in 2013.
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 has continued
throughout his career.
In 2006, he put out a book of his photos titled Pictures, with sales also raising money for
a nonprofit that provides Hollywood industry workers with support post-retirement.
The Dude abides
Fans of The Big Lebowski should be psyched to know that when it comes to heavy stuff
like politics, climate change, and religion, Bridges definitely has some opinions that
would make the Duderino proud.
A devoted activist, Bridges has been a longtime supporter of the No Kid Hungry campaign, he's
on the council of Everytown for Gun Safety, and as a supporter of the Plastic Pollution
Coalition, he writes into his contract that no plastic containers will be used on the
sets of his films.
And like the Dude, Bridges is also into exploring the limits of the human mind.
A devoted disciple of meditation and suppression therapy, Bridges designed a labyrinth for
his yard, and once volunteered to be a test subject in experiments with sensory deprivation.
Bridges told GQ that the secret to resolving human conflict is developing and practicing
empathy, and celebrating our differences.
"It's the same fight that everyone has with everyone, everyone.
And basically the fight is: You don't get it...
None of us, none of us, get each other.
So you just have to be with that.
And have a relationship with it.
And, uh, usually what happens, if you hang with it enough, your love has to get bigger
to hold that misunderstanding, that mystery."
Wise words, indeed.
Now, if only every argument could be ended by simply saying,
"Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, uh, your opinion, man."