Jeff Bridges is one of Hollywood's most loveable stars.
But who is this Oscar-winning actor?
What makes him tick?
And what was up with his accent in Seventh Son?
Keep watching to find out.
Fans of The Big Lebowski will be psyched to know that, when it comes to heavy stuff like
politics, climate change, and religion, Jeff Bridges has some opinions that would make
the Dude proud.
In June 2017, for example 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, saying:
"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 long been a supporter of the No Kid Hungry campaign, and he's on the council
of Everytown for Gun Safety, too.
He's totally down with whatever religion people want to follow, as well, as long as that religion
inspires them to make the world a better place.
Deep?
Absolutely.
Powerful?
For sure.
As he says:
"Whatever brings us to the party, man."
Jeff Bridges might seem like the most laid-back guy in Hollywood, but according to a story
told by Joel Coen on the Team Deakins podcast, there was a small 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 it can often be tough to convince some actors that they don't need to do another
take.
They just want to keep going — so one of the Coens' rules is not to have playback monitors
on set.
Coen calls 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 rule for the first two weeks of shooting, but Bridges was
so miserable by the end of the second week that they ended up giving in.
That was in spite of the fact that they were wary it was going to slow everything down,
but in the end, it all worked out.
"He was great, actually.
He would go, 'OK, I get what the problem is,' and he was useful. You know?
But he's an exception."
Jeff Bridges was in the quasi-historical war comedy The Men Who Stare at Goats, a strange
story of a top-secret military group who attempt to utilize paranormal powers in wartime.
It's probably the last movie anyone would expect an actor to have any firsthand experience
of, but Bridges actually did.
As he told The LA Times:
"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."
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, Bridges called it a "new and tender space," saying
there's a rush of hearing the sounds of your own organs, bizarre thoughts, and fears.
Strange, sure, but it was all done to explore the limits of the human mind.
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.
Every actor and athlete has their pre- and post-game rituals, but Jeff Bridges takes
it to the extreme.
He's been pretty candid in talking about it, too, telling The Hollywood Reporter that for
him, things go completely off the rails after he's done filming.
Bridges explains:
"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 genuinely 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, involving perhaps his most famous role.
To play the Dude in The Big Lebowski, Bridges gave up pot for the duration of filming because
he wanted to keep a clearer mind.
When GQ talked to Jeff Bridges in 2017, they found that, among other things, he likes to
occasionally design his own labyrinth.
During their interview, he sketched his own on a napkin as they waited for lunch, pointing
out that the same labyrinth is mowed into his lawn.
The idea is to walk the paths while meditating, and he does.
Bridges added:
"Sometimes I'll do it in a dance.
Sometimes I'll do it for Easter."
This sentiment picked up from an interview he did years before, in another GQ piece in
which he mentioned how he tries to meditate at least once a day.
Meditation itself isn't strange, of course, but what is strange is that he ties it to
a sort of repression therapy.
While discussing fidelity, Bridges said:
"Suppression can kind of get you into trouble, too.
The difference between suppression and refraining.
When you touch something hot, you don't have to repress the desire to touch it again."
As you might expect, Jeff Bridges has some seriously thought-provoking life lessons to
impart — 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.
He said:
"I think [...] it's the same fight that everyone has with everyone — everyone.
And basically the fight is: You don't get it."
He went 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 more
easily make peace with one another.
Bridges continued:
"None of us, none of us, get each other.
So you just have to be with that."
Wise words, indeed.
"Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man."
It's no secret that 2020 was a nightmare of a year for pretty much everybody, and, sure
enough, 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 the world updated with posts that included a photo he shared on Instagram
in December.
The smiling Bridges had shaved his head, and he also had a new addition to the family:
a puppy named Monty.
Fortunately, this was followed by some good news: People magazine reported in 2021 that
he was officially in remission, and the man himself wrote that he was feeling good.
In 2022, Bridges spoke during a virtual press tour promoting the television series he had
been working on when COVID shut down the world.
He had nothing but gratitude to share with the cast and crew of The Old Man, saying that
everyone had been super supportive and considerate as he got better.
Jeff Bridges has played several characters with Alzheimer's, including his character
in The Old Man.
Bridges has even said that he was able to use his own cancer diagnosis to give him an
insight into the character.
In a press conference for the show, he said:
"In times like that, it seems like all your philosophies and spirituality come 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.
Bridges said that, in the process of researching the disease, he found he was shocked at the
brutality of it.
Referring to the forgetfulness that comes with age, Bridges said that, even if you "magnify
that 100 times," it only barely gives you an idea of how bad Alzheimer's can be.
On the subject of his own occasional loss of memory, the interviewer asked Bridges how
he stays focused when he is 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.
He continued:
"Acting is fooling yourself, to a large extent."
In 2014, Jeff Bridges starred in Seventh Son, the sort of movie that fans had high hopes
for — particularly because it reunited him with his Big Lebowski co-star, Julianne Moore.
Bridges plays a wise old master trying to teach his young apprentice everything he needs
to know to save the world, and unfortunately, the critics weren't exactly kind.
The movie came in with just a 12% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
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.
"The rules, Tom.
Do not be bound by them.
Use them in your own way, live your own life."
Fortunately, Cinema Blend brought it up when they talked to him around the film's release.
Apparently, the voice came to Bridges while he was meditating.
According to the actor, his character entered his consciousness while he was mid-session;
he was given the voice by this vision, and when he approached the director about using
it, he was given the go-ahead.
A 2010 interview with Jeff Bridges brought up the term "abulia," something the actor's
mother once believed he suffered from.
It basically meant that he had — and has — a hard time committing to things, which
Bridges admitted had been a lifelong problem for him.
Even when he does commit, he has a pretty interesting way of making sure that he doesn't
burn too brightly, too fast.
Bridges says this is crucial, because despite the sheer number of movies he's been in, hobbies
he has, and charities he's worked with, he admits to being quite lazy.
So how does a self-professed lazy person get so much accomplished?
Bridges says that it's all in the approach, explaining it like so:
"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."
In 2017, NPR spoke to Josh Brolin about a movie he was starring in with Jeff Bridges.
It was called Only The Brave, 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.
In an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2018, Bridges mentioned the 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; more recently, he had also
lost his entire Santa Barbara home in a mud-and-debris flood that happened after a nearby wildfire.
"The clouds were all red, because all these gas lines were blowing up.
And then here it comes: Boom!"
Bridges 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.
Thankfully, that worked, and a number of helicopters came in and plucked Bridges and his wife from
the ruins of their home.
"This is the crisping of our planet, man.
So many people died in that thing.
We were the lucky ones."
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Grunge videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.