  Jeff Bridges at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. (Sun Media file photo) |
Jeff Bridges has a full dance card.
At the moment, Bridges, 59, stars as an alcoholic country singer in the upcoming Crazy Heart; as the hero of Tron Legacy, a special effects-laden sci-fi adventure due in 2010; and as a peacenik hippie leader of a psychic army unit in The Men Who Stare At Goats, which opens Friday.
Versatile? That would be an understatement.
Bridges is a bit of a modern-day renaissance man, known for his music, photography, painting, ceramics knowledge and illustration work as well as for his acting.
“I’m taking fewer photos these days,” says Bridges, who was in Toronto during the film festival, “because it’s a lot of work.” In his characteristic laid-back drawl, he says to the handful of reporters in the room, “It’s like you guys were doing your job but also knitting sweaters,” and he laughs.
“But I am recording,” continues Bridges. “I got into it a few months ago when I did Crazy Heart and got to work with my good buddy, T. Bone Burnett, who did all the music for the movie. I’m dusting off my studio at home and getting some guys together and starting that off again. It’s a lot of fun. People kind of resent actors getting into music, but it’s about having fun and digging it. Billy Bob’s (Thornton) music is great.”
The movie that brought Bridges to town is The Men Who Stare At Goats, a black comedy about paranormal training in the armed forces. In an atmosphere of peace, love and understanding — and LSD — Bridges plays a leader in a special branch of the Army, teaching soldiers to read minds, make themselves invisible and stop the hearts of goats just by looking at them. The story, which is set mostly in Iraq, is based on real events and also stars George Clooney, Ewan McGregor and Kevin Spacey.
Working on The Men Who Stare At Goats, parts of which are set in the 1970s and ’80s, “Brought back memories of my time with John Lilly,” says Bridges. “He was the guy who was communicating with dolphins, and he invented the isolation tank. I was a test subject. I did quite a lot of time in the tank.”
Bridges’ new-age, hippie character in The Men Who Stare At Goats is bound to remind some people of The Dude, his character in the Coen Brothers’ movie, The Big Lebowski. (That Bridges’ performance is No. 90 on Premiere magazine’s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time.)
The Dude’s ultra-cool slacker personality and bowling skills have won him cult status, and he and the movie are celebrated every year at Lebowski Fest, an annual festival held in several cities. (Lebowski Fest almost made it to Toronto this past summer, a potential expansion that makes Bridges very happy.)
“I’ve been to Lebowski Fest,” he says. “It’s very exciting and wild. I had my Beatles moment at Lebowski Fest,” he says, somewhat bashfully. “I got a little band together, and we showed up, and ...” Bridges imitates the sound of a crowd roaring its approval and grins with pleasure. “Playing to a sea of Dudes! Oh, man, it was fun.”
Bridges’ brand of fun got started early. He starred in a movie called The Last Picture Show in 1971, right at the beginning of his career, and his performance earned him an Oscar nomination. The son of TV star Lloyd Bridges and younger brother of actor Beau Bridges — with whom he starred in The Fabulous Baker Boys — has been in dozens of movies, but says The Iceman Cometh (1973) was the film that convinced him acting would be his lifelong work.
(Bridges’ five dozen movies include Thunderbolt And Lightfoot, Tron, Starman, The Door In The Floor, Jagged Edge, Fat City, Rancho Deluxe, King Kong, The Contender, American Heart, The Fisher King, Arlington Road, Blown Away, Fearless, Tucker: The Man And His Dream, Wild Bill, The Fabulous Baker Boys, How To Lose Friends & Alienate People, Seabiscuit, Stick It and Iron Man. He has said that Fearless and American Heart are two of his favourites.)
Often described by fellow actors as “underrated”, Bridges is a four-time Oscar nominee with an enviable career and an enviable personal life. He has carefully avoided being over-exposed in either.
The low profile approach, he says, comes from his family, and from his father, who was a TV star in the 1950s and ’60s. “He did Sea Hunt on TV, and that was a big hit,” says Bridges. “He had a bit of that fame, and one of the things that was tough for him was having that strong persona. He was a terrific actor — Shakespearean trained and singing on Broadway, and all these things — but, well, he was a skindiver. He pulled that off so well that that’s what people thought he was. So he got a lot of skindiving scripts. And that was it. And that was maddening.”
The typecasting continued, says Bridges, in different forms. Years later, during the filming of Blown Away, the actor suggested that his dad get hired for a small part in the movie. “The guy said, ‘Oh yeah, your dad, he’s a wonderful actor, but he’s more of a comedian.’ I was like, ‘What the f--- are you talking about?’ And he said, ‘You know, the Airplane movies.’ I really saw how difficult it was for my father. You develop a persona, you do a few things, and people think that’s who you are.”
That, says Bridges, is what prompted him to take on all kinds of characters. “So I don’t get typecast, and also so it keeps it interesting for me. And so it keeps the audience a little bit confused. So they don’t know quite know what my persona is, so they can superimpose these different characters I’m playing a little easier.”
Bridges then praises his wife, Susan Geston, and his late mother Dorothy for being the rocks of their families. Bridges and his wife have three adult daughters.
“I’m so in love with my wife.” he says. “We’ve been married 33 years and it just keeps getting better and more intimate and sexier and all that stuff.
“You don’t want to mess around with that.”
Jeff Bridges will next star in the Coen Brothers’ remake of True Grit.
BEST OF BRIDGES
Think you could pick Jeff Bridges’ five best movies? We thought so too, until we tried. The difficulty is getting the list down to fewer than 20. There were fisticuffs here in the newsroom because Jagged Edge and How To Lose Friends & Alienate People aren’t on the list. Seabiscuit, Wild Bill and Fat City are also absent. You can see the problem:
The Last Picture Show (1971): Bridges first big movie saw him nominated for an Academy Award. This coming-of-age drama, set in small-town Texas, was based on the Larry McMurtry novel and stars Timothy Bottoms, Cybill Shepherd, Cloris Leachman, Ben Johnson and Ellen Burstyn.
The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989): Jack and Frank Baker are brothers with a duo piano act, but they really need something to give their club routine and their music new life. How about a female singer? But what if she comes between the brothers? Jeff and Beau Bridges and Michelle Pfeiffer are the triangle.
Fearless (1993): A meditation on mortality. One man’s life is changed forever after he survives a plane crash. Bridges stars here with Isabella Rossellini, John Turturro and Rosie Perez.
The Big Lebowski (1998): The Dude Rules. This surreal mix of bowling and kidnapping from the Coen Brothers also stars John Goodman and Julianne Moore. Let’s have a White Russian, shall we?
The Men Who Stare At Goats (2009): Bridges is the coolest guy as the paranormal specialist, and it doesn’t hurt that George Clooney and Kevin Spacey are among his students. Very dark anti-war comedy from director Grant Heslov, who is also Clooney’s producing partner.
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