Coming from a famous Hollywood pedigree that includes his late father Lloyd and his older brother Beau, Jeff Bridges has lived up to the family name. As one of Hollywood’s most successful actors, Bridges has received six Academy Awards nominations and won the Best Actor for his role of Otis “Bad” Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart. While critics hail him as one of the best actors of his generation, fellow stars praise him for his likability and ease of character.
Jeff Bridges at the premiere of True Grit
Bridges sat down with New York Times Arts & Leisure Weekend contributor Lynn Hirschberg in a TimesTalks interview to discuss his acting style and some of his most famous roles. This conversation, along with other interviews featuring iconic Hollywood names like Quentin Tarantino, Denzel Washington and Kevin Spacey are available on demand at FORA.tv.
One of Bridges’ first appearances on screen was as a four-month-old infant in a 1951 film noir titled The Company She Keeps. The director needed a crying baby for the scene. “But I wasn’t as emotive back then and [lead actress] Jane Greer had to pinch me to get me to cry,” Bridges joked.
His first real acting job came in the 1970 film Halls of Anger about integrating white students into a black high school. Bridges was suffering through real-life heartbreak at the time and was extremely emotive in his scene, which garnered applause from the entire production team. “At the premiere I was sitting next to my father and brother and told them, ‘Wait till you guys see this piece of acting,’” Bridges said. “Unfortunately, the director cut to me in my scene just as I was making a funny face while crying, which caused uproarious laughter from the audience. Needless to say, I was slightly humbled.”
In 1971, Bridges appeared in The Last Picture Show, in which he was nominated for his first Academy Award for his portrayal of a small town Texas football player. He went on to act in several famous movies throughout the 1970s and 1980s, including the 1976 remake of King Kong and the 1982 sci-fi classic Tron. While critics lauded many of his dramatic roles, he is arguably best known as the “The Dude” in the 1998 comedy The Big Lebowski, directed by the Coen Brothers. The movie, an idiosyncratic look at a pot-smoking, slacker living in Los Angeles, was initially a box-office failure but is now an acclaimed cult classic.
“The Coen Brothers actually wrote that role for me,’” Bridges explained, who has been a longtime fan of the Coen Brothers. “But I thought it was sort of funny they saw me as this slacker, because while I can relate to the character, I thought I outgrew that role after partying in college.”