Jeff Bridges is my favorite living actor and today is his birthday! Son of Lloyd Bridges – Jeff had a pretty tough act to follow. Lloyd Bridges was, to put it mildly, no slouch in the actor department. He was in High Noon, for God’s sake!
But Jeff didn’t do so bad. His first movie was The Last Picture Show
Bridges is a chameleon on the level of Meryl Streep. What is the similarity between Turner Kendall in The Morning After and The Dude in Big Leobowski? They were played by the same person? How about Starman and Jack Baker in Baker Boys? Same guy? I don’t even think the word “range” applies here, in the same way that I don’t think “range” even comes close to expressing what is going on with Meryl Streep. It’s a type of channeling, what Jeff Bridges does. Shirley Maclaine said in re: Meryl Streep: “She is able to completely abdicate her own personality in favor of that of the character’s.” There is no EGO in work like that. Work like that has complete integrity. Bridges doesn’t get the kudos that Streep does. Why? No idea. The only other guy out there who I believe is as much of an uncanny chameleon is Daniel Day Lewis. There’s nothing gimmicky about their characterizations. The accents do not call attention to themselves, they never ever seem like actors dressing up in costumes … they just ARE these people. There is great compassion in their work. Actors like this have enormous hearts (which is why, in person, they can seem shy). They can so completely step into someone else’s shoes that their own identity is no longer important or relevant to them. One of the other notable things about actors like this is that they are pretty much unable to talk about what they do and how they do it. Meryl Streep came to my school. I listened to her talk about acting. She had NO IDEA how to talk about it. It’s a mystery to her, how she does what she does – and if she does, deep down, know how she does it – she’s not about to share it. Not because she’s jealously guarding her secrets but because – in her words: “Acting to me is like going to church. I can’t tell you why I go to church and what happens when I pray – but that’s what it’s like. It would feel like a betrayal of something to talk about it.” Actors like this (Bridges, Streep, Daniel Day Lewis) are inarticulate about their craft. Marlon Brando was the same way. Other types of actors can tell you exactly what they were doing, why they were doing it, and sometimes it comes off as self-congratulatory (see how hard I worked?): “Yes, I used an Appalachian accent, and I tried to use my grandmother’s way of walking mixed in with the gestures of my third grade teacher …” Geniuses are more inarticulate. They don’t tell you anything. They just DO.
Jeff Bridges is like that.
That’s him in American Heart – an amazing film if you haven’t seen it, and one of his subtlest and best pieces of acting. Jeff Bridges himself said it was his best work. Why he wasn’t nominated for an Oscar for that film is completely baffling and unfair. Show me a better performance by a male that year, or any year.
Jeff Bridges has his own website, which is NOT a typical vanity website of a celebrity. Of course it’s not. He’s Jeff Bridges. He’s not interested in all of that. Check it out – his photographs are amazing.
Then – of course – there is the comedic highpoint (which has already entered into cult status) of his jelly-wearing White-Russian-drinking bowling-lover Julianne-Moore-impregnating character of The Dude. My favorite moment, which is just a snippet – is during one of the fantasy sequences when he’s dancing like CRAZY on the Busby Berkely staircase.
His acting is Door in the Floor is pretty much as good as acting gets. And again, no real kudos. No “recognition”. Perhaps he might be in the Cary Grant realm of actors. They are so reliably good that they are taken for granted to some extent. Jeff Bridges will have to play a limping one-armed retarded Native American drag queen in order to win an Oscar. That’s a shame.
I shouldn’t care about Oscar nominations because I know how political it is. But still. He is on my eternal list … if he doesn’t win, then future generations will look back and think: “What were they thinking??” Cary Grant never won an Oscar (except for the Lifetime Achievement Oscar he got in 1970 which was basically the Academy’s way of saying, “We totally effed up. Here you go.”). That just shows you how meaningless the entire thing can be. (However: I am counting the days til the next Oscar ceremony and am incredibly invested in who gets nominated. Such as we are made.)
Very nice post, Sheila.
Starman’s one of my favorites, and while I rarely wonder about the logistics of playing a part, I often wonder at his performance in that movie.
What gets me is Bridges’ ability to know where his character is along his path of development in the movie, at any given point, to know who he is at the time, when you’re shooting the thing out of order and willy-nilly. And he hits the note every time all throughout that flick.
The Big Lebowski special edition DVD that came out a few weeks back has a lot of Jeff’s pictures from the production. Lots of good stuff there, too….
Big Lebowski is probably my all time favorite comedy. I quote from it excessively.
tommy – You’re so right about the whole continuity thing – and filming out of sequence – especially when it comes to Starman – I hadn’t even thought of that.
curtis – I know. I just love that movie!!!
Whenever I become irriationally peeved with Hollywood (basically, whenever I think about Sean Penn), I remind myself of Jeff Bridges. He’s like the secret ingredient in movies you’ve never quite heard of. I assumed “Door In the Floor” would be dreadful (a partial adaptation of a late John Irving? Double yuck!). Of course, it was fabulous. I assumed “Fearless” was unfilmable (a terrific, weird novel). Bridges made it look easy. And you didn’t mention “Arlington Road”?! One of the creepiest opening scenes in years – then Bridges just soars, as usual.
(Loved your tribute!)
Ah yes – Arlington Road – you are so right about the opening of that film!!
And I actually left off my favorite performance of his – The Fisher King. I need to do a whole Fisher King post someday.
He’s just an amazing actor.
Lebowski is probably my favorite, but I’m also a huge fan of The Fisher King (Terry Gilliam is my fav. director).
Something sad … I actually own Door in the Floor and have never watched it.
cullen – One of the things that so impresses me about Jeff Bridges is that he is unconcerned with being “likable”. So many actors want you to like them. Bridges doesn’t care. He creates the character. The guy in Fearless can be a cold distant son of a bitch. Bridges doesn’t soft-pedal that. And the same is true for Door in the Floor – it’s a FANTASTIC acting job and it has NOTHING to do with whether or not you “like” him.
Oh, and Terry Gilliam is one of my favorites too – I just love that whole movie. I love Mercedes Ruehl – I love the relationship created between Ruehl and Bridges – I just love the whole thing.
Jeff Bridges is great.
I remember the impression I received when I saw him in Tron.
I was a kid. I took a break from my action figures long enough to watch this flick (a feat in itself) and in seconds of his character’s introduction, I could relate to him. I turned to my brother and told him how he reminded me of my Camp counselor, a guy named Scott.
Basically, he was very easy to relate to in seconds. I didn’t need to hear him say anything funny, or wear something interesting to be noticed. I just noticed him, and was immediately in the scene with him.
It just got better after that. Jeff is brilliant.
You said it all, Sheila, so wonderfully. I love him, too. Oh, how I love him!!
You missed that wonderful, quirky performance in The Mirror Has Two Faces. Nobody else could have played that would-be asexual and made us believe it. That scene where he starts to make love to his wife out of duty, but gets caught up in the moment, then bolts out of shame at his lack of control. Awesome.