Jeff Bridges
This idea of how everything is interconnected, and the impermanence of things.. It sums up the human condition to me, and it helps me on my path.
My m.o. as far as choosing projects is I really try not to work. I try to not do the scripts that are offered me. I'm in this wonderful position to be able to do that. The reason I do that is because I know what it takes once I engage, what that means for me personally and for my wife.
What are the aspects of yourself that line up with the character? You magnify those, and the ones that don't match up you kind of kick to the curb.
One of the things I want to do that's outside the realm of acting and the arts - although both have their place in this - is ending childhood hunger here in America.
I don't think I ever went down that movie star path. I always enjoy taking a 90-degree turn from the last thing I did.
I used to read comics when I was a kid.
My wife, whenever I'd go off to work and I'd be kind of anxious, she'll say, 'Remember, have fun.' Oh, I forgot, thanks for the reminder. Because sometimes we do forget. We take it all too seriously and there's a lot of joy to be had wherever you are.
I do a lot of ceramics.
I found that photography was a great way of relaxing on the set.
My father Lloyd Bridges was very versatile in his parts, but he had a hit in the '60s 'Sea Hunt,' where he played a skin diver. And he was so into that role that people actually thought he was a skin-diver.
Unlike a lot of actors, my father encouraged all his kids to go into show business. He loved it so much.
I'd done about 10 movies before I decided I wanted to make acting the main thrust of my career.
My father was so in love with showbiz, all the different aspects - what we're doing here, making the movies, everything about it.
Making a film, it uses a certain... 'pretend-muscle,' I don't know what you want to call it. It exhausts something in me, I find. It has to be really something to get me interested.
One of the things that I find so exciting about life is that you're constantly surprised. You never know what's going to happen, and it's certainly like that making movies; every once in a while, one will come along that transcends all of your expectations.
I look back at my filmography, and I'm pretty jazzed with the stuff I've been part of. They're all movies I'd like to see.
I don't even know what Instagram is, All of this high-tech stuff is supposed to set us free and make life easier. To me, it makes it more difficult and demanding.
I don't have too many plans filled out. I know I want to keep doing more music. I've got a couple of albums worth of songs I'd like to put it out there. As far as movies, I just want to continue how I've been doing it: working with terrific people is certainly on my agenda, and then doing stories that interest me.
That movie, 'Airplane!,' what a landmark film it was. It's a great, great movie.
Ballet might be too formal of a title for the type of dance I do, but I love to dance. I love to draw and paint; I do ceramics and photography. I'm interested in a lot of creative stuff.
I've been interested in music since I was a teenager, always writing songs.
I remember when I was a kid, with the acting thing, I resented it because, you know, you don't want to do what your parents want you to do.
One of my favorite artists is Tom Waits, whom most people think of as a wonderful singer-songwriter and a great poet. I certainly think of him that way, but I also know him as a terrific actor. You know, that persona that he puts on when he's doing his music comes from being an actor, figuring out a persona.
I don't dig Trump or follow what he has to say, but I find it fascinating that he's surfaced in the political arena. But I'm a Hillary supporter, and I don't go the Trump way.
The first thing that pops into my mind when it comes to playing cowboys is my father, Lloyd Bridges. When I was a little kid, I loved to dress up like a cowboy - put on the boots, hat, and walk around. He was in a lot of westerns, and my dad loved to ride.
Women are so - maybe this is just a male perspective, but for my money, they're so connected to life in a way that men aren't. They're able to give birth, have children, and it's literally a part of them. They perhaps have a stronger capacity for caring than males.
Do we really need to arm our citizens with machine guns or semiautomatic weapons? And don't we need to make sure that people who do own guns are qualified to own them?
In my career, I really set out not to develop too strong a persona so that you wouldn't have a hard time imagining me in any given role. I wanted to pleasantly confuse the audience on who I was.
About 25 years ago, my wife and I bought Kenny Loggins' house in Santa Barbara. It was way out of our price range, but we said, 'Screw it, let's go for it.' We've raised our family there. We overextended ourselves at the perfect time in our lives, and it worked out for the best.
As an actor, a role can be a great excuse not to be in shape. I mean, you wouldn't want to see the Dude with a six-pack, so you eat that Haagen-Dazs. My weight goes up and down.
Just a couple of minutes ago, I signed a couple of bowling pins for some people. That's a normal thing. Somebody will hand me something and say, 'Draw a picture! Draw the Dude!' They're probably selling them on eBay or something.
That's one of the things that's great about acting. You can play all the different aspects of a human being.
I love to paint, do ceramics, photography. I got a lot of side things that I like to do.
I've been playing since I was a teenager, and I put out a few albums when I was younger. When 'Crazy Heart' took off, it gave me another reason to get into music in a more serious fashion.
There are a lot of people getting killed by guns in our country for reasons, from my understanding, that are preventable. So many guns that are left loaded, unlocked. So you can educate. That doesn't seem to be too controversial - education.
I said I'm going to vote for Hillary. But my philosophy is that everything's workable. If Trump is president, I'll work with that guy. I don't know if he's terrible or what. He's refreshing in that he doesn't speak in that political way. I don't quite understand why everybody hates Hillary so much.
I'm one of those guys that spins through the clicker when I'm watching TV. When one of my movies comes on, I'll watch a scene or two.
It's wrong to rob banks, yeah, but is it right for banks to loan people money, knowing full well they can't pay it back?
I think it's an impulse for human beings to want to suffer less, and we're kind of addicted to comfort at all costs - at least, I am.
I consider myself a lazy guy, but I do a bunch of stuff, and I'm so busy that in my downtime, I like to be with my wife, who I'm just madly in love with.
You have these big $200 and $300 million movies with special effects, and I've always thought, 'Gee, why don't we make 30 movies instead of one $300 million movie?' Let's shake it up a bit; wouldn't that be a better bet? Evidently not.
When a story is told really well and is real, even if it's not about their own lives, people can apply it to themselves.
I really try my best not to get attached to a script, because I know what it takes: It takes you away from your family and what you like to do.
We're such a funky species. We're so violent, so greedy - this is how we roll. But what are we going to do about it? How do we move forward given who we are? Because situations don't come out of nothing. They come out of certain conditions.
Just getting something in the books that makes sure people with mental illness and terrorists can't get guns would be a good idea.
It's the same assignment on every part: you want to create a real world, and the tone of it is a little different on each movie. You have to find your tone and work within that to make it as real so the audience can really engage in the story you're telling.
So many things have to come together to get a creatively successful and financially successful film. Sometimes you'll have a movie that you're very proud of, and you think it transcended all of your expectations, but it doesn't come out at the right time. I have done movies that have never been released. That can be depressing.
My photography is mainly focused on my work making movies, which I've done my whole life. I think I have a perspective that not many people have. And I get to take advantage of all of the strange sources of light on a set.
The Widelux is a fickle mistress; its viewfinder isn't accurate, and there's no manual focus, so it has an arbitrariness to it, a capricious quality. I like that.