When I'm performing music, it's like I'm doing a big improv.
— Jeff Bridges
There is one particular argument that I call our 'ancient war.' If it could be summed up in one phrase, it would be, 'You don't get it. You don't understand what it's like to be me living with you.' There is such truth in that statement. None of us can really appreciate what it is like to be the other person, what that point of view feels like.
The toughest thing about making movies is being apart from your family. One of the things I try my best to do is call my wife every day to keep up to speed with what's going on in her life. And tell her what's going on with mine.
My approach to working in movies is to empower the director to have power over me and to really support his vision because he's the guy, at the end of the day, who's going to put it all together.
When I'm working, on sets or stages, my contracts specify in the rider that no plastic bottles be used. When I'm playing with my band, we all use metal and non-plastic containers for drinking to be ecologically sensitive and show others that this is the way to go.
Unlike Texas Rangers, we actors don't have a stop date, so I don't know about retiring. Sometimes I want to stop acting, but then you get a good script!
I look at the camera as sort of a missing link between motion picture photography and still photography.
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.
The barn doors are open, and the horses are running out because we've got guns all over the place. It's basically a cold war for individuals: you've got a nuclear bomb, and I've got a nuclear bomb, and the only thing stopping us from using them is the fact we both have them.
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.
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.
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?
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.
Sometimes I think about retiring but not stopping work. Just 're-tiring' - put on some new tires and go on to do something else.
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.
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?
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.
My father, he really encouraged me to really get into acting. He loved it so much, and he taught all the basics.
Intimacy seems to be one of the major highs of life, whether it's getting to know yourself in a deeper way, or your partner, or the world and the society that you live in.
This industry is tough on relationships. I've always thought that my wife should have a credit up alongside mine because I couldn't do what I do without her support.
I am a product of nepotism. I don't think I would have had the profession that I'm in currently... if it wasn't for my dad.
My father Lloyd Bridges worked on a TV show called 'Sea Hunt.' He impressed upon me as a child the importance of taking care of the ocean and working together to do our part to reduce human pollution.
I come from a family of teasers myself. My grandfather was from Liverpool, and he had a dry sense of humor, and he would tease us terribly. My brother Beau was so skilled in his teasing that he could get a rise out of me by simply pointing at me.
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.
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.
Just getting something in the books that makes sure people with mental illness and terrorists can't get guns would be a good idea.
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.
Imperfection and perfection go so hand in hand, and our dark and our light are so intertwined, that by trying to push the darkness or the so-called negative aspects of our life to the side... we are preventing ourselves from the fullness of life.
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.
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.
That's one of the things that's great about acting. You can play all the different aspects of a human being.
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.
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.
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.
There are so many things that pop up. If you are paying attention, you can learn every second of the day. Life is my guru.
It's easy to point out the evil in other people, but that can be found in all of us. That selfishness, that is something we all have in us. Sometimes you are successful at dealing with it, and sometimes you are not.
Making movies is about creating illusions, and they can be subtle illusions, but it's all a cumulative effect as you make these little tweaks. It kinda adds up to something, hopefully.
The way to change the world is through individual responsibility and taking local action in your own community.
Loving movies myself, I know when I see a film with someone with a strong persona, it's hard to overlay another character on top of that.
It's interesting to explore the darker side, but the hero piece is interesting as well. It's like choosing between comedy or drama. I like to do both.
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.
In a marriage, every fight is the same fight, over and over again, in different forms.
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.
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.
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 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 love to paint, do ceramics, photography. I got a lot of side things that I like to do.
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.
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.
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.
