Jeff Bridges Admits He Was a ‘Reluctant Actor’ Early in His Career: ‘It Took Many Films Before I Could Get Comfortable’
variety.comMichael Appler Jeff Bridges isn’t like other leading men. So goes the tale for over 50 years and 70 films. Where other actors of his generation—Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson—brought volume and bravado, Bridges excelled in the shadows.
A charming pretty boy turned weary and soulful iconoclast, his characters have never been showy. As The Dude in “The Big Lebowski” or Bad Blake in “Crazy Heart,” he’s moved into his roles and lived in them—“enough,” as one critic wrote as early as 1973, “to make a picture worth seeing.” “I’m not sure what to make of all that,” Bridges told Variety at Film at Lincoln Center Monday evening, where the actor received the prestigious Chaplin Award. “It’s shocking for myself to think about how many films I’ve done,” he said. “Each film is like a little lifetime.
I was a reluctant actor at first. It took many films before I could get comfortable, before I decided to make a career. Really, it’s just nice to get an ‘Atta boy.’” And so was the spirit Monday evening.
Bestowed each year since 1972, the Chaplain Award honors the film industry’s most notable talent, offering (as all fundraisers like these do) lengthy and effusive consecrations of great actors. “What a dump!” Bette Davis once shouted from the stage, accepting her award in 1989.
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