Jeff Bridges on having COVID-19 while in remission: “I was pretty close to dying”
nme.comPeople, Bridges – known for his roles in The Big Lebowski, Tron and True Grit, among other films – recounted being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2020, after his doctors discovered a “12-by-9-inch tumour” in his stomach.
He began treatment shortly after – a round of chemotherapy by infusion and then oral chemo – which fortunately worked quickly.“They got a cocktail that worked, and oh man it worked fast.
That thing just imploded,” he said.But in January 2021, Bridges caught COVID-19. The vaccine wasn’t yet available at that point, and his immune system was already weakened by the cancer treatment, leaving him especially vulnerable.“I had no defenses.
That’s what chemo does – it strips you of all your immune system. I had nothing to fight it,” he told People. “COVID made my cancer look like nothing.“I was pretty close to dying.
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