Jeff Bridges Recalls Cancer, COVID Battles and ‘Surrendering to the Idea that I Might Die’

variety.com:

Ashley Hume Jeff Bridges is back in action after a life-threatening battle with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and COVID-19.

At the Wednesday night premiere of his FX thriller “The Old Man”, the Oscar winner described the surreal experience of returning to set after a year-long hiatus due to his health struggles.“I was sick for a year and then came back to work with all the same cast and crew, and it was like I had a bizarre dream or something,” Bridges told reporters on the red carpet at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.Filming for the TV adaptation of Thomas Perry‘s 2017 novel was initially shut down in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After production resumed later in the fall with three episodes left to shoot, it was once again halted when Bridges was diagnosed with cancer and left to seek treatment.

While undergoing chemotherapy, Bridges contracted COVID-19 and spent five months in the hospital fighting for his life. Bridges explained that at the time, he wasn’t worried about whether he would ever be able to work again as he had become almost resigned to death.“I was kind of surrendering to the idea that I might die,” he told Variety. ‘That this might be the end of the race kind of thing, because that’s what’s going to happen to all of us at some point and maybe this was my time to go through that and I didn’t know.”However, Bridges began to envision returning to “The Old Man” after achieving a series of health milestones. “I would have little goals all through my illness,” he said. “The first goal was seeing how long I could just stand up, and my record was 45 seconds for a long time.