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Jeff Bridges has been nominated for an Academy Award five times, starting almost 40 years ago with 1971's The Last Picture Show and most recently with last year's Crazy Heart. In between, Bridges was nominated for 1974's Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, 1986's Starman, and 2000's The Contender. However, Bridges has yet to win.
He told Movieline that Oscar campaigning has changed since his first nomination.
Well, you know, 40 years ago there really wasn't — or I wasn't part of — any campaign. It was pretty much you just wake up at 5 o'clock and somebody says, "You've been nominated for an Academy Award." Nowadays it seems more and more like the "business" in "show business" is underlined, and there are campaigns, and it's all part of getting people in to see the movies. Which is a good, important thing — especially for a movie like this, where you don't have a big budget to buy commercials and ads and that sort of thing. It brings attention tothe movie and gets people to go see it. So that's a good thing. It's quite a bit different.
Before Crazy Heart, Bridges was well known for his role as The Dude in 1998's The Big Lebowski, a role he is very proud of. Bridges is finally reuniting with Lebowski creators Joel and Ethan Coen in the upcoming True Grit, which Bridges reminds is not a remake of the 1969 movie starring John Wayne. Though playing the same role, Bridges says Wayne's performance will not influence how he approaches the part.
It doesn't, really, because the brothers are basing their script on the novel by Charles Portis. I don't think they're really considering it a remake of that film, but rather a remake of that book. So I'm looking at the book and the character who's written in the book. I admire John Wayne; I think he's a wonderful actor, but I'm not going to reference him, really. I'm just going to do the book.
Bridges says he's "looking forward to working" with fellow cast members Matt Damon and Josh Brolin in Grit, and that the role of the 14-year-old girl who aids Damon and Bridges in finding her father's murderer has not been cast.
Well, it's a large role. Any role that big is going to be a challengefor any actor, but for an actor of a young age, it's going to be even tougher. But we know it can be done; look at Tatum O'Neal [Oscar winner for 1973's Paper Moon]. She did a wonderful job. There are lot of terrific young actors, and as a matter of fact, I might even take my statement back because I've worked with some really wonderful child actors who've had no trainingwhatsoever, and they turn out to be great. A lot of acting is just about pretending, and kids are certainly good at that.
Bridges will also appear in the upcoming sequel Tron Legacy later this year.
Posted 02.11.10 by Ryan -
The first major awards show of the season is just weeks away. On Friday, January 15, the 15th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards will be broadcast live on VH1 at 9:00 PM ET/PT. This week the nominees were announced.
The Broadcast Film Critics Association, the largest movie critics organization in the United States and Canada, bestows the awards. Nominees, especially winners, often bring home Academy Awards. Here is a glimpse at the best of the batch — movies that have earned an 85+ rating.
Posted 12.17.09 by reelz -
Scott Cooper, an actor before he began writing screenplays, has made his writing and directing debut with Crazy Heart. The movie tells the story of a down-on-his-luck country singer (Jeff Bridges) and the journalist (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who tries to steer him toward salvation. Cooper, who adapted the screenplay from Thomas Cobb's novel, told ComingSoon that reading the novel inspired him to become a screenwriter.
I always wanted to tell the story of Merle Haggard who's probably the poet laureate of country music and for whatever reason I couldn't tell it because he had a lot of ex-wives and the rights issues were an issue. So, I recalled the novel and I felt like, "Wow, I can tell Merle's life story; I can tell Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristopherson's all at once and use it through this character." That's how it was adapting. Of course, I've never written a screenplay or adapted anything and as I was doing this, I wrote it for Jeff Bridges who is also a singer and a songwriter. He had the carriage and the physicality that I wanted and the fact that he's among the best American screen actors doesn't hurt.
Bridges' performance has drawn almost unanimous praise, and so far has garnered Bridges a Golden Globe Nomination. However, it was Robert Duvall's appearance in the movie that helped newcomer Cooper get Crazy Heart made the way Cooper wanted.
Well, after I finished the screenplay I sent it to my mentor, Robert Duvall, he and I have acted in three movies together and this is our fourth collaboration. I sent it to him, and hesitantly because of course, he won the best actor for Tender Mercies. He read it and said, "Scott, I love it. Let's make it. Well, what do you need?" I said, "There's two things I have to have to make this film and if I don't get them I shouldn't make it. One is Jeff Bridges of course and the other is [musician] T-Bone Burnett." It was critical because if you don't have that musical component, your movie's not gonna work.
Any time that you send a script with Robert Duvall's name on it, people are gonna read that first, trust me. He was very instrumental because he's putting his reputation and his name behind me as a first time writer and director, and he did it without any questions. Or at least he didn't question me about it. He felt it was time for me to step behind the camera.
Posted 12.17.09 by Ryan -
Jeff Bridges has made a career out of playing diverse characters, and two of his upcoming roles — broken-down country singer Bad Blake in Crazy Heart and his reprisal of Flynn in the sequel Tron: Legacy — further showcase his eclectic taste. Bridges told InContention that Crazy Heart was a "dream come true." The movie is already garnering Bridges some Oscar buzz, something Bridges seems relieved never to have won.
The four times I've been nominated, when they call somebody else's name you say, "Wow, I don't have to get up there, man." You would think being an actor for as long as I've been that I could get up in front of people and give a speech, but no, I'm just as nervous as anyone. So it's kind of a relief. I'm excited just to draw attention to this movie that I had such a great time on and I think is so good.
If Bridges ends up being nominated an winning an Oscar, he'll consider himself pretty lucky, considering he almost passed on the movie until he discovered that his friend and musician T. Bone Burnett was hired to produce and write Blake's music.
A year or so passed and I ran into Bone somewhere. He said, "You know this script Crazy Heart? What do you think? It's pretty good. Let's do it." I said, "You're gonna do it?" He said, "Yeah, if you will."
Tron: Legacy allowed Bridges to work with friends, as well as with more advanced technology than the 1982 original.
Wow, it was great. Getting back with my old buddy, Steven Lisberger, and Bruce Boxleitner. I guess the same thing appealed to me about the sequel that appealed to me about the original, which was this idea that there's a kid aspect to what I do, pretending and all that stuff. I used to love to pretend when I was a kid, and here's a movie where I get to play a guy who gets sucked inside a computer and gets to use all the modern technology that's available today.
The same goes with the sequel, except that all the technology that we're using in that makes the old one look like an old black and white TV show or something.
Fans of the original can already see a glimpse of the the way Tron: Legacy will look in the teaser footage shown, something Disney forced them to create.
Disney wanted them to shoot this pretty expensive trailer. I don't know how much it cost, but it was pretty expensive. And, all that technology that we were going to use in the movie itself is used in the trailer. It wasn't as highly polished as the movie is going to be, but it gives you a little peak into what you might find.
Crazy Heart opens December 16 and Tron Legacy on December 17, 2010.
Posted 12.04.09 by Ryan