J E F F B R I D G E S
Interview} John Russo
Photographs by} John Russo
Grooming by} Thomas Nellen
Styling by} Linda Medvene
Location} Cold Springs Tavern
Produced by} Photohouse Productions
JR: I only know you from being a “screen actor” and not television. The last time you appeared in multiple-episode TV projects was about 60 years ago on the “Lloyd Bridges show.”
JR: When you started your career, what is the one thing in Hollywood you think has changed for the best and for the worst?
JB: Well, it’s funny, the best and worst, the lines are often blurry. One thing that comes to mind is digital cameras, they have stopped making movie film cameras, Panavision no longer makes film. Cameras and digital things makes, since film is not as precious, you can do many takes, there’s no limit on the length of film that’s running and that can be a good and a bad thing. There’s something that the preciousness of film gives you, a certain something. (laughs) It’s the same thing as editing when the Moviolas and you had to edit and it took time to scrape the film and paste it together and do all that. And now, with the KEM and other faster editing, movies have changed. So when it was slower, it added a certain quality, and the same thing about film versus digital, recording of video. One thing that has changed for the worst is no TV Guide man, there’s so much stuff on the tube and there’s no way to look and see how to look at it.
JR: Where would it be if you had to choose your favorite place on earth?
JB: Well, Montana comes to mind. We have a place in Montana that we’ve lived in for over 40 years. Our house is the whorehouse from Heaven’s Gate, the hog ranch and Michael Cimino gave it to me, and numbered the logs, and moved it four hundred miles south and that’s where we live in Montana.
JR: Is there an actor you have not worked with in your career and would like to work with and why?
JB: There’s no one actor that comes to mind. I found total children who have never acted at all, are wonderful actors to work with, people off the street are wonderful actors to work with, no one famous guy comes to mind.
JR: I understand photography is a passion of yours. Will there be an additional published book of your work any time soon?
JB: I’ve published two books that are available to the public, Pictures Volume One and Volume Two. They are out of print right now, and I’m working on getting second editions.
JR: In one hundred years, when a group of actors is studying your career, what is the one thing they should know about Jeff Bridges?
JB: What is the one thing they should know about Jeff Bridges? Gee, I don’t know. He was an actor who was lucky, he played in a lot of different roles. So a lot of different versions of what being a human being was like in the late 20th and early 21st century. I don’t know; that’s a tough question. I don’t really know about that one, okay.
To learn more about Jeff follow him at @thejeffbridges