Jeff Bridges had the fans attention today as he gave an hour of his time to field questions and give awesome answers during “The Giver” Reddit AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) session.
Bridges seemed to have fun during the session answering questions about some of the interesting experiences he’s had throughout his career. We’ve got some of the answers.
“Kaztrator” asked Bridges if he preferred playing good or bad guys. “I’m not sure there’s really a difference. I don’t really see it in black & white,” he wrote. “We all have good & bad aspects to each of us. I don’t really approach them that differently. I enjoy playing both.”
“The_Maddest_Man” raved about Bridges’ performance in “True Grit” and asked Bridges how much he drew from John Wayne’s performance. “I didn’t draw from John Wayne’s movie,” he wrote. “I remember when the Coen brothers first asked me if I wanted to make this movie, I was surprised because I thought John Wayne did a very successful movie, and I said “Why do you want to do it again?” and they said “Have you read the book?” and I had not, so after I did read the book I understood why they wanted to make the movie again. It read like a Coen brothers movie. So I jumped onboard, and I didn’t really reference the John Wayne performance, it was mainly taking my cues from the character in the book.”
“Sacredblasphemies” discussed their love of “The Fisher King” and asked Bridges what it was like to work with Terry Gilliam and Robin Williams. “That was SO much fun. Terry is such a great leader – just absolutely brilliant, but he has a childlike excitement that is contagious and spreads through the company, everybody has a lot of fun on a Terry movie. As far as Robin, originally I was a little anxious working with him because he’s such an amazing comedian and I thought ‘Oh god, when I work with him he will be cracking jokes and I have some serious scenes with him, how is this going to work?'” he wrote.
“I remember one particular scene where Robin was in a coma, unconscious, and I had a long monologue, and I thought “[O]h god, this guy is going to making jokes and stuff in the middle of this thing, winking at me trying to make me laugh” but when we got to that scene, he was so there for me in a completely silent way, that I could feel his support in the silence, there was no winking or cracking jokes, and I finally came to learn that Robin is a very serious, accomplished actor, and comedy is just one of the tricks in his trick bag. He is an all-time master entertainer and actor,” wrote Bridges. “And Terry, I can remember working late nights with Terry and Robin, until 4 o clock in the morning, we would work 16 hours, and Robin would start to go around the crew & cast and just riff on everybody, he would go on and on making us laugh with his improvisation. Most directors would look at their watch and say “Ok Robin time to go back to work” but Terry would do JUST the opposite. He would encourage Robin, he would say “Go! What about him? Or him?” so he would go on for 10, 15 minutes. And after that comedic break, everybody’s batteries would be recharged, and we would be good for another couple hours.”
Tons of people know Bridges from the cult classic “The Big Lebowski.” “TheGoodSauce” asked Bridges what his favorite scene from the film is. “Oh man, that’s a tough one! Because each scene is so good, you know?” he wrote. “The Coen brothers wrote such a brilliant script – I don’t watch many of my movies on TV, but whenever I’m flipping the channels, and I’m a big flipper when I watch TV, when Lebowski comes up, I think “Oh I’ll just watch a few scenes” and then I get sucked in, because the scenes are so funny. I particularly like that scene where I’m in the car with the Big Lebowski and he hands me that toe.”
You can read more of Bridges’ responses at Reddit. “The Giver” will be in theaters Aug. 15. You can learn more about the film at its website, Facebook and Twitter pages. Here’s more about the film.
“The haunting story of THE GIVER centers on Jonas (Brenton Thwaites), a young man who lives in a seemingly ideal, if colorless, world of conformity and contentment. Yet as he begins to spend time with The Giver (Jeff Bridges), who is the sole keeper of all the community’s memories, Jonas quickly begins to discover the dark and deadly truths of his community’s secret past. With this newfound power of knowledge, he realizes that the stakes are higher than imagined – a matter of life and death for himself and those he loves most. At extreme odds, Jonas knows that he must escape their world to protect them all – a challenge that no one has ever succeeded at before. THE GIVER is based on Lois Lowry’s beloved young adult novel of the same name, which was the winner the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold over 10 million copies worldwide.”
