Jeff Bridges on Crazy Heart, True Grit and 40 Years of Chasing Oscar

I'm looking forward to True Grit -- not just for your Coens reunion, but because of how you approach a role that John Wayne so iconically portrayed 40 years ago. How does that impact you going into it, if at all?

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.

Have they cast the young female lead yet?

They haven't! No, but they have some other great actors in it, though. We have Josh Brolin and Matt Damon, so I'm looking forward to working with those guys.

And you'll start pretty soon. What do you think it is about that other role that's keeping it unattached?

Well, it's a large role. Any role that big is going to be a challenge for 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 [who won an Oscar 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 training whatsoever, and they turn out to be great. A lot of acting is just about pretending, and kids are certainly good at that.

Yet while you are part of a famous acting family, you were never really a child actor yourself. Was that a conscious decision on you and your father Lloyd's part?

I mean, my father would get me into Sea Hunts and that kind of thing. I worked on and off through high school doing bit parts on TV shows, but I started the movies when I was 19 or 20. My father was very proactive about the whole acting thing, and I kind of resisted it. As a kid, you don't want to stand out or have a famous father or be special in that kind of way. You just want to blend in with all the other kids, you know? As far as my own children, I didn't take that path. I wasn't as proactive about it as my father. In a way I sort of regret it now; they're all in their mid-20s thinking about what they want to do for the rest of their lives, career-wise. I often tell them, "Well, you might want to think about acting. It's in your blood, and you're all good at it." I can tell from any plays they've done, or from cuing me and stuff. But I don't think the bug has bit them. I wouldn't be surprised if any of them actually went into it, but I didn't encourage it when they were growing up. I thought I'd let them set their own deal, you know?

Of course. Going back to your upcoming projects, what can you tell me about Tron Legacy -- particularly about how 30 years of technical advances changed how the new film was made?

It's funny. It's very similar, and it's very different in an odd way. The similarity is that back then, the reason I did Tron was because I wanted to take part in some of that cutting-edge technology. I mentioned the idea of kids pretending, and there was kind of a kid in me. It's hard to turn down a guy getting sucked inside a computer. The same goes for this new one; it's all the cutting-edge technology we have today that makes the old one look like a black-and-white TV show. This new thing has really pulled out all the stops. What I've seen of it looks pretty great. They also kept Steven Lisberger -- the writer-director of the first one -- onboard. He was very much included in the new one, so the storyline from the first one is intact.

Great! I guess that's about it, unless there's anything else I should have asked about Crazy Heart--

Well, there's just how happy I am that Maggie Gyllenhaal also got a nod. I was a little disappointed that she hadn't gotten any accolades for that beautiful performance that she gave. But now with the big one here, she's getting the tip of the hat. That makes me feel good.

It's funny, because there's an increasing incidence of journalists in movies who have affairs with their sources or subjects. This is such an obvious professional no-no, but why do you think it keeps coming up?

So in your experience, does that happen much?

I can't imagine it happening. But maybe I'm not living right, either. Who knows?

I don't know. The reason I ask is because I know when you get into those long interviews where people are talking to you for a week or something, they can get kind of psychological in nature. You can really start to open up, and intimacy is a wonderful, dangerous thing. I can see how a relationship with a writer would be an easy thing. But people are hungry for intimacy all the time, so it can come from anywhere. You never know.

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