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I Confessed To Mike [cimino] A Couple Of Days Before We Shot. I Was Like, "what Am I Doing Here, Mike?" And Mike Just Looked At Me, In That Very Directorial Manor, Took A Long Pause, And He Said, "you Know The Game Tag?" And I Said, "yeah." And He Said, "well, You're It." That Was Some Of The Best Direction I Think I've Ever Received.

-Jeff Bridges

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I Confessed To Mike

Jeff Bridges

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I Confessed To Mike [cimino] A Couple Of Days Before We Shot. I Was Like, "what Am I Doing Here, Mike?" And Mike Just Looked At Me, In That Very Directorial Manor, Took A Long Pause, And He Said, "you Know The Game Tag?" And I Said, "yeah." And He Said, "well, You're It." That Was Some Of The Best Direction I Think I've Ever Received.

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Whenever I Work On A Part, I Look At The World Through The Filter Of The Character And I Pick Things They Might Use Through My Observations Of Real Life.

I Thought Bringing Those Two [taylor Sheridan And David Mackenzie] Together, Odds Are You're Going To Come Up With Something Pretty Good.

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I've Done Several Commercials And I've Done Voiceovers For Documentaries.

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Movies Are Very Subjective.

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Black And White

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Working Together

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I Confessed To Mike [cimino] A Couple Of Days Before We Shot. I Was Like, "what Am I Doing Here, Mike?" And Mike Just Looked At Me, In That Very Directorial Manor, Took A Long Pause, And He Said, "you Know The Game Tag?" And I Said, "yeah." And He Said, "well, You're It." That Was Some Of The Best Direction I Think I've Ever Received.

Kevin Bacon And I Recently Worked On A Move Together, R.i.p.d. Just Before We'd Begin A Scene, When All Of Us Would Feel The Normal Anxiety That Actors Feel Be- Fore They Start To Perform, Kevin Would Look At Me And The Other Actors With A Very Serious Expression On His Face And Say: "remember, Everything Depends On This!" It Would Make Us All Laugh. On The One Hand, It's Not True Of Course, But On The Other, Everything Does Depend On This, On Just This Moment And Our Attitude Toward This Moment.

Remembers Everything

I Don't Have Too Much Time To Jam With The Rest Of Hollywood.

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A Lot Of People Don't Really Understand What Rehearsal's About. People Are Afraid They're Gonna Leave It In The Dressing Room, Or You're Gonna Shoot Your Wad In Rehearsal.

I Have No Lucky Charm. I Am 100 Percent Superstition-free, And I Take Nothing For Granted.

I'm At This Time In Life When I Have To Take The Opportunities I Have Left.

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Everyone I Meet Is In My Sangha. I Don't Know If That's The Proper Definition, But That's The Way I'm Going To Hold It In My Mind.

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You Prep, You Prep, You Prep. And On The Day That You Film, You Let All Of That Go. I Try To Achieve Emptiness As Much As Possible - The Zen Thing - To Let The Deal Come Out Of That Nothing.

I'm A Pretty Basic Surfer.

My Brother's My Teacher, My Mentor, And We Both Learnt All The Acting Basics From Our Father.

There's Kind Of A Zen Aspect To Bowling. The Pins Are Either Staying Up Or Down Before You Even Throw Your Arm Back. It's Kind Of A Mind-set. You Want To Be In This Perfect Mind-set Before You Released The Ball.

I Used To Read Comics When I Was A Kid.

Movies Are Like Magic Tricks.

Everybody Loses A Couple, And You Either Pack It Up And Go Home Or You Keep On Fighting.

I've Worked With A Lot Of Kids, And When You're Working With Kids They Have Certain Hours That They Have To Work.

I'm Not Locked Into Playing One Guy.

I Find I'm Most Challenged By Things I Really Care About, Because I Really Want To Do Them Well. It Causes Quite A Bit Of Anxiety. But That Very Thing You're Afraid Of Is Kind Of Like A Blessing In Disguise. If You Didn't Have That Fear, You Wouldn't Have The Other Side - Courage And Bravery, Positive Emotions.as An Actor, You Get Used To Those Fears, And You're Almost Happy When They Show Up. It Makes You Learn Your Lines And Prepare.

My Mom Wasn't A Movie Star.

Live Like You're Already Dead, Man. Have A Good Time. Do Your Best. Let It All Come Ripping Right Through You.

She Was This Incredible Mom. With Each Of Her Kids, She Did Something Called `time,' Where She Would Spend An Hour Each Day Doing Whatever The Kid Wanted To Do, Whether It Was Play Spacemen Or `let's Go Into Your Makeup, And I'll Make You Up Like A Clown.' And As A Teenager You'd Be Like, `rub Me, Mom. Give Me A Massage.'

I've Had Really Great Experiences Working With First-time Directors. They Come At Filmmaking With Fresh Ideas. I've Been Very Lucky That Way.

I've Done Quite A Few Movies, I Generally Can Feel That I'm Not Right For The Role Or A General Fear If I Can Pull It Off, And Him Giving That "tag" So To Speak Gave Me The Confidence. Like That Miles Davis Line, "don't Worry About Mistakes, There Aren't Any." Once You Are The Part, You're The Guy, So You Can't Not Be The Guy Because You're It.

Myths Are Wonderful - They Really Tell The Stories That Connect All Of Us And Teach Us So Much.

You Know, Ballet Might Be Too Formal Of A Title For The Type Of Dance I Do, But I Love To Dance.

Whenever You're The Child Of A Famous Person, You Get Judged In Odd Ways Because Of That.

As Far As 3-d Goes, I Don't Know If That Will Stay Very Long Because Things Are Moving So Rapidly.

Basically, One Of The Hardest Things About Being An Actor Is Getting Your First Break. I'm A Product Of Nepotism. The Doors Were Open To Me. I'd Done Several Movies Before I Decided What I Wanted To Do.

A Large Part Of Acting Is Just Pretending. You Get To Work With These Other Great Make-believers, All Making Believe As Hard As They Can.

When You're A Professional You Gotta Do It [your Job] When You Don't Feel Like Doing It.

If You're Married You'll Have Tough Times.

My Father Lloyd Bridges Was Very Versatile In His Parts, But He Had A Hit In The '60s 'sea Hunt,' Where He Played A Skin Diver. And He Was So Into That Role That People Actually Thought He Was A Skin-diver.

I Remember In One Of My Early Films I Had A Drunk Scene. It Was Kiss Me Goodbye, With Sally Field, And I Was Playing This Kind Of Nerdy Guy Who Gets Drunk And Dances. And So I Thought, "oh Well, I'll Just Get Drunk And Do The Dance." And It Was Wonderful, But Then I Had The Rest Of The Day, And The Next Day. So I Learned That You Don't Really Have To Do The Things That Your Character Is Doing. But Us Actors, We Use Something Called Sense Memory. I've Certainly Been Drunk Before, And Part Of My Job Is To Recall That Without Getting Drunk.

Making A Film, It Uses A Certain... 'pretend-muscle,' I Don't Know What You Want To Call It. It Exhausts Something In Me, I Find. It Has To Be Really Something To Get Me Interested.

As Far As The Lack Of Hits Goes, I Think Perhaps It's Because I've Played A Lot Of Different Roles And Have Not Created A Persona That The Public Can Latch On To. I Have Played Everything From Psychopathic Killers To Romantic Leading Men, And In Picking Such Diverse Roles I Have Avoided Typecasting.

You Don't Want To Vilify Your Ego.

There Are Some Actors That Want You To Call Them By Their Character's Name And They Have No Relationship With You Outside Of The Character. But I Like To Get To Know Who I'm Working With So That We Can Relax Together, And It's More Fun.

I'm Not Counting Any Chickens.

It Used To Kind Of Upset Me When I'd Be Working On A Part In My Hotel Room, And I'd Get An Idea For A Song And Find Myself On The Guitar For An Hour When I Should Be Working On My Lines. But I've Discovered That When I Start To Shake Up My Creativity It Wants To Be Expressed In All Kinds Of Different Ways. They All Kind Of Inform Each Other.

Always Maintain A Joyful Mind. Appreciate The Struggles As Opportunities To Wake Up.

It's Not Enough Just To Treat Women Well. We Have To Work To Make Sure All Men Treat Women Well.

Generally Speaking I Would Say I Enjoy The Smaller Films More Because There's A Less Sense Of Pressure And Often The Material Is More Unusual.

Working With My Dad Was Such A Gas. We Approached The Work In A Similar Way. We Only Made Two Films Together When I Was An Adult, Tucker, And Blown Away, But It Was So Much Fun To Play With Your Parent Like That.

Pretend Was A Big Part Of My Childhood.

I Look Back At My Filmography, And I'm Pretty Jazzed With The Stuff I've Been Part Of. They're All Movies I'd Like To See.

The Oscar Nomination Is Great. It's A Great Pat On The Back. And I Like That.

I Don't Think I Ever Went Down That Movie Star Path. I Always Enjoy Taking A 90-degree Turn From The Last Thing I Did.

Taylor Sheridan I Think Wrote A Very Good Script. It Reeked Of Authenticity. He Seemed Like A Guy Who Knew What He Was Talking About And It Turned Out That Taylor's Uncle Is A Marshal, So He Knew Things From That Side.

I Don't Have Too Many Plans Filled Out. I Know I Want To Keep Doing More Music. I've Got A Couple Of Albums Worth Of Songs I'd Like To Put It Out There. As Far As Movies, I Just Want To Continue How I've Been Doing It: Working With Terrific People Is Certainly On My Agenda, And Then Doing Stories That Interest Me.

I Gotta Take Notes When Things Occur To Me.

I'm Not Real Good At Romance.

One Of My Favorite Artists Is Tom Waits, Whom Most People Think Of As A Wonderful Singer-songwriter And A Great Poet. I Certainly Think Of Him That Way, But I Also Know Him As A Terrific Actor. You Know, That Persona That He Puts On When He's Doing His Music Comes From Being An Actor, Figuring Out A Persona.

I Do My Best To Hold The Director's Opinion Above My Own.

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.

Every Couple Of Years We'll Watch The Movie And It's Like Watching Home Movies, Seeing The Ranch On-screen. But That Movie Heaven's Gate, People Are Appreciating It More And More As Time Goes On.

When You Start To Engage With Your Creative Processes, It Shakes Up All Your Impulses, And They All Kind Of Inform One Another.

It's Like That Perfection Thing, Trying To Be That Thing You're Not. You Have To Feel That Discomfort And Not Try To Get Rid Of It. Accept That Aspect And Get Into It. Acknowledge Those Feelings And Let Them Be. You Are Who You Are.

Well, There Are All Kinds Of Gutters. Life Will Supply You With Gutters.

This Idea Of How Everything Is Interconnected, And The Impermanence Of Things.. It Sums Up The Human Condition To Me, And It Helps Me On My Path.

I'm Also Working Closely With A Group Called The Amazon Conservation Team, Helping With The Rainforest In South America.

Normally, I Love To Go To The Movies And When I See A Character Portrayed By Different Actors At Different Ages, It Kind Of Pops A Little Bit For Me. It Brings Me Out Of The Movie Experience. Now We Have The Technology To Cure That.

In Life And In Movies, It's A Similar Challenge, Where You Have Expectations, And You End Up In Situations That Are Not Meeting Your Expectations.

I Just Find My Creativity Manifesting A Bunch Of Different Ways.

We're Here For Such A Short Period Of Time.

I Don't Really Think In Career Terms.

We Love Things That Are Convenient.

Yeah, I Loved Ray Bradbury.

With A Labyrinth, You Make A Choice To Go In - And Once You've Chosen, Around And Around You Go. But You Always Find Your Way To The Center.

I've Done Movies In The Past That Have So Many Characters And I Find It's Very Hard To Follow All These Stories. You End Up Not Caring About Any Of The People And I Thought That Would Be The Case In This Film, And You Had These Big Speeches For Each Character, You Know, It's Like "god That's How You'll Have To Cut That Down In Order To Paste It All", To Edit The Movie And My Representatives Could Say "no, You Really You Ought To Check It Out.

I've Gone Out Of My Way To Not Take Baggage With Me From Film To Film.

There's Lots Of Good Movies Where You Feel That The Dialogue Could Be Improvised, But Very Little Was. The "big Lebowski" Was Like That Where People Say "oh, You Know, That Sounds So..." And We'd Always Go Back And Get Every Man, Every Ellipses In There The Way These Guys Write It. Because Not Only Is It Saying What Michael Wants The Character To Say But The Way They All Speak Kind Of Creates This Tone Because It's Not Exactly Real.

You Can Change Things, You Can Make Things Better.

I Don't Know How It Is For Women Or For Other Guys, But When I Was Young And In My 20s, I Had A Fear Of Marriage.

It Gives Me More Breadth As An Actor And As An Artist To Not Be Pigeonholed.

I Really Try Hard Not To Work, Not To Engage, Because I Know What That Means. What Hard Work It Is; It Takes Me Away From My Family.

Yeah, I'd Been Around Horses Most Of My Life.

Yeah I Loved, As A Kid Growing Up, I Loved Science-fiction.

I Understand Professionals Have To Work When They Don't Feel Like It, And I Certainly Don't Feel Like It. So Maybe This Will Put The Nail In The Coffin For My Acting Career.

The More Nervous You Get, The More Worried You Get About Something... Maybe You Just Need To Take A Nap.

As Filmmakers, We're Constantly Always Looking For Something To Bring The Audience Deeper Into The Reality Of The Story We're Telling.

Sometimes I Think Of Movie Acting As Advanced Pretend.

This Is Many, Many Years Ago. It Was Shortly After "starman" I Think. I Don't Know How Close I Was To Getting The Part. I Met With [director] Penny Marshall And That's One That I Knew Would Be A Hit. It Just Felt Hit-ish. But It's Like You Go To A Store And You See A Jacket And You Go "i Love That Jacket" And You Try It On And It's Too Big Or Too Small For You And It's The Only One They Have. For Some Reason That Part Just Didn't Fit Me.

As A Kid, You Want To Be Liked For Who You Are. You Don't Want To Be Liked For Who Your Parents Are. You Don't Want To Get A Job Because Of Who Your Parents Are. You Want To Do It On Your Own, With Your Own Gifts And Your Own Value. So, I Decided To Spare My Kids That And Not Be As Pro-active As My Dad Was.

It Was Fortunate For All Of Us To Have Joaquin Jackson, Who Is A Very Renowned Texas Ranger, On Board. He Spent Quite A Few Days With Us On Set And He Added A Lot To It For Me On What It's Like To Be A Texas Ranger.

Tightness Gets In The Way Of Everything, Except Tightness.

We Would Do Improvisation Together. And That In A Way, Had Almost A "student-film Side" Where We'd Be Sitting There With Robert Downey And Jon Favreau And We're Playing Around, We're Jamming Around And We Read Those Pages And In Next Couple Of Days That's What We Do, So It Was A Good Experience. Kind Of Frightening At First Because You Didn't Quite Know How It Was Going To Work Out, But They Had Some Very Talented People There So It Worked Out Well.

I Love Westerns, I'd Love To Make More Of Them.

I Can See How A Relationship With A Writer Would Be An Easy Thing.

I Consider Myself Pretty Lazy, But I Look Back And Check Out The Stuff I've Done, And I Say, 'god, That's A Lot Of Stuff For A Lazy Guy.' It's A Paradox, I Suppose, Being Both Things.

Most Cynics Are Really Crushed Romantics: They've Been Hurt, They're Sensitive, And Their Cynicism Is A Shell That's Protecting This Tiny, Dear Part In Them That's Still Alive.

Sometimes, You Can Not Click With Somebody, And It Can Feel Awkward.

If You're Like Me, I Get Hooked Into To-do Lists, You Know. I'll Say I Checked That Off. Okay, I Did That. And You Have All These Things You're Doing.

As You Become Famous You Lose Some Of Your Anonymity, Which Is Wonderful For An Actor To Have Because You Can Observe People And Also People Don't Have Such A Strong Sense Of Who You Are And That Sort Of Thing.

Well, When We Made 'tron' There Was No Internet, No Cellphones.

It's A Wonderful Metaphor, Catching A Wave, For How You Can Look At Other Challenges In Your Life.

People Fall In Love For Mysterious Reasons.

Falling In Love

I Have A Cycle That Is Not Particularly Cool, But It's A Cycle: Trash Myself To Reward Myself.

I Kept Dreaming Of A World I Thought I'd Never See, And Then....one Day....i Got In!

To Go Into Therapy Is An Adventure, Not Really To Iron Anything Out.

He [michael Cimino] Wasn't The Typical Filmmaker. I Don't Know If He Had More In Him, He Certainly Had A Lot Of Scripts. I Know He Wrote A Hell Of A Lot.

For Me, Growing Up, The Downside Of It Was That As A Kid You Don't Want To Stand Out. You Don't Want To Have A Famous Father Let Alone Get A Job Because Of Your Famous Father, You Know? But I'm A Product Of Nepotism. That's How I Got My Foot In The Door, Through My Dad.

When I Was Really Young, My Mom Enrolled Me In Dance Classes.

Like Most Of The Movies I Get Involved With, I Resisted As Long As Possible, I Really Try To Figure Out Why I Shouldn't Do It And This One Had Plenty Of Reasons "not To Do It".

I'm Very Much Into The Costuming Of Any Character That I Portray And It's One Of The Great Things About Making Movies Is It's A Collaborative Art Form So You Get All These Artists Who Are Looking Specifically About For This Instance Your Character's Costume And What That Might Tell About Your Character.

I Haven't Been To Comic-con.

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