He is the Henry Fonda of new Hollywood, this guy that I'm meeting on Santa Barbara beach. He's had five Oscar nominations, for "The Last Picture Show", "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot", "Starman" and last year's "The Contender".
He spoke at Live Aid, his mother wrote a country and western song called "Take My Love and Stuff it Up Your Heart", he is, according to one critic, "the most natural actor who ever lived", the anti-De Niro.
All this is true, but what you notice most when you're going to interview Jeff Bridges is that women can discourse endlessly on his torso. They have total recall about its appearance throughout his oeuvre and are just as scholarly on his eyes, how blue they are, how beautiful in "American Heart", how sad in "The Fabulous Baker Boys".
Given this fascination, given that my producer was threatening to faint when he walked in the room, given that our make-up woman's hand was showing a pronounced tremble, pressure was on to make something of my two hours with him for Scene by Scene, first on that beach, then in a hotel nearby.
Bridges was selling no new film, he drove to the hotel himself (no limo), he brought changes of clothes for me to choose what he'd wear (he looked fine in a blue Hawaiian shirt), he brought presents of some of his photobooks and his new CD. Tall, big boned, very friendly, and slightly nervous, he and I had a glass of wine, he had his make-up done, and we talked movies.
Mark discusses Jeff's films.
