Excogitating Genius, With Brandon Brendel

There couldn't be a better wrap-up of my Jeff Bridges adventure than this wonderful documentary put together by the people at American Masters, directed by Gail Levin.

Much like my blog here, it takes you through JB's career with lots of valuable insight from the man himself and also from those close to him and people he has worked with throughout the years.

Here it is for you, my loyal readers.

Well, it looks like this will be my last JB post for a while, unless I can come across any of the few movies I couldn't find. It doesn't look like he'll have another movie out until 2013, so I feel like I should have some kind of semi-closing. Because I am doing this to study the craft of acting, I'll hit on that.

 Jeff Bridges was taught by his parents who followed the teachings of Michael Chekhov. He uses sense-memory a lot. To start building a character he finds aspects of himself that the character also has and then goes from there. In many of the interviews I've watched where he talks about acting, he uses the words "pretending" and "play". He says that it's just like when you were a child and used to pretend with your friends, good acting depends on how fully you can commit yourself to the pretend world and circumstances of a scene. And one last thing that his mother told him that he has repeated, "Have fun, and don't take it too seriously".

Jeff Bridges is pretty darn funny! See for yourself!

Staring: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Hailee Steinfeld
Directed by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen

JB's Awards
Bronze Wrangler - Outstanding Theatrical Motion Picture

The Coen Brothers can do no wrong. Anything that they do I can be fairly confident that I will enjoy it. Here, they tackle the Western genre for the first time and re-teaming with Jeff Bridges was a genius move.

It was said that Rooster Cogburn could have been The Dude's great-great-great grandfather. I can see that. I'd say that Rooster is a little more mean than The Dude, but I guess you had to have some mean in you to survive back in the day. I think JB captures the drunken grizzled US Marshal perfectly. When asked how he perfected his drunk acting, JB said that he has had some experience with the subject, and uses sense-memory to get himself to that state. He said that he made the mistake of actually getting drunk while shooting Kiss Me Goodbye for a scene that called for drunkenness. The first shots went great. But as the shooting day went on, things didn't go as well. He never made that mistake again.

Staring: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde
Directed by Joseph Kosinski

JB's Awards
Saturn Award - Best Actor

After watching so many movies with the purpose of watching great acting it's kind of hard to get into a movie that relies so heavily on CGI over talent. It was a pretty movie but I didn't feel like JB had much to work with here as story was secondary to special effects.

It was interesting to see older JB acting opposite younger JB, which could never have happened without modern technology. Although the younger JB reminded me of the baby from the E-Trade commercials for some reason. How his face moved and all.

Staring: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Colin Farrell
Directed by Scott Cooper

JB's Awards
Academy Award - Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Critics Choice Award - Best Actor
Golden Globe - Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
Independent Spirit Award - Best Male Lead
LAFCA Award - Best Actor
Desert Palm Achievement Award
Prism Award - Performance in a Feature Film
Screen Actors Guild Award - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

A great movie! Great performances, great music, great cinematography. My only gripe was that I felt like JB and Maggie Gyllenhaal's characters fell for each other quite abruptly. (Is that a spoler? Eh, it happens pretty early on) It is explained that a lot of the film was shot out of sequence, so they had already shot some of their more intense scenes together before the scene of their meeting, therefor they already had a relationship built up. He chalks there quick romance up to love at first sight.

Man oh man! All these awards for JB's performance! I'm trying to figure out why he got all of the accolades for this particular role. Now, I'm not knocking his performance at all. It was an amazing performance. I'm just saying that, after having just watched almost every movie he has done, there are plenty of other performances that I would put up against this one. Is it that he showed his musical prowess along with the acting? Well, he did the same in The Fabulous Baker Boys and he wasn't even nominated. Is it because it was picked up by Fox Searchlight? I guess it was just his time, albeit much later that it should have been. There are a lot of similarities in this character and his recent role in The Open Road.

Starring: Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges
Directed by Grant Heslov

What a great cast! A reporter stumbles upon the story of his life, a secret branch of the US military that specializes in using psychic powers. There are some twists and turns in the plot and I made the mistake of starting this one when I should have gone to bed, so I think I got lost on a few turns. Enjoyed it while I was coherent, though. Definitely will watch again. Hey, when I get to Spacey's movies!

The Dude is back! Well, kind of. JB got a bit typecast in peoples minds as The Dude with the cult following of The Big Lebowski. But I have to say, this is the only other character of his that I saw a lot of The Dude in. It was like, "The Dude Goes to the Army...and Has Psychic Powers". A very fun role in a fun movie.

Staring: Jeff Bridges, Lauren Ambrose and Lois Smith
Directed by George LaVoo

I'm not going to lie to you, this movie jerked a few tears from me. It wasn't really a sad movie, but there was a moment that got to me. It was mostly about how the love of and for a dog can really bring out the best in man and how strong that bond can be once established.

JB has been playing some angry characters lately. Here, as writer Jon Katz, his life is seemingly out of control. He has writer's block and is semi-separated from his wife. While angry at the world, you can really see his love for his dogs. When a kennel sends him an abused dog, he is really put to the test. I really enjoyed his performance here, very well-rounded.

Directed by Michael Meredith

Alright! A baseball movie! Awesome! Not so much. I think it would have been a lot better with me playing JB's minor league baseball playing son than Justin Timberlake. I felt like it just kind of plodded along, at least it was only an hour and a half.

JB did keep the movie alive. I really like his southern characters. His character, ex-baseball star Kyle Garrett, is pretty complex. Separated from his family, I felt like what he really wants is love and his family, but his main obstacle is his own ego. In the movie he says that he just loved himself too much. So, good JB, the rest, eh. Oh, Mary Steenburgen was pretty good to in her smaller role as JTs ailing mother.

Staring: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges
Directed by Jon Favreau

Fun stuff! See what happens when you put great actors in action movies too. I think that a lot of the time the big action movies rely too much on special effects and explosions. This movie shows what can happen when you throw some high quality acting in the mix too. Hollywood is getting smart! A lot of the movie was improvised as well because the final script wasn't complete when they started shooting, giving the dialogue a very natural feel.

JB looks like a bad-ass with his shaved head and beard. Playing Obadiah Stane, who ends up as Downey Jr.'s main nemesis (or as JB puts it, "another type of good guy"), JB still had that likability factor. But there is something churning deep down that comes forward in a few key scenes. Obadiah wants his company to succeed at all costs, and won't let Tony Stark, who has had a change of heart, stand in his way. I love it when JB gets rowdy!

Jeff Bridges talks Iron Man. How fast does his hair grow?:

Narrated by Jeff Bridges
Directed by Morgan Neville

While there isn't too much narration from Jeff Bridges, I thought that this was a very interesting look at the birth of the art scene in Los Angeles. Includes a great interview with the late Dennis Hopper. I need to set my easel back up and do some more painting!

Staring: Shia LaBeouf, Zooey Deschanel and Jon Heder
Directed by Ash Brannon and Chris Buck

I haven't watched a newer animated film in a while and I've been missing out. This was pretty awesome. The animation was amazing and it had me laughing.

JB voiced Big Z, one of the best surfing penguins in the world who went into hiding, only to be found out by the young Cody Maverick. I thought the voice acting was superb and seemed more natural than most animated projects. Then I found out that the directors had the actors actually act out the scenes together, with boom mics and all, so they could move around, instead of being stuck in a box by themselves with a microphone in front of them. Very clever, very clever indeed.

Starring: Missy Peregrym, Jeff Bridges and Vanessa Lengies
Directed by Jessica Bendinger

A young delinquent ex-gymnast has a run-in with the law and is forced to choose between going to juvie or training for a big gymnastic competition with Jeff Bridges. Amazing premise! I can't say that it was bad. It was just a typical teeny-bopper silly movie. It did have some nice heavy metal music, which was quite surprising.

At first I was like, "Why did JB do this movie?", and, well, I still am. I read that his decision to do this movie had a lot to do with the fact that he has three young daughters, so I guess he wanted to do a movie for them. JB plays Burt Vickerman, a legendary gymnastics coach. This movie is one of the reasons I wanted to to this study. I wanted to see how great actors dealt with not-so-great material. I actually enjoyed JB's character, and his drive to make these girls better gymnasts. You can tell that he really put as much work and research into this role as he would any other role. Evidence of that is in this excerpt from an interview where he talks about finding his character.

Jeff Bridges-- “I went to a great meet here, it was a national meet. I must have looked quite peculiar because I had my video camera and all these girls doing these amazing things, and I’m videoing the coaches – their hands, how they move their feet. I got a lot out of that. Many ways of being a coach, what those guys look like. That’s what I was kind of hunting for in the early days there, to find out what was my coach going to be like.

I saw there were some coaches who probably never stepped in a gym in their lives. You know, the beer bellies and not particularly graceful. Probably in their youth they had some talent. But I also found out that coaches aren’t necessarily gymnasts themselves. Bela Karolyi was probably the most famous coach. He wasn’t a gymnast, he was a boxer. That was kind of interesting to find out. So I kind of picked and choosed. Of course, there were some coaches that were very fit and trim and looked like they could get up there and do the tricks themselves. I took bits and pieces and made my guy."

Full interview

Man oh man, this movie was messed up...and I like it. If you are into David Lynch, David Cronenberg or Alejandro Jodorowski, you'll most likely enjoy this movie. The synopses that I have found state that a girl gets trapped in a fantasy world. Well, the world seemed pretty real to me. Real messed up.

JB is dead throughout most of the movie, but I enjoyed his performance as a heroin addicted ex-rock star while he was alive. I thought that his portrayal of addiction and heroin high were great. I'll definitely look at this performance if I have to play a heroin user.

Jeff Bridges talks about the movie, with some Spanish subtitles if you don't habla inglés:

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Ted Danson and Joe Pantoliano
Directed by Michael Traeger

Welcome to Butterface Fields. Boy, this movie is fun! Down and out Andy Sargentee, played by Jeff Bridges, just wants to succeed at something, anything, so that his son can be proud of him. After wracking his brain, he comes up with the brilliant idea to make a porno. He can't do it alone, so he bands the town together to help him embark on this adventure. Whether you are a fan of porno or not, this is a fun watch.

JB is so driven to succeed as the character, Andy Sargentee. He meets his challenges head on and doesn't let down. He really seems to take enjoyment in the process and I think JB had a lot of fun with this role. But who wouldn't.

Here is my favorite scene of the movie with JB and Isaiah Washington:

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Kim Basinger, and Jon Foster
Directed by Tod Williams

This movie follows a family struggling to deal with tragedy. And not always making the best choices in the process. I really liked this movie. It was interesting because the story is so dark and tragic, but then at time had me laughing out loud. And then you feel bad for laughing because of what the people are going through. Here is one of those laugh out loud moments:


Haha! I'm laughing again! "Love this song." Ha!

I thought that JB's performance was very layered. You could really see that he was dealing with tragedy and struggling with how to deal with it. At times, he would seem like a complete asshole. But there was always the feeling that underneath the hard exterior, there was a nice guy just wanting to do the right thing. A very complex performance I thought.

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks and Chris Cooper
Directed by Gary Ross

For some reason I thought that this was going to be a sad movie. Actually, it is a very uplifting story about broken men and a broken horse overcoming adversity and giving a downtrodden country something to cheer about. This was a great movie.

Jeff Bridges talks about working from the outside in, which is how I feel that I work best sometimes. Not to say that the internal work is neglected. Just that outside influences are allowed to work their magic on the internal aspects of acting. JB went as far as to get the actual wallet of the real Charles Howard, the man he portrays in Seabiscuit, and have it in his pocket during the whole shoot. He also talks about how important getting into wardrobe and makeup in the morning is to him for getting into the character. And research. Because he was playing a real person, he tried to gain as much information as he could about his character from photographs and news reels. From body language to facial expressions. All of that adds up to a finely detailed amazing performance.



Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, Gary Ross and Gary Stevens talk about Seabiscuit with Charlie Rose:

Wow! Inside the Actors Studio is so much more enjoyable haveing recently watched all of the movies that they talk about. I felt in on the conversation, and the interview impacted me that much more.

Just the other night I told my acting coach, Jeffrey Marcus, that I thought Jeff Bridges' best performance so far was in American Heart. It was interesting to see that James Lipton agrees. If I hadn't embarked on this excogitating of genius I would most likely still have never seen that movie.

Mr. Bridges unveils a lot about his craft of acting. Whether it be doing improvs to build character relationships or empowering objects/wardrobe with the power to affect you in a certain way.

He also talks about how his parents were his teachers and that they studied with Michael Chekhov. I recently read Mr. Chekhov's book, To the Actor, and I found it fascinating and powerful. I really need to return to that book and start implementing the techniques into my own work.


Jeff Bridges Inside the Actors Studio 1/3 by HelensPage


Jeff Bridges Inside the Actors Studio 2/3 by HelensPage


Jeff Bridges Inside the Actors Studio 3/3 by HelensPage

Starring: Bob Dylan, John Goodman, and Jessica Lange
Directed by Larry Charles

I really liked this movie. Even though I couldn't tell you what it is about. I could tell you what happened, but not what it all means. After watching "The Making of" featurette, it seems like a lot of the cast felt the same way. But that's okay, because everything about this movie is cool. Bob Dylan is cool, the cast is cool, the director is cool, the characters are cool, the music is cool, the cinematography is cool, all of it.

This was actually directed by the same guy who a few years later directed Borat and Bruno. And it stars Bob Dylan, who I thought did a mighty fine job, considering that he's not an actor and all. He did have an amazing supporting cast. I read that everyone was taking pay cuts just so they could be in a movie with Dylan. This is definitely one that I'll have to watch again one day.

As for JB's performance, I saw a lot of "The Dude" in it. It was almost as if The Dude was forced into work and begrudgingly carried out his duties as a reporter. And I think that's just what his character wanted, just to do his job and to get it over with. But Luke Wilson's character kept getting in the way. I feel like there was something deeper to his character that I may have missed. But, like I said, a lot about this movie was a mystery. A "cool" mystery.

Narrated by Jeff Bridges
Directed by Bruce Neibaur

Jeff Bridges and National Geographic take us on a journey from St. Louis to the Pacific ocean. It is the journey that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark took two-hundred years ago. While the cinematography was beautiful and it is an interesting story of American history, I felt that this was basically a summary of the events. It could have been a lot more in depth, but I guess they were constrained to fitting it all into a certain amount of time.

JB must have gone on a big documentary kick in 2002. There were no movies released that he starred in, but he narrated two documentaries. And he's got a great narrating voice. I also think that I've come to the conclusion that it was not JB narrating Raising the Mammoth. Still no official statement concerning that issue from @TheJeffBridges.