From the Archives: Jeff Bridges

"The toughest thing in showbiz probably is getting your foot in the door and that was handled for me. (laughs) I'm really the product of nepotism, boldfaced nepotism." - Jeff Bridges

"I feel very appreciated," Jeff Bridges laughs when asked how he feels of former New York Times critic Janet Maslin calling him the most underappreciated actor of our time. Her assessment isn't particularly off-the-mark: though audiences admire his abilities, they don't necessarily embrace his films. His best work - The Big Lebowski, American Heart, Fearless, The Fabulous Baker Boys, and the recent Arlington Road -- have not been box-office successes.

"It's kind of a mystery to me," Bridges says. "Fearless and The Big Lebowski, I love those films so much, they were so powerful to me. Usually when you make a film, it's really hard to see it but both those movies, I remember the first time I saw them, I really got swept up in them. When they don't do well at the box office…" he trails off. "So many elements have to come together, so many variables - who you're up against as far as the release date, sometimes the studio gets excited and they go out wide too quickly. The best way for me is when they platform something and word of mouth catches and they can open it wider."

His latest film, Simpatico, is one of those films that requires strong word of mouth so as not to disappear quickly from the theaters. Adapted from Sam Shepard's play centering on a secret that has destroyed and haunted a trio of friends: Vinnie (Nick Nolte), whose determination to dredge up the past panics his old buddy Carter (Bridges), now a successful millionaire married to Vinnie's former girl Rosie (Sharon Stone). Their story is played out against the backdrop of the Kentucky Derby and the high-stakes world of horse racing. "I take movies that I like to go see. This fit that bill," Bridges states.

Working with Nolte was an added incentive. Both delved thoroughly into their characters' backgrounds. "Nick and I talked, and Nick was very thorough in his preparation. He likes to write a lot of stuff about his character. [We] started a lot of conversations about what they were like in the past and how they hung out together, what they did." Bridges also spent time with Liam Waite, who portrays the young Carter. "Liam and I hung out as much as we could whenever the opportunity lent itself. Liam was wonderful. I remember looking at the tests and I was really championing him [and] hoping he would get the [part] because he's a very talented guy."

Simpatico requires Bridges to undergo quite a transformation, specifically a transferrence with Nolte's character. His process aided him in dealing with the film being customarily shot out of sequence. "What I usually do is make a breakdown on the script," he explains, "break it down with one line, what my character is doing in these scenes. Then when I'm doing the day's work that I've got coming up and I'm studying that night, I'll look and see where that scene falls in relationship to what we've done already." Bridges often draws upon the people he knows and encounters to inspire his characterizations. "I often go through my phone book and look at different names and say, 'Oh, this guy. Something about him could be used.'"

Bridges has amassed a versatile body of work but is often surprised when filmmakers approach him to play so many different characters. The Coen Brothers, for example, specifically wrote The Big Lebowski for him and Rod Lurie had only him in mind for The Contender. "I often am surprised and happy that directors see me playing these different kinds of parts because…I mean, you know…President? Yeah, I'm President Bridges," he laughs.

Bridges made a conscious decision early on in his career not to be typecast as his dad, the late Lloyd Bridges, was. Bridges Senior found stardom on television as Sea Hunt's Mike Nelson. When he finally was able to take on more diverse roles, he found himself straitjacketed into comedy due to the Airplane movies. Bridges recalls having to convince the producers of Blown Away that his dad would be perfect for the part of his uncle. "They said, 'Yeah, he's a wonderful actor but he's thought of as a comedian.' So he pulls off [comedies] and he gets slotted in that. He did such a great job as Mike Nelson that people thought he was a diver who happened to be getting acting lessons. He was that guy, which is the greatest compliment you can get. But if you do that too often, then the people who hire you for the jobs only see you that way, or the baggage you accumulate with the filmgoing audience [makes it] harder for them to superimpose another character on you. So, yeah, I was very aware of that and really tried to mix it up, which keeps it interesting for me but also for the people who come into the movies and watch."

Though Bridges rarely regrets not having done or gotten certain roles, there was one role he wishes he could have nabbed: Lester Burnham in American Beauty. "That was a great script and it's so rare that you read something and say, 'Oh man, I want that!'"