Checking In

In Hollywood, Jeff Bridges, son of Lloyd, brother of Beau, is known as one fine actor. We've seen him in 19 movies over the years, some of them underground classics--"Cutter's Way," "The Last Picture Show," "The Last American Hero," "Fat City." This winter he switched to comedy, playing Sally Field's dullard fiancé in "Kiss Me Goodbye." Claudia Dreifus caught up with him at his Santa Monica home and filed this report: "With Jeff Bridges, what you see is what you get. He's a friendly guy, with a sunny blond smile. He may be Lloyd Bridges' son, but his swimming pool is really no bigger than an overgrown hot tub."

[Q] Playboy: Do you have childhood memories of seeing your father in weird roles?

[A] Bridges: One time, when I was four or five, I watched him make a Western. He was filming a close-up in which he was supposed to be riding a horse. But my dad wasn't up on a horse--he was sitting on a ladder. When I saw that, I broke up. There was my father, a grown man, playing "let's pretend." I was laughing so hard they had to remove me from the set.

[Q] Playboy: Your father was cast as the villain in some great Westerns. Was it shocking to you, as a kid, to see him as the smarmy deputy in High Noon?

[A] Bridges: My father was one terrific bad guy. Playing the heavy was natural to him--it was the challenge of playing the opposite type. In High Noon, I saw him as a selfish guy who betrays his best friend because he wants the sheriff's job for himself. Every time I saw High Noon, something in my mind would say, "Come on, Dad, do the right thing. Help your friend out."

[Q] Playboy: In the early Fifties, did your father suffer from the Hollywood black list?

[A] Bridges: Well, he certainly didn't suffer as much as others. The McCarthyites went after actors who were big stars. In the late Forties and early Fifties, when all of that was happening, my father hadn't really hit it big yet. He wasn't a card-carrying Communist or anything like that. He was just a guy who'd been to a couple of meetings that his friends at the Actors Lab had suggested he check out. Once the black list hit, he had to go over to Ward Bond and John Wayne and explain that he wasn't a Communist, that he didn't know anybody who was. He says it was awful. The experience has always haunted my family. My dad has always said, "Be careful what papers you sign, because you never know what the Government might do with them."

[Q] Playboy: How did your acting career begin?

[A] Bridges: Breaking in was no sweat. My father simply called up an agent and said, "You will represent my son." For quite a few years, I went around feeling guilty that it all had come so easily for me. I wondered if maybe I shouldn't try something else--music, painting. But the acting always came naturally and the response to my work was, from early on, pretty good.

[Q] Playboy: When did you start feeling that acting was your own profession and not a union card your father had handed down to you?

[A] Bridges: When I got an Oscar nomination for The Last Picture Show. There was no campaign for me to get that; it happened because people genuinely liked my work.

[Q] Playboy: Was it fun to jog around in TRON in that electric leotard that was your costume?

[A] Bridges: It was awkward for a while. I felt real exposed and uncomfortable. Besides, the dance belt nearly killed me. Do you know what a dance belt is? It's a jockstrap with an important difference. The strap runs up your ass. You can't imagine what sitting down in it is like.

[Q] Playboy: You've been married for six years to Susan Geston, a photographer. How did you two meet?

[A] Bridges: Sue was working on a dude ranch in Montana where we were shooting Rancho Deluxe and it was like they say in the movies, love at first sight. At least on my part. She was this real pretty girl and she had two tremendous black-and-blue blotches around her eyes. I couldn't stop looking at her. I had these fantasies that her boyfriend had beaten her up and that I was going to save her from this terrible situation. The truth was that she'd been in an automobile accident. When I first asked her out, she turned me down. She thought I was this big-shot actor from Hollywood who was coming on to all the local girls. So after we finished making the movie, I went back to Montana to convince her I was an all-right guy.

[Q] Playboy: It's no secret that you've done quite a bit of experimenting with controlled substances. Do you still?

[A] Bridges: At an earlier phase in my life--much more than now. I did the basic stuff--pot, a little LSD. Oh, my mother hates this every time she reads it--I still smoke pot. But I'm trying to wean myself off the stuff. Lately, when I take pot, I find myself getting more paranoid on it, more uptight. Still, I find that pot is almost like a pack of cigarettes and part of the routine. Sometimes, especially when I'm not working, I'll fall into it. It's a kind of mental addiction.

[Q] Playboy: It must be hard for a son to live up to a father like Lloyd Bridges.

[A] Bridges: Well, he's one incredible human being. Even when my father criticized my lifestyle, it was always something he did with love. You see, my father has incredibly good habits. He's a tennis junkie, swims a mile in the ocean every day and he's 70. I don't know if he wants me to say that in public; he wants to pull a Jack Benny and be 39 forever. Beyond his remarkable personal discipline and fitness is the fact that he's a wonderfully caring human being. He acts instinctively. Once, when I was a little kid, we were in New York, riding in a cab. We saw this drunk guy throwing bricks at passers-by. My father had the cab stopped and ran up to the guy. He grabbed him and embraced him. It turned out the man had lost his job and his wife had just died. My father took care of that situation, didn't think twice about it. I admire that.

[Q] Playboy: We found a clipping--it was one of several in this vein--in which a critic said, "Jeff Bridges is the only member of the Bridges family who can act." What do your brother and your father think when they see something like that?

[A] Bridges: Oh, no, you found one of those! Well, we don't pay much attention to stuff like that. My father is a great actor. Beau is fantastic. We can do without that kind of write-up.

[Q] Playboy: Why does Lloyd Bridges' son have such a small swimming pool?

[A] Bridges: We just didn't have the room to put in a bigger pool. Besides, I'm not all that much into swimming--I'm a jogger. I don't scuba dive, either. All that equipment, it's such a drag.