Since his role in the Coen brothers’ film “The Big Lebowski”, Jeff Bridges is known far and wide as “the Dude.” In his latest film, “The Contender”, Bridges plays the President of the United States, so he now jokes that he prefers to be called “POTUS.”
During the recent Boston Film Festival, Bridges sat down with Back Bay Beat to discuss his new role in the Rod Lurie film, opening October 13th. Lurie was also present, and the two displayed a relaxed relationship indicative of a breathlessly fast film shoot that required trust and bonding on the part of both actors and filmmakers. “The Contender” stars Joan Allen as a Democratic senator who is nominated for Vice President after the current VP dies in office. Gary Oldman plays a senator from the other side of the aisle who opposes her nomination and sets out to destroy her with a lurid tale from her past.
Responding to a question about what brought him to the role of the President, Bridges replied with enthusiasm that it was the script. “I was so excited after reading it, I remember running through the house to find my wife and tell her, ‘Hey, I think we got one here!’ ” He also remarked that the fact that the script was written especially for Joan Allen, his former co-star in “Tucker: A Man and His Dream,” and an actor he greatly respects, made a big difference, because he could picture her in the part as he read it and couldn’t imagine anyone else playing the role.
When asked what his feeling was about working with a less-experienced director, Bridges responded, “I’ve had very good luck with directors who haven’t had too many films under their belt. Peter Boganovich, Michael Cimino, the guy who directed “The Fabulous Baker Boys,” Steve Kloves. So I had no problem with that.”
Bridges explained that Lurie is his favorite type of director to work with – he’s a writer, so you can “create on the fly,” who although he has a strong vision for the film, is open to ideas from his collaborators that would enhance that vision. He added, “You can jam on the fly, like a jazz improvisation.”
Lurie commented, “One thing that Jeff does brilliantly is that once he has nailed a certain angle on a take, he will then give me something much different, a much different approach, so I can have my choices. For example, in the scene with Gary [Oldman] and Jeff on the [Presidential] yacht, Jeff gave it to me first very calmly, then very angry, then sort of very connivingly (sic). Theoretically, I could right now go and cut “The Contender” again and have a totally different Jeff Bridges performance, not the same character. An actor who can give you those kind of options is a godsend.”
Bridges added, “The sometimes frightening thing about making movies is that it’s a collaborative art form, and in the end it’s a collage. You’re making a collage. The actor makes a painting, and the director and the editor cut up the painting and put it back together however they want. As an actor, you can be very threatened by that. Many actors, they say, ‘I’ve gotta protect myself, and I’m only going to give the performance that I want to see on the screen.’ I believe that that’s really shooting yourself in the foot, because ultimately it’s the director who is going to do that. You have to have faith in him, and respect. Hopefully you make that decision correctly before you enter into the movie. So you do what he [Lurie] was saying, you give him a bunch of different ways, because you don’t know and he doesn’t know either, what’s the best way. So you tweak it and get it right.”
Asked how he prepared for the role of President Jackson Evans, Bridges explained his usual practice, “I would think about different aspects of myself that I want to use that kind of align with this fella, and magnify those, and let the ones that don’t fit, drop to the wayside. Then, of course, you look at the real guys, the politicians. I looked at some speeches of President Clinton, but I was really going out of my way not to do an impersonation of Clinton. So I looked at Robert and John Kennedy, speeches they gave, and documentary type stuff of those guys, and LBJ, Mario Cuomo, looked at some of that stuff. Then you look around, you look at people that you know that might remind you of the character, and the guy that kept coming up to me was my father [actor Lloyd Bridges]. He was a very gregarious kind of guy, and brought such joy and verve to his work. He loved what he was doing and it was almost contagious. The two movies I did with him when we were both adults, it was so great when he would come onto the set, [the level] would raise (gestures upward) like that.”
“Also, I’ve done some lobbying in DC, and that helped just to know that world a bit. I’m very involved with the hunger issue, I’ve belonged to a group for over twenty years now called the End Hunger Network. We used to be involved with world hunger, but now we’re focusing on hunger in the United States, because in the midst of this economic boom we’re having, hunger is running rampant. There so many programs that were in place ten or fifteen years ago that are not being properly funded, so I’ve done a lot of lobbying.”
The character of President Evans is rather quirky. One of his main eccentricities is calling up the White House kitchen at all hours and requesting very strange menu choices in an attempt to stump the staff. As Lurie points out, President Evans uses that quirk as a way to disarm people. Throughout the film, he provides a bit of odd comic relief. The character definitely has common ground with Jack Warrick, his character in the Albert Brooks comedy “The Muse.” When asked about how he feels going back and forth between these types of films and characters, Bridges replied, “I love hanging hard turns. It’s great to add variety, to keep it fun for myself, and it shows the filmmaking community that I can do different roles, so I can get offered these kinds of scripts. But I really approach comedy and drama the same ways. I think both elements are in both kinds of movies.”
There’s no doubt that the filmmaking community knows what Jeff Bridges is capable of. His grace and affability in person, and his talent on the screen, make it easy to see why he has made over 50 films with people who appreciated his ability to “hang hard turns.” Hail to the Chief! Hail to the Dude!
Review - The Contender “The Contender,” while being billed as a political thriller, has no thrills. The director, Rod Lurie, was extremely fortunate in his casting of the film, and its stars, Joan Allen, Gary Oldman, and Jeff Bridges do their best, giving all their substantial talent to this weak script. The film tries hard to be noble, and instead is corny and hackneyed, and when it tries to be chilling in its depiction of political manipulations, it is laughable.
Senator Laine Hanson, Joan Allen’s character, while certainly noble and good, is almost too much so. Sure, she has one dark secret in her past. But that appears to be the only mistake she has ever made – otherwise, she is Superwoman – the perfect wife, the perfect mother, the perfect politician. Fortunately for Lurie, Allen gives the part and the entire film credibility with the sheer force of her acting ability.
Gary Oldman has a ridiculously bad balding hairstyle, but otherwise is remarkably restrained as Laine Hanson’s primary foe in her bid for the Vice Presidential nomination. There is one very good scene between Allen and Oldman, when the opponents sit down for a tense lunch meeting. Oldman uses food as a weapon to intimidate, brandishing his steak knife at her, but Allen holds her own, and the tension crackles between the two fine actors.
Jeff Bridges is fun as a President who enjoys his position and wants his legacy to be preserved. His eccentricities charm and disarm people to the point that his intelligence and fierce determination are often overlooked by both his friends and enemies. There is no question about Bridges’ talent and integrity, and again, Lurie was very fortunate to have actors of this caliber involved.
“The Contender” looks and sounds like a TNT cable movie, particularly in the way it is filmed. The cinematographer, Denis Maloney, unsurprisingly turns out to have shot several TV movies, as well a series of films entitled “Witchcraft 5,” “Witchcraft 6,” etc. You get the idea.
Sadly, “The Contender” coulda been great, with a major rewrite of both fuzzy plot and weak dialogue. The finest actors can only do so much.
