Finding Inspiration for His Character: Jeff Bridges plays a hardnosed coach who has dealt with Peregrym's character, Haley, before. To make his character believable, Bridges did a lot of research but says he didn’t really model his coach character after anyone in particular, not even the legendary John Wooden.
“Maybe a little bit, but not too much," Bridges admitted. "Once I read the script, I found out this character wasn’t much like John Wooden. You know, John Wooden coached my brother at UCLA so I thought I could talk to Beau about it. Beau showed me the pyramid of success - John Wooden’s pyramid of success. It’s such a great [tool]. It not only applies to sports, but life and everything. He approached basketball as a metaphor for how you live, and get the most out of your life. The coach I play is not quite as enlightened as Wooden. Maybe at the end he’s starting to get the joy back.”
Analyzing His Stick It Character: “He’s got some con-man stuff in him, and he’s probably a little like Missy [Peregrym’s] character at his age, very pushing the envelope and testing himself. [He] ended up getting hurt and that kind of dampened his spirits. When he got into coaching – this is all back story, this isn’t really in the movie, necessarily – but I figured he probably encouraged the girls to do it like he did it, as Missy did it, to push hard. He started to get some of his athletes hurt and got a bad reputation. He pulled a bit back and started getting concerned with safety and giving the judges what they want, rather than the athletes doing what they wanted to do.”
The Decision to be a Part of Stick It: Bridges admits that being the father of three daughters had a role in why he signed on to Stick It. “That was really a part of it,” said Bridges. “They certainly helped me, just being my daughters, me going into a situation where there were these young girls their same age. The fact that I have daughters really helped me a lot. I didn’t really have to think about it. Certain things come with the package. Like doing Baker Boys with my brother, Beau. We didn’t have to think about how are we going to appear to be brothers? You don’t work on that. It’s kind of a given.”
Getting Into the Mindset of a Gymnastics Coach: “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."
Other Films in the Works - The Status of The Moguls: “It’s called The Amateurs now, which is kind of a dangerous title, don’t you think? I picture you guys saying ‘Well, they got the title right.’ I don’t know, but they don’t listen to the actors. I told them that but I love the movie, though. I think it’s coming out in July.”
Bridges says his character in The Amateurs has a bit of The Dude [Bridges’ character in The Big Lebowski] in him. “He does have a bit of Dude in him. He’s a bit of a slacker.”
Jeff Bridges on the Terry Gilliam Film, Tidelands: “Tidelands is a movie I made with Terry Gilliam a little while ago up in Canada. I play a rocker in that, so I got to play a lot of music. The tune that was played was written by my oldest friend, John Goodwin. You can hear it on iTunes if you go and push my name you can get it, or the title of the tune is Van Gogh in Hollywood. That was great to get back with Terry and play a rock musician. It’s the weirdest movie I’ve ever seen, I think. Let alone Terry Gilliam. It’s the weirdest Terry Gilliam movie but it’s out there. It’s an art film.”
So is Gilliam's Tidelands even more weird than The Fisher King? Bridges said, “Oh, much weirder. Ten times weirder.”
Page 2: Jeff Bridges on Surf's Up and The Giver
