Jeff Bridges might be best known as “the Dude,” but in real life, he proves much too graciously thoughtful to be seen as an ambivalent pothead. The Oscar-winning actor spoke candidly about his long career before he accepted the American Rivera Award at the SBIFF on Thursday, February 9, at the Arlington.
The crowd’s adulation of Bridges was graced with familiarity; the 67-year-old has resided here since he first bought his Montecito estate in 1994, shortly after the Northridge earthquake “shook” him out of Santa Monica. The decade prior, he had fallen in love with Santa Barbara, he said, after shooting the Fiesta-inspired thriller Cutter’s Way. And unlike many celebrities who keep low profiles, Bridges can be regularly spotted campaigning against childhood hunger at predominantly low-income elementary schools.
Though his longtime philanthropy was duly noted, Bridge’s accomplished acting career was the focus of the conversation. But, as moderator Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter noted, Bridges initially had reservations about embracing Hollywood. Unlike some successful people who play up their modest beginnings, Bridges acknowledged his early career had something to do with the fact he was born into a family of actors. Success, he joked, can be attributed to “luck” and “a lot of nepotism in my case.” When he was a baby, his mother, Dorothy Bridges, offered him up for a role that otherwise would have been filled by a doll. The part called for a crying child, but Bridges explained he was “kind of a happy baby,” so “my mother said, ‘Oh, just pinch him.’”