“Gosh, what a master”: Jeff Bridges’ role in bringing Hal Ashby’s career full circle
Jeff Bridges has had the chance to work with many greats over the years, making creative and thoughtful choices throughout his career that have led to the filmography equivalent of a feast of riches. Whether you’re in the mood for an animated film, something from the New Hollywood movement or something a little more mainstream, the actor has it all under his belt, working with the likes of Terry Gilliam, the Coen Brothers, Clint Eastwood and Peter Bogdanovich.
However, there is one director that Bridges has always awarded the highest praise, describing the impact of his films on the overall cinematic landscape as well as his career, with their work together creating a full circle moment after another family member joined his story world.
Hal Ashby was one of the most talented and underutilised directors working within the New Hollywood movement, rising up at the same time as Bogdanovich, William Friedkin and Francis Ford Coppola as they began to dismantle the studio system and carve out a new way of filmmaking. While Ashby became renowned for beginning this movement through his 1971 film Harold and Maude, the director was shortly kicked out of Hollywood entirely, with his 1986 film 8 Million Ways to Die being butchered by the studio as he was slowly pushed out of the project and the industry as a whole, never making another film again.
But while some were far too nonchalant about this tragedy, with one of the greatest directors being punished for his creativity and exploited for his ideas before being kicked to the curb, Bridges was always a huge fan of his work, describing his pleasure in starring in his film film and the strange coincidence that marked its end.
When discussing his work with Ashby, Bridges said, “It was creating this safe place, you know? It’s the same kind of thing when you’re making a movie. That’s what I look to a director for, to create a vibe that we’re all set loose in. Every director has a different approach in how they create that vibe. But I’ve gotten a chance to work with some real masters. I’m thinkin’ Hal Ashby was like that. [My brother] Beau did Hal’s first movie, I did his last movie—we bookended his whole career. Gosh, what a master. And he was all about improvisation and getting out of the way. Let’s see what wants to be born here”.
The Landlord, starring Beau Bridges, was directed in 1970, following a man who runs away and buys a block of run-down apartments, planning to evict the tenants and turn it into a posh block of flats. Jeff Bridges then starred in his fateful final film, 8 Million Ways to Die, with both forming a bridge between the beginning and end of his career (pun intended).
Ashby was a true master, working in a fluid-like way that incorporated all the talents of everyone on set and allowed the story to evolve in ways that people didn’t predict. He understood that film could be touched by all the people who were a part of it, something that marked his full-of-life style and approach to creativity, even if it ended far too soon.
