The most depressing moment of Jeff Bridges’ career: “Makes me sad to even say this”
Jeff Bridges is, without a doubt, one of the finest actors working today.
A veteran of the screen, the second-generation star has proven his talent, versatility, and resilience over decades of impeccable work, with the list of great films he’s starred in being too long to get into here, but unfortunately, nobody bats a thousand.
When you’ve made as many movies as Bridges, there are bound to be a few stinkers. When I think of his worst fare, I think of RIPD, a truly dreadful action comedy about a police force in the afterlife. Other minds may wander towards The Giver, a badly-received sci-fi adventure that the star spent decades trying to get made. There are many other flops you could pick from, but if you were to ask the man himself, he would choose a very obscure option as his nadir.
Speaking as part of an actor’s roundtable organised by The Hollywood Reporter, the Oscar winner cast his mind back to the 1980s. During this period, he worked on a project that still haunts him many, many years later.
“I did a movie, oh, this makes me sad to even say this, Hal Ashby’s last movie, 8 Million Ways to Die,” he recalled. “They had no respect for him, and this one producer sabotaged Hal terribly. He sent a spy to watch us and report back to him. And finally, this producer showed up – we had about three days to go, big scenes – and he said, ‘I’m shutting you guys down. Today is your last day.’”
Released in 1986, just two years before the great director’s death, 8 Million Ways to Die is based on a series of detective novels from author Lawrence Block, where Bridges plays Matthew Scudder, a police officer who undergoes a psychotic breakdown after being forced to shoot a suspect, with his life beginning to break down around him, particularly his marriage to Sarah (Rosanna Arquette), and while it should have been a gritty, no-holds-barred examination of how police work affects individuals, as Bridges alluded to, foul play was afoot.
The film faced problems right from the get-go. The original script was co-penned by Oliver Stone, who then became unavailable for rewrites upon agreeing to direct Salvador. The picture was saved from obscurity by a company called Producer Sales Organisation (PSO), but it came at a cost. PSO continuously interfered with the shoot.
According to Bridges, the team were forced to condense entire scenes into single phone conversations to meet their new deadlines. Once filming was complete, PSO fired Ashby and his editor. The new editor completely changed how the film was presented, removing many of the hard edges and giving it a softer, more ‘accessible’ bent.
8 Million Ways to Die still has its fans, but it was not the glorious finale that someone of Ashby’s calibre deserved, and this was the guy behind such classics as Harold and Maude and Being There, but the PSO treated him like he was dirt, instead of the legend he was… Bridges has every right to be upset.
