The scene that brought Jeff Bridges’ career full circle: “Just pinch me”
Full-circle moments often appear in the most unexpected places, and few are more striking than Jeff Bridges‘. His captivating journey came full circle thanks to his early exposure to Hollywood and his somewhat reluctant decision to follow in his father’s footsteps as a full-time actor. What began as a hesitant step into the industry eventually led to a remarkable and fulfilling career.
By the 1980s, Bridges had acted in upwards of 15 films, including notable performances in his debut The Last Picture Show and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, both of which garnered him Academy Award nominations. His third nomination would come in 1984 for his winning and sympathetic performance as an alien love interest in John Carpenter’s Starman.
But, despite a multifaceted and busy career spanning into the 2000s, Bridges hadn’t always been sure acting was his dream job. After graduating from high school, he served in the Los Angeles Coast Guard reserves before finally heading to acting school, all while trying to make music. Even with several films under his belt, when asked to work on The Iceman Cometh right after The Last American Hero, his characteristically nonchalant reply – a la ‘The Dude’ – was, in effect, ‘No man, I wanna get back to my music‘.
Yet Bridges was no stranger to show business. Being born into a prominent acting family, he occasionally appeared alongside his brother Bea, on their father’s television show Sea Hunt and the CBS anthology series The Lloyd Bridges Show. His first film appearance even came at the tender age of six months old.
Luckily, The Last American Hero director Lamont Johnson put Bridges in his place and convinced him to star alongside “the masters of [his] craft” in The Iceman Cometh, which assured him that he was cut out to act full time. And 11 years on, the same year as his third Oscar nomination, came Bridges full-circle moment when he was cast alongside his very first co-star Jane Greer.
Best known as a noir femme fatale, Greer carried Bridges on-screen as a baby in the 1951 drama The Company She Keeps. An uncharacteristically happy baby who was expected to cry on cue, Bridges claims his mother instructed Greer to “just pinch me to make me cry”. Clearly a tactic that works, 30 years on Bridges would approach Greer on the set of Against All Odds before a particularly emotional scene and ask ”Could you just give me a little pinch?”.
The film served as a reflective time for both actors. A remake of the film noir classic Out of the Past, it enlisted the original film’s femme fatale, Greer, to play the concerned mother of the women Bridges’ character is paid to track down. Speaking of Greer’s performance in the original, Bridges called her “so wonderful, so understated, especially for the times”.
Clearly, working with an actor you admire, not just once but twice at entirely different points in your career, will serve as a true ‘pinch me’ moment. So, against all odds, Greer returned to a story that marked a career high while out of the past came baby Bridges as a 30-something year old hunk to act alongside.
