In 2020, the combination of lymphoma and COVID nearly took the legendary actor from this world. Now fully recovered and starring in his first-ever TV series The Old Man, the 72-year-old is a man renewed.
People ask me how getting sick changed me. The truth is, it just made me more of who I already was.
I think when you face your mortality the way I did, you pull out all your stops. You think of all your philosophies, your spirituality, all your strategies on how you have addressed other problems in your life. And you say, ‘come on, guys, now’s the time, or what? Tell me what I need to do.’ And you get to exercise all of those aspects of yourself. In a way, I just became my deeper yourself. That’s what I found. Like a well steeped tea, or something.
I’ll be honest. I didn’t know if I was going to make it. I was on death’s door there for a while in the hospital. We’d shut down production on The Old Man in March 2020 for the pandemic, but by the time I resumed I found out I had lymphoma. It wasn’t until February 2022 that we were able to finish my scenes.
When I finally went back to work, after a two-year hiatus, it was the most bizarre kind of thing. It felt like a dream. I came back after all that time, and saw the same faces, the same cast and crew. It was like we had a long weekend. I gathered everyone and I said, ‘I had the most bizarre dream, you guys’. I was sick and out, but all that feels like a gray mush now.
I am left with an aftertaste from the whole experience. It smacks of the preciousness of life, of gratitude for all that I’ve been given. With my relationships, and my family, I have so much to be thankful for.
I learned how to treat others from my father, Lloyd Bridges. He had done a lot of TV series in the 50s and 60s. Unlike a lot of people in showbiz, he really encouraged all his kids to go into it. He loved it so much. As a young kid, eight years old, I went to the set of one of his TV shows. I remember him sitting me on his bed and teaching me all the basics of acting.
But it wasn’t the acting that I was interested in—it was the joy he brought to it. It wasn’t until I was older and I worked with him on set that this was part of his method. He brought joy to his work, and it was contagious. When he came onto set, he spread a vibe. He had a glint in his eye that said, ‘hey, what we’re doing is kind of fun, isn’t it?’ That always made everyone relax. He made people realize that they didn’t have to be tense and anxious with each other, that we’re all trying to make something beautiful here so let’s relax through that. Then some of the best stuff can come about.
I still think about my dad and mom every time I’m on set. They gave love, and they received love, and it brought out the best in them.
I have always tried to bring that too. Especially as I’ve gotten older, when I walk to set, I approach my colleagues thinking we only have a certain amount of time to do what we have to do, so let’s get to know each other. Let’s get as intimate as we can, and let’s play some music and jam.
Actors are anxious beings, man. You’ve got to laugh and cry at the same time. And if you can’t, we’ve got to move on. That’s anxiety provoking. That’s what actors go through. So we all have to define that commonality, to acknowledge it, and then love each other. That makes the whole process better.
I don’t judge others. I don’t know if we can ever really know who a person is deep down. I don’t even really know myself, man. I think we’re kind of up for grabs.
I approach every character the same. I read the script, and I see what my character says and I see what other characters say about my characters. Then I think what matches my life.
In The Old Man, I’m playing a CIA operative. These guys are actors, too, I realized. They’re probably the best actors in the world, because they’re acting for their lives. We had a fella on board with us who was a CIA operative, and he helped me both before I got sick and after I got sick. I learned a lot from him.
It wasn’t until 2003 that I started being treated as the elder statesman around set. Even then I wasn’t expecting it. It was the film Masked and Anonymous, which not too many people have seen, but it was one of the highlights of my life. Bob Dylan and Larry Charles wrote it, and it was Larry’s first movie as a director after Seinfeld.
Larry approached me and said, ‘Jeff, there’s a lot of young guys here, you’re the senior actor here. Would you work with Bob a bit and do some improvisation with them?’ So, Bob and I played with them like kids for half an hour, just improvising and acting together. That was a real joy. It was thrilling to be a mentor—or acknowledging to myself I’d actually been one all along.
It doesn’t have to feel like a big deal, of course. If there’s a young actor on set not sure what to say to me, I’ll probably approach them first. If we’re going to go through this all together, we might as well become friends. Bring your guitar, too, because I’m bringing mine.
The Old Man is now streaming on Disney+ in the Middle East