(Introducing former IGN writer Steve Head, a new reporter from the States...) It's hard to believe its been 28 years since Disney released Tron. That year, 1982, was a pinnacle one for science fiction, what with the releases of Blade Runner, The Thing, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn, and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Each of those films became classics. But it seems Tron took a little longer to get there. Disney took some convincing that a near three decades on follow-up had box office legs until visually spectacular commercials helmer Joseph Kosinski shot some test footage which premiered at Comic-Con in 2008. And with a thunderous crowd explosion to what they saw, Disney was sold and the film, with Kosinski at the helm was soon greenlit, and Jeff Bridges was soon back on board. In Tron Legacy, Bridges once again plays dual roles: Kevin Flynn, the creator of "the grid", Tron's digital universe, and Clu, a younger, CGI version of Flynn who's out to rid the grid of any and all imperfections. At a recent roundtable interview in Los Angeles, Bridges spoke to journalists, including yours truly, about his return to the Tron franchise after such a long wait... OBSESSED WITH FILM: Was Flynn always written as a Silicon Valley hippie, or did you introduce this sort of Big Lebowski-ness to him?
JEFF BRIDGES: No, that was Lisberger. What was that, like 28 years ago? God! That was from the script, basically, from the original one. And thatís before Lebowski. So that, I guess you can blame Steven for that.
OWF: What were your thoughts when you first saw Clu?
Well it's amazing. For one thing, what that means for me as an actor is that I can play myself at any age now. In doing movies, if there's a movie where a character ages, or, you know, another actor plays the guy as a younger person, it always kind bumps it a little bit. Takes a while to get up to speed on it. But now, any age. It's quite remarkable. And they'll be able to combine actors and I don't know quite how I feel about this and but that's coming up, too. They'll be able to say, let's get Boxleitner and Bridges and put a little Brando in there and see what happens.Then they can right then hire some other actor do drive that image. I mean its getting frickin' crazy.
. OWF: Did you have some hesitation about revisiting Tron?
I did, sure. I have a lot of hesitation about making any kind of decision in my life. I'm really slow at it. My mother calls what I have aboulia. Have you ever heard of that term? It's like a mental disorder, I guess. Having difficulty making a decision. But I really resist. And with this one I thought, Oh God, are they going to pull it off, you know? I mean, I could see all the technology and everything, but are they doing to be able to pull it off right? And Disney did a beautiful job of that, you know? Casting I think is so important. Not only actors, but the director, for one thing, who you get to helm the whole thing. And they got Joe . He'd never directed a movie before. Can you imagine the pressure of that? And he was... his personality is so calm and sure. And he brings all this architectural knowledge to the party. So that adds to the whole set design. They got the right director. And he loved the original and all that, so that was wonderful. They also brought Steve Lisberger on board, which I thought was essential; because, while the movie can be seen alone and still appreciated, if you saw the first movie, it's not going to bump. There is going to be a flow between this one and that one. And Steve was sort of the godfather of the whole thing. He was the source, so we would always go back to him, say "is this right?" "Is this consistent with the myth that you started?" That was another thing that brought me on to want to do this, because I thought we could use a modern day myth about the challenges of technology and how we're going to surf that particular wave. These are some tough waters we're coming into here. We can do some amazing things, but we can also head off into the wrong direction very quickly. And this is kind of a cautionary tale in a way. We can look ahead and make sure this is the direction we want to go.
OWF: Does if feel like a you're in a time machine, you know, talking today about a movie you did in the past that's about the future?
Yeah, it's just bizarre. I mean it's just so bizarre. But at the same time, it just seems like, especially having Lisberger on the set, it's like we had a long weekend and we're just back here doing the same work. It's crazy.
OWF: How different then was it in 1982, whereas this is an effects-heavy film, and that was an effects-heavy film. As an actor, what were the differences between those? I mean, were you dealing with as much green screen on this one as that one?
Well, that one was shot in 70mm black and white, and hand-tinted by some ladies in Korea. And we were in white leotards. And it was black Duvetyne, like this tablecloth, around the set with white adhesive tape, as for the grid-line. And that was basically it. Then there was some CGI and all that kind of stuff. But this one. Wow, man. Making movies without cameras. What an idea. When they said that I was like, "What are you talking about?" They said, "You work in the volume". I said, "What's that?" They said, "Well, it's a room. It can be any size. Painted green. There's no cameras, but there's hundreds of sensors pointing at you". Before each take, you assume the position. You stand up like this. They get you. And now you're in the computer. You're in a white leotard with these dots all over your body, all over your face. You might have a helmet on with cameras. And then everything from make-up, costumes, the set and this is the one that kills me... camera angles, is done in post. So, you know, if you were in the volume right now, in our leotards with our dots on, they could say, "Well lets start the scene behind you, way in the back under the chairs. Or lets start here and we're going to crane in this". It's all done it post now. It's just, you know, it's crazy.
OWF: Sort of like in the first movie...
BRIDGES: That was the other thing. One of the wild moments in this movie was when I was scanned, initially to get my body into the computer, and it was just like out of the first Tron. I stood there like this and this light came up and made this 'bzzzzz' sound. It was just bizarre. It was like for real.
OWF: You mentioned that the technology would allow you to take younger roles. Have you warned any of your co-stars that you're going to be competing with them now.
No, I hadn't thought about that. That's funny.
OWF: Are there any roles that you would like to revisit, like maybe Fabulous Baker Boys, or something like that.
Maybe, I hadn't thought about it. But its wild to be able to go back there and play different ages. It opens up a whole world.
OWF: You don't have to think about the lens now in the volume. Does that change your performance?
Yeah, it was a challenge because I like relating to the lens, and I like having a costume and a set, you know? Those are kind of grounding to you. It helps you. So much about making movies is creating illusions. And the first person you have to create the illusion for is yourself. When I'm in a costume and the person I'm working with is in a costume on a set, that helps me be in those times and be in that character. When you don't have that stuff, you have to step back and it's almost like being child-like in a way, like when you were a kid and you didn't have all that cool gear to put you there. You use your imagination. It was kind of a challenge that way. And at first it kinda rubbed my acting fur the wrong way. It felt like, argh! I didn't like it. In making movies, in acting, and I think in life, too, you can't spend too much time bitching about the way it is. You got to get with the program as soon as you can, especially when you're making a movie. So it was, you know, challenging, but it's a good exercise. And it's the way it's going. This is the way it's going to be.
OWF: Winning the Academy Award, did it change your life at all?
I think it has, but I haven't really figured that out, because right after the Oscars, a day after the Oscars, I went right to work on True Grit. So I got right back into work mode and I've been kind of working ever since. I haven't noticed a big flood of scripts coming in or anything like that.
OWF: Where do you keep the Oscar? Do you just stare at it?
What I wanted to do, but they didn't really do this. I thought it would be fun. I was going to ask my wife or my kids to take it and hide it in different spots in the house, and I can discover it, sort of like Where's Waldo? you know? We didn't do that though. I have it sitting in a little between the kitchen and the dining room.
OWF: When you were talking to Clu, how did they do that? Were you talking to a stand-in or a ball or something? How did they get you to go back and forth like that?
We tried it a couple of different ways. I've worked with a lot of kids, and when you're working with kids they have certain hours that they have to work. They can't work as many hours as an adult, so, often they will shoot the kids close-up. And then, when it comes down to your close-up, hes gone to school, so you'll just work with a mark on a C-stand, or whatever and do it that way. So I've gotten used to that. I tried doing it to a television monitor, and we did that for a little bit.
OWF: Did you have any influence on the Zen-like aspects of your character in Tron?
Yes. Well, one of my concerns about getting into this movie is that it wouldn't just be a special effects movie, but it would have some helpful mythology to it. And I am good friends with a Zen master, a guy named Bernie Glassman. And I guess he put the Hiroshi in there somewhere, I'm not sure if it's before or after. But might go to his website, zenpeacemakers.org, or just Google his name, Bernie Glassman and you'll find out what hes into. We were just at a wonderful symposium he had, the first symposium of socially-engaged Buddhism. It was wonderful. Anyway, he came on as an adviser. I wanted him to add some of the Zen mythology and stories in some of those thoughts. I figured Flynn's path, what he encounters on the grid -- coming in and being quite full of himself, that sort of thing, thinking that he can beat Clu, and, as he says in the movie, the more that he goes against him, the stronger Clu becomes. So, hes just decided to stop and see if the universe and everything that's involved, just like weather, will change by itself. So hes applying some of that knowledge, and he kind of has this problem in the way he gets trapped in the absolute. He goes so far that hes maybe stopped being able to engage. And now his son comes and shakes that all up.
OWF: If this a cautionary tale, what's the caution? Because the film seems to take two sides...
Yeah, it's like, Oh, how do you mean?
OWF: That there's a danger to freedom and there's a danger to control.
Yeah. There's a wonderful book, and I think it might even be in Flynn's bookcase in , and I asked them to put it in there. It's Trungpaís, a Tibetan-Buddhist who wrote a book called The Myth of Freedom. You know, this idea of freedom: I got to be free, I got to do what I want to do. You can be a prisoner to your preferences, you know. That can be a thing that can just trap you and you're a slave to it.
OWF: What about this search for perfection?
Well that's what I'm saying. Perfect to who? Who's perfection, you know? And if you're thinking, "I went the way I wanted", that can lead you into a dark deep place. You've got to really think about "What do I really want?" Like plastic bottles. These single-use plastic bottles. "Where did that come from?" It's like those things in the magazine, when you open them and those things fall out. Who decided to do that? Or on TV when you see that scroll and all those little things. Come on. They've got these bottles and billions of tons of this plastic is in the ocean. They say it biodegrades, but it doesn't really. It breaks down into small things. The fish eat it, the birds eat it, and we eat the fish. It's just bad stuff, you know? I think we're all hooked on immediate gratification, thinking "I want what I want, and I want it now, and I can get it now. So I'm going to do it, damn it".But youíve got to watch that. That's what I believe is the essence of it.
Tron Legacy is out now. You can read our review of the film HERE.