Jeff Bridges Swears Golden Globe Win Thoughts With Oprah

Jeff Bridges, the 2010 Golden Globe winner for best actor for his role in "Crazy Heart" was on the Oprah Winfrey show on Friday, Janauary 22nd.

Oprah kicked off her segment with Jeff by showing his Golden Globe acceptance award during which he thanked his wife and said "I'm looking at you sweetheart.  Thirty three years, my wife, my beautiful wife, get a shot of her.  You gotta get a shot, oh my.  Keep me flying, yep."

Oprah said "That was Jeff Bridges last Sunday night.  Yeah Jeff, whoooo.  That was Jeff Bridges accepting his best actor Golden Globe for his performance (as Bad Blake) in "Crazy Heart" which is being called Crazy Great."  Oprah then played a clip of the movie."

Oprah said that "Jeff Bridges is Bad Blake and he's stirring up all kinds of Oscar talk.  As a boozed up, washed up country singer on the brink. "Crazy Heart" is a love story of addiction and destruction.  And Bridges actually does all of his own singing.  Even though this fallen star thirsts for a different life, his demons keep surfacing.  When all else seems lost he seeks redemption and finds himself back in the game."

Oprah continued "what an amazing performance Jeff, really.  Really."  Oprah explained that "joining us from his music room in Montecito, California is Jeff Bridges (remotely).  Hi neighbor, is it still raining there?"

Jeff "It's let up a little bit.  Good morning Oprah."

Oprah "Good morning to you Jeff.  Is it true you turned "Crazy Heart" down the first time it was offered to you?"

Jeff "I did.  I did.  Not because it wasn't a wonderful script, but it didn't have any music attached to it.  There was no music at all and so you know, without the right music that movie wouldn't be half the movie it turned out to be.  So I did take a pass and I ran into my dear friend, T Bone Burnett about a year later and he asked me about it.  And I said 'are you interested in doing "Crazy Heart?"  And he said 'well I'll do it if you do it and then we were off and running."

Oprah "And you do all the songs yourself?"

Jeff "Oh yeah, yeah. Had a ball doing it."

Oprah "Yeah, well you brought the music to it.  You know what?  It won for best original song at the Golden Globes and Jeff sang that song in the film.  Have you always been a singer?"

Jeff  "Ever since I was a kid.  You know, a young teenager.  The real birth of the music for this movie goes back 30 years to "Heaven's Gate" where I first met T Bone and Stephen Bruton.  Kris Kristofferson and the star of "Heaven's Gate" brought all of his musical buddies on board on that show and we used to play for six months while making that movie.  We played day and night with those guys.  That's where it all started for this.

Oprah "I thought it was so great. First of all we're neighbors and I heard about this movie from one of our neighbors, Jalinda, who said 'oh my god, have you seen Jeff?" it's like we're all rooting for you because we're in the neighborhood.  And then I saw it and it was such an incredible performance I was so happy to see you receive that standing ovation at the Golden Globes on Sunday.  How did that feel to you when all of your colleagues, friends, peers stand up and give you (the acknowledgement) you rightfully deserve.  What did that feel like to you?"

Jeff "Ohh man.  It was something.  I was trying to figure out what I was going to say up there and then I got up there and got that kind of appreciation.  An attaboy from all those guys and it just kinda, it wiped my mind completely clean.  I had no idea what I was going (laughing) to say after that, you know.  It was like one of those etcha sketch things like when you were a kid and you take it and write on it, the tablet, one of those magic tablets and you rip it up and everything's gone. That's what it kinda felt like."

Oprah "Were you able to wrap your brain around it?  Were you able to feel the admiration? The respect, the love?"

Jeff "Ohhh, ohhhh absolutely.  It was so unexpected, so strong, powerful and then I saw my wife there beaming up at me and that kinda, you know, grounded me brought me back home.

Oprah "gravity brought you back home. That so interesting because any time you talk about your family you light up. And you hear a lot of people when they accept an awards, they, you know, list their, call on their mommas and they thank Jesus and they thank their wives and all that.  But when you said that and looked into her eyes and asked if the camera would pick her up.  We could feel that that was 33 years of sincerity.

Jeff "Yeah, I'll say.  She looks so beautiful that night.  She always looks pretty but she looked really beaming when they gave her that shot I was really happy about that."

Oprah "Yeah, I hear that sometimes you turn down scripts because you don't want to be away from home.  You don't want to be away from her."

Jeff "Oh.  She told me the other night.  She said 'do you realize that over the last 14 months we've been apart for 11' and that's no fun.  To be separated from someone you love so much.  You know, we talk every night but still that's tough.  That's the hardest thing about what I do."

Oprah "What's the secret then.  I know there is no one secret.  What would you say having lived the life that you've lived, being in the spotlight and the whole Hollywood fame thing and you managed to have an authentic connection with your wife 33 years later.  How do you do that?"

Jeff "Well I think having my folks as a role model really helped.  You know, they were married over 50 years and loved each other very much.  I saw how they struggled with all their challenges that come up in marriage.  But if you've married as long as I have, you're bound to have some bumps and it's how you do that together.  Those bumps can really be wonderful opportunities to make your relationship all that stronger and you survive these bumps and the relationship becomes so precious that you don't want anything to get in the way of it."

Oprah "As you know there's all this Oscar talk.  I just filled out my ballot yesterday.  Put your name on it. There's all this Oscar talk.  Does that excite you or are you kinda removed from it or how do you feel about it?"

Jeff "Well it's one of those double edged swords, you know.  In a way, you know, its a little maddening feeling that you might have to get up there and forget to thank certain people or whatever but it's also wonderful to be appreciated and to get that nod from your peers is wonderful.  A wonderful feeling.  And it's all bringing attention to a movie that I love so much.  So all in all it's a good thing."

Oprah "We can tell.  Was it a great experience doing the movie because we can tell you become the character.  There's no line between you and the character.  Every breath is the character."

Jeff "Yeah.  It was a dream come true getting to work with my old friends T Bone Burnett and you know Stephen Bruton, John Goodwin, a great director.  That was his first time directing anything.  A high school play or anything.  He comes up with this and writes it, you know.  We had a wonderful, wonderful time making it.  Maggie Gyllenhaal,  Maggie Gyllenhaal, what a wonderful actress.  All of the actors, Colin Farrell, Bob Duvall.  You can get any better than these guys."

Oprah "you can get any better than Bob Duvall and Gyllenhaal was great, great chemistry.  Listen all the best to you, thank you and congratulations to you on all that is to come."

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