Interview With Beau Bridges

I think the roads we take, the paths we take to reach goals and to try to finish tasks in a successful way, those paths are taken much more easily if you’re blessed to have a family. When you have your family there to support you. It makes it so much easier and more comfortable a ride. _Beau Bridges: Game Time: Tackling the Past

Born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges, Beau Bridges initially set out to be a professional basketball player. He played his freshmen year at UCLA before transferring to the University of Hawaii, where he ultimately hung up his sneakers to pursue a career in acting. Now a prolific actor in both film and television, some of Bridges’ best-loved roles include Frank Baker in “The Fabulous Baker Boys,” Major General Henry Landry in the TV series “Stargate SG-1,” and BB Hensley in “Max Payne.” Bridges also has had recurring roles in many TV series including “My Name is Earl,” “Brothers and Sisters” and NBC’s “Love Bites.” Bridges is married to Wendy Treece and is the father of five children. He has had plenty of experience in coaching his kids.

What attracted you to your role in Game Time?

Beau Bridges: I have a large family. I have five children so stories that have family as a theme usually really get my attention, and this one certainly does. Right at the core of the story is this family and how they come together and how they get through difficult times. I also love sports. I love athletics. Ryan and I actually had that in common. We both played athletics on teams in our high school and college years. And so to get to play a coach was great. Because when I was younger and looking ahead in my future, what I wanted to do with my life, my dad was an actor so I thought he seems to enjoy that. And, I understand that it’s a difficult profession to get a hook in there on, but I thought I’d give that a try. But also, I thought another path that I would enjoy taking would be as a coach working with young people. I’ve coached all my own kids’ athletic teams, and was lucky enough to sit on the bench with John Wooden as my coach playing freshman basketball at UCLA. It didn’t go any further than that, but that was a great experience. I mean one of the great college coaches of all time. And, I remained friendly with him and in contact with him for the rest of his time on the planet. And that was just a real blessing. And so, there was a lot of reoccurring themes in my own life that resonated in this story, and so I jumped at it. I thought it was just a great story. And, I don’t think there’s enough entertainment for families these days, and for young people on television that are appropriate and that are strong and profound stories that people need to hear.

Do you have family or movie night at home?

Beau Bridges: Yes. Television is a time for the family to gather. I’m of a generation where we just had radio, and so I remember how exciting it was when I went to see the Lone Ranger for the first time when I was a little kid. And now of course technology is so sophisticated that it’s such a huge part of our lives. And so much so that I think sometimes young people especially tend to get isolated with the little thing they can hold in their hand to watch films and everything else and they kind of go away. But in our family, we like to gather around the television and watch sporting events and films and shows, and it’s a great time for people to come together.

Do you coach your children?

Beau Bridges: Yes. I try. I try to coach them, but they’re not really hearing it too much anymore. A little bit. We have discussions more or less. What I find about my adult children is as they get older, they feel that they can now begin to coach me which is sometimes a little hard to take. But, I also welcome it because I realize that as younger people in this world, they have a better understanding of the way things work now. And so sometimes, I actually go out and seek their advice on things because I think they do have a better understanding of the way the game is played these days.

I learned this movie is somewhat in line with your college years. Will we see your shirt off in this movie?

Beau Bridges: I do take my shirt off however. No, I’m just teasing.

Congrats on your Emmy nominations for Brothers and Sisters.

Beau Bridges: I loved doing that show as well, and I feel that my nomination certainly was a good thing in my life, but I also feel that I’m kind of representing that whole show at this year’s Emmy’s. I mean they did such great work, and of course my dear friend Sally Field was so amazing and get to play with her was just fantastic. And so, that’s a shared experience with that whole cast and crew.

How do you think you’d do in a game of basketball with Brian?

Beau Bridges: Oh, I’d destroy him. I would destroy you. From the outside, I’d (rain the trees on him).

Looking back, do you think you would have been a more successful basketball player than an actor?

Beau Bridges: No. No. I found out the hard way very quickly going to such a powerhouse basketball college, what a little fish I was. And, I realized how lucky I was to even make the freshman team and to be able to be around those guys. But what I came away with, especially being tutored by a man like John Wooden was I learned lessons that were life lessons. I mean I don’t know if you’re familiar with John Wooden’s pyramid of success? It was something that he actually developed as an English teacher before he became a coach, and it’s basically all the qualities you need to find success. And they’re blocks of the pyramid that are things that you need to take on to reach that pinnacle. And the two cornerstones are industriousness, which is hard work, and enthusiasm, which is joy. Coach always said that you could come to the task with hard work, but it’s when it’s brought in combination with joy, those two things — hard work and joy — that’s when special things happen. And then the very pinnacle of the pyramid is divided in half into faith and patience, meaning when the big game is at hand that you have to be patient and you have to have faith. Faith in whatever you believe in and faith in yourself. And I did get a lot out of my experience playing at UCLA, but as far as becoming a professional, I don’t think so.

Communication is a very important part of any relationship. This film touched on that in some aspects, can you talk a bit about how important it was for the dad to communicate with his son?

Beau Bridges: I think the roads we take, the paths we take to reach goals and to try to finish tasks in a successful way, those paths are taken much more easily if you’re blessed to have a family. When you have your family there to support you. It makes it so much easier and more comfortable a ride. Or if you have friends that almost become your family. That is so valuable. And, I think sometimes people – even though they may have a family there with them, they don’t take advantage of their family so the communication is lacking. And, I think that’s what our story is about in many ways is how important it is for family members to communicate with each other. Our family in this story, they grow apart because they’re not communicating. And I think sometimes it’s difficult because that family member or loved one means more to you than anybody else, so sometimes there are subject matter – there are things and events that are difficult to talk about because you’re worried about what the consequences are going to be for talking the truth with a loved one. Without that communication, I think you can get lost and you can lose that wonderful support that happens from family.

What is one of the biggest challenge for a parent and how was it played out in this film?

Beau Bridges: One of the biggest challenges for a parent is that when your child is born, those first few months you provide everything for them – for their survival. The father and the mother. And then very quickly, they begin to look for their independence, even as little babies. And there begins their journey to get away from you to find complete independence. And as a parent that’s what you want for them. You want them to evolve into an independent grown-up who can have their own life and sustain themselves independently from you, and their family. And, they can move on and have their own family and their own lives. But it’s also kind of heart wrenching because you give so much to your child, you invest so much in them, and yet they’re going away from you. They can’t wait to get away from you, and that increases the older they get. When they get in their teenage years and that’s why my wife is always reminding me we have one left in the nest. And so, it’s kind of a double-edged sword. You want them to have their independence, you want to help give it to them, but then you’re also mourning the loss of the closeness that happens when they’re living in your own home and being with you. And in this story, that is magnified by the fact that there’s a misunderstanding that comes down between my son and I, and I basically have lost him at the beginning of the story. He’s gone. He’s not communicating at all. He’s not around. He basically doesn’t like me anymore. And so in any parent’s life, that’s a tragic situation. And so what the story really is about for my character is hoping that my son will return into my life in a positive way and realize that I do love him and have always loved him, but there was a misunderstanding.

Does this film reflect in anyway your personal or family life?

Beau Bridges: The fun of being a parent is, as your children become adults, is to watch them go out into the world and bring their own unique goodness to the community. I can say that about my grown children. They’re just amazing. And in many ways they are my immortality basically. They are carrying me on beyond what I can do. They’re doing things that I only dreamed of. And I think that’s part of this story as well that we’re telling. And as for my character – I become aware of my sons as men who will hopefully carry on what I started but take it into a whole other level. And that’s the real joy and the real payoff for all the challenges that go into being a good parent. Being a good dad is the hardest thing that I’ve ever tried to do and I’ve failed many, many times, and my kids will point that out to me of course. But it’s been difficult, but also tremendously rewarding. And my wife was saying to me the other day that I’ve had children in my life for almost 50 years of my lifetime which is a lot of years. But, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

What’s your advice for actors?

Beau Bridges: I was very fortunate that I had my dad Lloyd who was an actor firmly entrenched in the business and quite successful, and he helped me get that first job and I’m forever blessed for that. And I recognize how difficult that first job is to get, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. And I think that what’s important for any young person who wants to join the fraternity of actors is to get out there and do your thing. Get involved in your school theater. Get involved in your community theater, because the best way to get that first professional job is to have people see what you can do. And if you sit there waiting for your phone to ring, nothing’s going to happen. So, you need to get out there and work, work, work and try to associate with people who are professionals in any way you can. Volunteer, assist; whatever you can do so that you know it can lead to that first job. I also would like to recommend a book called Acting: The First Six Lessons by Richard Boleslawski written in about 1933. It was the only book on acting my father Lloyd gave me when I was a kid about 16. I’ve given it to all my kids. And in fact a year ago, my daughter Emily, who’s 25 now and just recently graduated from Fordham University in New York. Emily and I adapted that novel into a play which we performed in Los Angeles, and we recently just got published by Samuel French. So if anyone wants to pick up that play they can, and it’s a great play to perform. It’s a two hander. The teacher and his student who he calls The Creature. And it’s basically Boleslawski was a student of Constantine Stanislavski, what we call the method acting. There’s all kinds of ways of approaching acting though. I worked with all sorts of actors, wonderful actors through the years, and they all go about it totally differently. There’s no correct way to do it. But, that book there is an interesting one. I would also encourage young actors to write. I think that’s basically, our business is to tell stories, and if there’s no stories to tell, then what’s an actor going to do? And just like Shakespeare said, “The play’s the thing.” So if you write, then that’s another way of creating work for yourself or creating performances for yourself is to write your own material and go out and do it. Many actors have gotten people’s attention by doing just that. And like I say- our play is published by Sam French, so you can do that. Emily and I did is when we adapted the novel, we kept of Boleslawski’s stuff, but we also weaved in our own personal lives because it was a book that was given to me by my father and I gave it to Emily.

Are you going to perform it?

Beau Bridges: Yes. Well, we already performed it for a couple of months in Los Angeles, and now we want to tour it in universities and regional theaters. And we’re getting that together right now. But the nice thing about having it published by Sam French is that other people can now go out and perform it as well.

You recently did some work with George Clooney. Was he very difficult to work with?

Beau Bridges: No. No. He’s just a real prince of a guy. He’s a lot of fun. He’s got a mischievous thing about him which I didn’t see too directly. I heard about it mostly from other people. But he loves what he does. He’s really good at what he does. He works hard. He’s very respectful of all the other actors and the crew. And yes, it was a lot of fun. I did The Descendants with him, which is coming out probably in a couple months.