Disney
While the saying “never meet your heroes” may be a popular turn of phrase, beloved Academy Award-winning actor Jeff Bridges is luckily the exception that proves the rule.
Speaking to BroBible’s Post Credit Podcast ahead of the release of his new film The Absence of Eden, Garrett Hedlund, who starred as Bridges’ son in 2010’s Tron: Legacy, waxed rhapsodic about the 74-year-old The Big Lewbowski star, saying that he is a “way of life.”
“I never came across somebody that felt like so much of a long-lost brother — a companion, a student of life, a co-pilot,” Hedlund explained.
“Passionate about music, film, and what makes people and things and tunes and everything tick. I said this the other day, and I was wondering why it’s never been on a t-shirt: Jeff Bridges is a way of life. His love for life, family, and art is absolutely infectious and astonishing and you want to be around it and you want to collaborate with him. “
Hearing that Bridges is the real deal makes The Big Lebowski even more enjoyable, as it suggests that he was perhaps just playing a far lazier version of himself.
Alongside Hedlund, The Absence of Eden also stars Zoe Saldana — her husband Marco Perego-Saldana directed the film — and Adria Arjona. It also boasts Martin Scorsese as one of its executive producers. Here’s the official synopsis for the movie, via Roadside Attractions
“The Absence of Eden takes place at the border between the United States and Mexico – a hellish landscape inhabited by coyotes, armed officers, desperate immigrants, and refugees. When Esmee (Saldana), a young woman working as a private dancer in Mexico, is forced to commit a violent act of self-defense that results in the death of a cartel member, she flees her homeland for sanctuary in the United States.”
“Guided by a ruthless Coyote and a group of undocumented immigrants, she befriends a young mother and her daughter along the way. Before crossing the border, the mother is taken from the group, and Esmee promises to protect her daughter and help them reunite again in America, touching off an interlocking story about people struggling to survive on America’s border with Mexico.”
Following The Absence of Eden, Hedlund will next be seen in films such as Barron’s Cove, The Ploughment, and Outside the Wire, and the Sylvester Stallone-starring Paramount+ series Tulsa King.
Check out the official trailer for The Absence of Eden below.