Jeff Bridges Interview, Iron Man

Posted by: Sheila Roberts

Iron Man is coming to Theaters in 2008 and we had a chance to sit down briefly and talk to Jeff Bridges one of the stars of the upcoming Iron Man. He tells us about the film, the FX, the Iron Man suit and more! He play's Obadiah Stane a close confident of Tony Stark's.

Based on the long-running Marvel comic book series, Iron Man tells the story of Tony Stark, the enigmatic heir to the Stark Enterprises fortune. A driven inventor and executive who seems to have it all, Tony is haunted by his dark side.

Though he commands his empire by day, by night he secretly becomes "Iron Man,” the living embodiment of decades of defense spending and innovation. Strapping on billions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art armor and weaponry each night to fight crime, terrorism and corporate espionage, Tony begins to crack under the strain of his fractured lifestyle and must ultimately confront the one enemy he can never beat — himself.

MOVIESONLINE: HOW HAS THE WORKING EXPERIENCE BEEN ON "IRON MAN” SO FAR AND HOW DOES THE SUIT LOOK IN MOTION?

JEFF BRIDGES: The costume in motion? You mean the Iron Man costume itself? Well, let’s see. It's been wonderful working with Jon Favreau who's the director of the film and is a wonderful actor as well who I've admired for a long time. I remember the first thing he did, 'Swingers,' which he wrote. He did such a great job. And Robert Downey Jr, and we were talking about improvisation in this and we were doing a lot of improvisation in 'Iron Man' to discover scenes and getting off of the written page and doing a lot of work like that. I know that Jon is very interested in grounding it in as much reality as he possibly can. That's kind of informing the whole thing. Like, the suit for instance, I don't know if you saw the first suit, but it looks very primitive. It looks like, 'Oh yeah, maybe that could happen.' It's all plausible.

MOVIESONLINE: HOW DIFFERENT NOW IS THE TECHNOLOGY FROM WHEN YOU DID "TRON?”

JEFF BRIDGES: [Laughs] Man, leaps and bounds. I remember when we did 'Tron,' we were so excited seeing it and then I remember about a week after the opening going home and seeing all of that technology in a commercial. It was just like, ‘Boom! It's now passe’ -- just like that. That's the way that technology is, it happens so fast.

MOVIESONLINE: ARE YOU STILL WORKING ON "IRON MAN?”

JEFF BRIDGES: Oh, yeah, I have to go right back to work tomorrow.

MOVIESONLINE: HOW MUCH LONGER UNTIL YOU'RE DONE ON THAT?

JEFF BRIDGES: June, mid June.

MOVIESONLINE: HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TO COMIC-CON AND ARE YOU GOING TO GO WITH THIS MOVIE AS IT STARTS TO PROMOTE?

JEFF BRIDGES: Comic-Con? No, what is Comic-Con?

MOVIESONLINE: IT'S A CONVENTION IN SAN DIEGO FEATURING ALL COMICS AND SCI-FI AND FANTASY MOVIES. ARE YOU A COMIC FAN AT ALL?

JEFF BRIDGES: Yeah. I used to read comics when I was a kid.

MOVIESONLINE: DID YOU READ "IRON MAN?”

JEFF BRIDGES: Iron Man, let’s see. He wasn't part of The Fantastic Four, right? He was in The Avengers, I believe. No, I wasn't too much into ‘Iron Man.’ I was more into 'Superman.' I was into 'The Green Lantern.'

MOVIESONLINE: "THE SILVER SURFER?”

JEFF BRIDGES: Not ‘The Silver Surfer,’ no. I shouldn't be saying that though, right? Those are DC guys, right? Is ‘Green Lantern’ Marvel or DC?

MOVIESONLINE: DC.

JEFF BRIDGES: [Laughs] See

MOVIESONLINE: IS "IRON MAN” USING FILM OR DIGITAL CAMERAS?

JEFF BRIDGES: Film.

MOVIESONLINE: HAVE YOU WORKED MUCH WITH GWYNETH PALTROW AT THIS POINT?

JEFF BRIDGES: A little bit. We've got some scenes coming up, but I haven't worked with her too much yet.

MOVIESONLINE: DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING COMING UP AFTER "IRON MAN?”

JEFF BRIDGES: Yeah, after 'Iron Man,' I just signed on to a movie that I believe is now official. I believe it's official, but it's a movie called -- I hope I get this right, don't tell me -- 'How To Lose Friends & Alienate People.'

MOVIESONLINE: WHAT CHARACTER ARE YOU PLAYING IN THAT FILM? THAT'S WITH SIMON PEGG, RIGHT?

JEFF BRIDGES: That's right. I play the head of a magazine, the chief editor that Simon is working for. I think that it's loosely based on a book of the same title. I can't think of the name of the guy who wrote the book.

MOVIESONLINE: HAVE YOU SEEN 'SHAWN OF THE DEAD' OR 'HOT FUZZ?'

JEFF BRIDGES: I've seen both of those and I'm a fan of Simon Pegg. I think he's great. I liked 'Shawn of the Dead' a lot.

Look for more Iron Man goodies in the coming days, weeks, months as we continue to bring you the latest news from the film front!