In honor of this weekend’s release of the highly anticipated adaptation of Lois Lowry’s beloved YA novel The Giver, we’ve rounded up some of the best quotes about filmmaking to come from its producer and star, Spirit Award winner (for Crazy Heart), Film Independent Member (!), and portrayer of one of the most iconic indie film characters of all time, Jeff Bridges. The Dude abides.

Bridges often says that his father, actor Lloyd Bridges, has had an enormous influence on his life and work. He told Vanity Fair in 2009, when Crazy Heart was about to earn him both an Independent Spirit Award and an Academy Award for Best Actor: “My father taught me all the basics about acting, but the main thing he taught me is kind of a non-verbal thing. I got to work with him two times as an adult, in Tucker and Blown Away, and he gave me his biggest lesson, which is just the way he approached the work with such joy and love of it. Whenever he’d come on the set, it wasn’t even something he’d say, it was just what he was as an actor. And everybody’s work would kind of go up a level. The vibe was ‘this is kind of fun what we’re doing.’”

Bridges has a very laid-back attitude toward failure. “It’s kind of fun when the movie’s coming out. It’s like having a horse in the race. And they’re lining up, and they’re off! And you’re rooting for your horse. And in this case, the jockey fell off the horse and you came in last,” he told GQ in October 2013 about his film R.I.P.D. being a tremendous flop. “Ha ha ha. You know. That happens sometimes.”

“Sometimes [filmmaking] transcends all your highest expectations and you’re like, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’ Bridges told The Telegraph in 2013. “And other times you think, ‘Oh, this is going to be a good one,’ and then… it’s just not quite right. Every once in a while I realize why I’m into it and it’s pretty joyous, getting to play with other artists. It’s that thing of acting as advanced play, you know when you were a kid you used to play pretend?”

Bridges has wanted to make The Giver for years—initially, he dreamed of directing his father in the title role. “I find I’m most challenged by things I really care about, because I really want to do them well. It causes quite a bit of anxiety. ButBridges told The A.V. Club in 2010. “That very thing you’re afraid of is kind of like a blessing in disguise. If you didn’t have that fear, you wouldn’t have the other side—courage and bravery, positive emotions. As an actor, you get used to those fears, and you’re almost happy when they show up. It makes you learn your lines and prepare. Then when it’s finally time to pull the trigger on the thing, you relax and let it come out. You don’t think about it too much.”

Mary Sollosi / Intern Blogger