The Dude Survives: Jeff Bridges on the Enduring "Big Lebowski"

They got you a bowling instructor on set, correct?
Barry Asher. I can remember John [Turturro] and I and Buscemi, we took bowling lessons from this guy. He was a champion, one of the best bowlers in the world. We bowled a few frames and then I asked this guy, "I'm wondering what the Dude's preparation would be?" So Barry tells this story about his own preparation when he bowls. And how there's kind of a Zen thing to bowling: the pins are down before you even bring your ball back. So Barry would get up there to bowl and he would prep, he's gotta shake it off, waiting for that moment to cock it back, and it would go on for five, 10 minutes. And his bowling partners on the team would say, "Throw the fucking ball!" He actually had to go into therapy about it. So I said, "So how do you do it now?" He says, "I just get up and throw the fucking ball. I don't think."

Do you see any sort of central message in the movie?
Well, I think the Stranger sums it up pretty good with that last speech, you know, "I hope you had a good time, it was funny." So that was one message, that life is funny, you can find the humor in it. Bernie Glassman, who is a Zen master said to me one day, "You realize that many people in the Buddhist community look at the Dude as a Zen master?" And I said, "You've gotta be kidding me." He says, "Mo, The Big Lebowski is riddled with koans" (things that don't necessarily have an answer).

You can watch it over and over again and it gets better each time.
You know, I rarely will watch my movies when they come on TV, but when Lebowski comes on I'll say, "Oh, I'll just wait until Turturro licks the ball and then I'll do my clicking." But it's like The Godfather — when The Godfather comes on I have that same kind of feeling, then you get hooked.

Do you have any favorite memories from filming?
I always like to have my family visit me on the set, and I thought, "Oh, this would be a good time to have my girls visit me, during the dream sequence." Then I started having second thoughts, I said, "What have I done? The scene I've invited my wife and my three girls to come see is the scene where I'm flying through these bowling pin girls legs, looking up at their snatch!" [Reads from Lebowski book] "As I looked up I found each pubic patch more ornate than the next — they had stuffed huge clumps of crepe hair in their leotards. We all had a good laugh."