An Annoying Aviator Ruined Over A Dozen Takes Of Jeff Bridges' Big Lebowski Speech
It's hard not to love Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, the central protagonist of the Coen brothers' 1998 comedy "The Big Lebowski," and it's honestly even more difficult not to love the man who plays him, Jeff Bridges. Bridges is a part of pop culture himself, winning an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the 2009 film "Crazy Heart" as well as starring in major franchises ranging from "Tron" to "Iron Man." He can play a wide range of characters, though the one that seems to come closest to the man himself is — you guessed it — The Dude. In fact, the Coens wrote the role specifically for Bridges, who joked that they must have spied on him in high school because the character hit so close to home, but it seems like there's a lot of Bridges in The Dude (and vice-versa!).
In an interview with Vanity Fair looking back on her career, actor Julianne Moore revealed that Bridges had pretty Dude-like patience while filming one of the tricker scenes in "The Big Lebowski" despite a rather distracting (and very persistent) aviator outside. Many actors would have been throwing a tantrum by the third or fourth ruined take, but Moore said that Bridges stayed totally cool and collected despite the take being ruined more than a dozen times. Now that is some zen.
14 takes of a long monologue
Bridges is a truly talented performer, but according to Julianne Moore, he's a pretty peaceful professional too. As she told Vanity Fair:
"I could go on and on about Jeff, he's just a genius. And also maybe one of the loveliest people I've ever worked with. He's just so, so lovely and so patient. There was one day when he was doing a speech, and at the same point in every take, a plane would circle and it went around 14 times. 14 times he had to do that monologue and he never got mad. I was like, 'He's something else.'"
The scene in question is likely the one where The Dude confronts Moore's character Maude because he believes that he's being sent on a wild goose chase by her father, the titular "Big Lebowski." He has to try and explain the entire complicated situation of mistaken identity to Maude, who is otherwise out of the loop. One can almost imagine him being interrupted by a plane droning by outside. "The Big Lebowski" was shot in and around Los Angeles, California, home to one of the busiest airports in the world, so there's always a risk of a plane messing up the sound on a take. Instead of getting outwardly frustrated, Bridges apparently just went with it, delivering a stellar performance as one of the most laid-back human beings in cinematic history.