Every year in the spring, Film at Lincoln Center honors a luminary of the film industry with the prestigious Chaplin Award. This year’s honoree is Academy Award-winning actor, beloved screen icon, and the dude himself, Jeff Bridges, the actor known for unforgettable classics like “The Last Picture Show,” “Fearless,” “The Big Lebowski,” “True Grit,” “Heaven’s Gate,” “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot,” “Starman, “Crazy Heart” and more.
In a long and expansive conversation about his entire career, littered with lots of little highlights throughout, Bridges reveals what many fans have hoped for: he will appear in the upcoming third film in the “Tron” franchise, “Tron: Ares” starring Jared Leto.
“I’m heading off this Saturday to play a part in the third installment of the ‘Tron’ story; I’m excited about that,” he revealed on the Film Comment podcast. “It’s wild. Jared Leto is the star of this third one, and I’m really anxious to work with him, and I’ve admired his work.”
READ MORE: ‘Tron: Ares’ First Look: The Jared Leto Starring Film Will Be Released In 2025
“[I’m really excited] to see what the technology is going to be all about [this time],” Bridges added, a recurring theme throughout the interview.
Bridges appeared in “Tron: Legacy,” directed by Joseph Kosinski, and said while the technology was constantly changing, he didn’t know what to expect. He also noted that he didn’t love how his de-aging looked in that movie.
“When I did ‘Tron 2,’ ‘Tron Legacy,’ we had to put all these dots on our face and all these kinds of things,” Bridges explained of the motion capture technology used at the time. “And that’s [probably] all passé. I had to see myself as a young guy or as another character, but the same guy, but it was gonna be digitally created. I think it was [de-aging], but I didn’t like the way I looked in it; I felt like I looked more like Bill Maher than myself; it was kind of bizarre [laughs].”
While he hasn’t been apprised about the new tech, Bridges said “Tron: Ares” filmmaker Joachim Rønning (“Kon Tiki,” “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”) would potentially use a lot less CGI and, instead, more practical sets.
“I’m anxious to see what the technology and what it will be. I hear there’s even less A.I. stuff in this. It’s going to be more a practical set, and they’re beautiful; there are beautiful sets that I’ve seen.”
Directed by Joachim Rønning, with a screenplay by Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne. “Tron: Ares” stars Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Hasan Minhaj, Jodie Turner-Smith, Arturo Castro, Cameron Monaghan, Gillian Anderson, and Sarah Desjardins.
Bridges also confirmed that his FX series, “The Old Man,” is done shooting season two, but it’s unclear when it will air. “We just finished the second season, and I’m not sure when it’s going to come out, but I had a wonderful time; talk about casting, the directors, the cinematographers [too]… everybody was so terrific to work with.”
“There is such great stuff coming out of the tube these days,” Bridges said about the era of Peak TV and the improved quality of television that made him take the leap of faith into TV, citing “Succession” and “Pen15,” as some of his recent favorites. “My resistance that came up was like, ‘It’s not gonna be as high quality as movies,’ but then all of this great stuff started to come out, and then I thought, ‘My dad did several TV series, and I remember how hard he worked,’ but then I met with [the producers and showrunner], and they started to tell me their vision and pulled their magic on me and I got stuck in the whirlpool and here I am.”
Bridges added that each episode has a different director, which he thought might throw him, but “all the directors have been cast so well, so it’s been a really different experience.”
Directors on season one of “The Old Man” included “Spider-Man” franchise filmmaker Jon Watts, Greg Yaitanes (“House Of The Dragon”), Zetna Fuentes, and Jet Wilkinson. “Tron: Ares” is currently set for a TBD 2025 release date. “The Old Man” has no official update yet, but fingers crossed it’s ready to arrive in the fall.