[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 of The Old Man.]

The Big Picture

Season 2 of the FX series ‘The Old Man’ explores Dan Chase and Hold Harper facing their pasts to survive in the present.
Jeff Bridges discusses authenticity and humanity in the characters while Amy Brenneman talks about female representation.
Bridges reflects on emotional scenes, the use of technology, and returning to the ‘Tron’ franchise.

In Season 2 of the FX series The Old Man, former CIA agent Dan Chase (Jeff Bridges) and former FBI Assistant Director Harold Harper (John Lithgow) are having to face their past in order to survive in the present. As stakes get higher and shocking secrets are uncovered, protecting family and loved ones seems impossible.

During this interview with Collider, Bridges discussed his initial hesitation to sign on for The Old Man, the importance of authenticity, finding the humanity in the characters, and the emotional phone call with Emily (Alia Shawkat), while Amy Brenneman, who plays Zoe McDonald, a woman unexpectedly drawn into Chase’s world that has chosen to stay and find her own place within it, talked about playing a women in this genre of men and funs, not wanting to just be the girl in the spy movie, being pretty mad about the trunk, and her girl power moment. Bridges also shared his experience with the Tron franchise, and the use of technology in both projects.

Related ‘The Old Man’ Season 2 Review: Jeff Bridges’ FX Thriller Strikes a More Grounded Tone Alia Shawkat steals the show this time around as ‘The Old Man’ returns for Season 2.

Collider: I love this show, and as much as I love this cast because you all are fantastic, I also tuned into this originally because the creators also created one of my favorite TV shows, Black Sails. What have you most appreciated about how they’re telling this story? What have you asked for or needed with this process that you feel they’ve really delivered on?

JEFF BRIDGES: What pops into my mind is the attitude that they’ve set for the whole thing, and it trickles down. Warren Littlefield is our producer. John Landgraf is over at FX. It’s all in support of the creative aspects of the show. And then, we’ve got Jon Steinberg, our showrunner, who came up with the idea. When I first read his script, I thought it was great, but I hesitated to engage with him because I knew I could catch his dream. They can be contagious, and then there you are. I knew I had to either let it pass or engage with him, and I decided to engage to find out if it was for me. And wow, what he was talking about and who he was casting, and not only the actors, but the cameraman and the directors. Bringing all that to the party was really important. And then, there was also the authenticity of the whole thing. He said, “We have a guy, Christopher Huttleston, who’s a former CIA agent, who can bring all the authenticity to the project.” Working with him, he kept transcending all my expectations about the whole process. It was wonderful.

Jeff Bridges and Amy Brenneman Question What Makes a Hero in ‘The Old Man’ Season 2
Image via FX

Amy, your character could have easily been pushed to the side or long forgotten in this story, but there’s something so interesting going on with her in the second season. How have you found this experience, on the creative side?

AMY BRENNEMAN: I watched a bit of Black Sails, after I got to know these guys, and I think it’s a similar thing where there’s a lot of meta. To your point, I’m a little old to be the girl in a spy movie, but she has her own relationship to this thing. I also think it’s high time that we have intelligent men, like [Jon] Steinberg and Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow taking on this genre of men and guns because when you go unconscious, it’s just violent and stupid. This is Jason Bourne, 30 years later. There’s trauma and there’s damage. What is a hero? What do we consider a hero? Basically, it’s the end of the line for a certain kind of machismo and violent behavior. Just like in Black Sails, you can have a pirate ship, or you can have a great CIA drama, but how they’re brilliant is in the use of the story to talk about something deeper.

Your character does have a voice and she even wins over the dogs when they end up growling at Jeff Bridges this season.

BRENNEMAN: I think it’s a lot about gender and equity and agency. You have the family in Afghanistan that’s really run by the auntie, and Alia [Shawkat] is stepping into that. What’s really beautiful about Zoe, and what I always love about her, is that there’s this incredibly sophisticated, decades-long story that she isn’t a part of, but her complication is just being a person on the planet and being a middle-aged woman on the planet, and she’s got to be as wily and as inventive about survival as they are.

Related ‘The Old Man’ Cast and Character Guide: Who’s Who In the FX Show Here’s our cast and character guide to FX’s newest hit show.

What do you think it says about these people that for Dan Chase, Harold Harper can attempt to have him assassinated, and yet he seems to be able to accept and forgive that and work with him? And Zoe gets thrown into a trunk and into this world by this man, but also seems to somehow accept that and doesn’t just return to normal life?

BRIDGES: I think it says a lot about humanity. That kind of stuff happens to all of us. You don’t see it sometimes because it’s your own story, but some wild stuff can go down. I’m sure that’s the case in your life, if you think about it. Something can happen in your own life where you’ll say, “If you saw that in a movie, you would not believe it.”

BRENNEMAN: I was pretty mad about the trunk for a while. At one point, I said, “Don’t put me in the trunk again,” which I really liked. It’s the way he shows his love.

BRIDGES: I was protecting you!

BRENNEMAN: You were protecting me. Okay, big daddy. That was also a thing I had to talk to Steinberg about. Why do I re-engage in Season 2? Honestly, I am safe. I do have the money. The stuff that I wanted in Season 1, I got. Not to bring in politics, but with the recent spinning of the wheel and somebody voluntarily stepping down, once you’re in that world, you just want to keep that power. It’s very unusual that somebody would have the fortitude to do that, and I think that’s true [for her]. She’s touched some power. Falling in with this guy, he actually knows the highest echelons of these puppet masters around the world and that’s just very seductive, now that she’s got a toehold.

‘The Old Man’ Is Good at Always Keeping the Tension Going

Jeff, there’s a moment in episode five, after the phone call with Emily Chase, where your character breaks down. For a guy that’s so in control of his emotions all the time, what was that moment like for you and for him?

BRIDGES: It was an acting assignment, and I tend to bracket my work. As actors, we’ll make a painting, and then the director and the editors cut it up and make a collage out of it. Hopefully, it’s one that is better than your painting. I like to give them as many colors to choose from, to work that. It’s a strong emotion, and he doesn’t show that kind of emotion, so that was challenging. I just gave it my shot, trying it different ways. You invite the muse in to have her way with you, and you see what happens.

BRENNEMAN: What I liked about how they cut that, because Jeff and I are very loving and warm and exuberant, and I’m always like, “Zoe and Dan should be that way too,” is that they’re not and they’re different people. I think both of them are uncomfortable. When I saw the cut, I was like, “Oh, Zoe is nicely uncomfortable too.” It’s not like, “Oh, now you’re crying. That’s something that women do.” Zoe is a bit of a weirdo too. It was all so weird. It was a release. I think Jon Steinberg is so good at always keeping the tension. So, I liked how weird it was. It was loving, but also terribly uncomfortable.

Related Halfway Through Season 2, Jeff Bridges’ Thriller Series Becomes a Streaming Hit The series is yet to be renewed for Season 3.

Amy, there’s such an interesting moment between Zoe and Cheryl, where Cheryl knows that she doesn’t fully know everything. And Zoe knows more, but also knows that she doesn’t know everything. Do you feel like that says so much about what being in the life of one of these men is really like?

BRENNEMAN: Yeah, I do, and I loved it. What are the women doing? We know what the men are doing, and that’s a purely compassionate moment of realizing, “Wow, I’ve actually been let in more than this woman has, and she’s been married to one of them for decades.” I think Zoe thinks that’s kind of fucked up. She’s like, “I’m gonna tell you what I know.” She’s not bound by any of these scouts’ honors, or the CIA or FBI. She sees a suffering compadre who’s also grieving Emily/Angela, so she’s gonna tell her what she knows. I think that’s a really bold, compassionate, girl power moment, but it also speaks to Zoe’s character. As she walks into this world, she might do it differently.

‘Tron’ and ‘The Old Man’ Both Make Use of Technology in Their Own Ways
Image via Disney

Jeff, this is your first experience with television, in this way. The experience you’ve had with Tron also seems very unusual, in the way that you keep returning to that same character over a period of time. What’s it like to have a world and character to return to like that, at different points in your own life? Did you ever think you would be returning to Tron at the different points in your life that you have?

BRIDGES: No, and it’s wonderful. I really like it. I just got through working with Jared Leto on Tron: Ares, and we had a great time. That’s all about technology, and my gosh, what has actually gone down. When we shot that first one in ’82, in black and white, 70mm, the sets were made of black duvetyn with white adhesive tape on it. Now, I’ve been sucked into a computer and they have all my info. I can just lease my image. The computer has got me. It’s quite amazing, all the technology that goes down. There’s technology in [The Old Man]. I don’t know if this is busting the illusion, but we’re not in Afghanistan.

BRENNEMAN: That was such a bummer. We were about to go to Marrakesh, and I was so excited to go to Marrakesh with Jeff Bridges. But then, they were like, “No, we’re not gonna go.”

The Old Man Premiering on FX in 2022, The Old Man is a Thriller and Drama series starring Jeff Bridges. The film sees Bridges playing Dan Chase, an ex-CIA operative and war veteran that kills an intruder that enters his home and then goes into hiding to avoid the law.Release Date September 19, 2024 Cast Jeff Bridges , John Lithgow , Bill Heck , Alia Shawkat , E.J. Bonilla , Leem Lubany , Pej Vahdat , Gbenga Akinnagbe , Amy Brenneman , Hiam Abbass , Echo Kellum , Moneer Yaqubi , Navid Negahban , Jessica Harper , Artur Zai Barrera , Michael Sifain , Jacqueline Antaramian , Kenneth Mitchell , Joel Grey , Noor Razooky , Milo Stein , Andrew Perez , Sara Seyed , Rowena King Streaming Service(s) Hulu , Prime Video Seasons 2 Showrunner Jonathan E. Steinberg Expand

The Old Man airs on FX and is available to stream on Hulu. Check out the trailer:

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