Jeff Bridges Didn’t Think He’d Act After Cancer — Now He’s Back on Set
By Movieguide® Contributor
Jeff Bridges discussed his return to the set of THE OLD MAN after thinking he was done with acting because of his non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis.
“As far as being back into the show again, everybody was so considerate about my condition,” Bridges told PEOPLE. “But I don’t remember that as being particularly difficult. Even the fight scene after I came back, I can’t remember being upset about that.”
“You just do your best and that’s all you can do,” he continued. “It’s something so great, actors working with actors, being a fraternity, a sorority…You’re looking out for each other,” he continued.
Bridges was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2020 when doctors found a 9-by-12-inch tumor in his body. Though he was able to defeat the cancer through the help of chemo, Bridges contracted COVID-19 during one of his trips to the hospital, placing him in mortal danger due to his weakened immune system.
“I was pretty close to dying. The doctors kept telling me, ‘Jeff, you’ve got to fight. You’re not fighting,’” he told PEOPLE in May 2022. “I was in surrender mode. I was ready to go. I was dancing with my mortality.”
“I had no defenses,” Bridges continued. “That’s what chemo does — it strips you of all your immune system. I had nothing to fight it. COVID made my cancer look like nothing.”
“I mean, I didn’t think I was…I thought, ‘I’m not going to come back. I won’t be able to come back,’” he added.
Fortunately, the actor was able to recover. Though the road to strengthening his body back to health took a long time, he had a big reason to fight: his daughter’s wedding. In 2022, Bridges was able to walk his daughter down the aisle and even perform the wedding dance with her later that night. That was the start of his recovery process which has now allowed him to return to acting.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Jeff Bridges recently reflected on his health crisis as he battled COVID-19 and cancer and how he overcame those challenges.
In 2020, the actor was diagnosed with lymphoma. Then in March 2021, while attending his daily chemotherapy treatments, Bridges contracted COVID-19.
Bridges, now in remission, told E! News, “The chemo wipes out your immune system, and when COVID hit me, I had nothing to fight it. I was just really at death’s door a couple of times there.”
“I remember the doctors saying to me, ‘Jeff, you gotta fight,’” he shared.
Bridges felt he was “in surrender mode,” but with the help of his medical team, trainers and family, he changed his mindset and fought.
Bridges shared with AARP, “For me, in that hospital bed, the obstacle was death. And that was the way. I kept thinking, Here’s the problem, you know? Here’s the challenge. I asked myself, ‘How are you going to go about it?’ And I thought, I’m a dancer, man, and I’m a musician. I’m going to jam with this situation, you know?”
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