Having worked with Jeff Bridges in The Fisher King, how was he this time round?
Jeff is always a joy. He’s so solid and meticulous. He’s a delight. When we were working on The Fisher King, Roger Pratt said I’d found my cinematic alter ego: Mastroianni to my Fellini. He grounds a lot of the stuff I do. When I get silly, he will take the same thought and make it believable and real. What was outrageous on Tideland was that we had a prosthetic dummy made to sit in the chair when he is dead. But Jeff ended up doing the scene himself. That’s what is wonderful about Jeff – a lot of other actors would say: just use the dummy. There would be subtle differences in Jodelle’s performance because she was sitting on a real person rather than a dummy. Someone who liked the film told me she would hesitate to recommend it to her more sensitive friends. She asked: why did you choose to show so many revolting scenes. Would it work less well if the scenes were less graphic? I think her sensitive friends might not be so sensitive. Sensitive people should be able to appreciate what’s
