JEFF BRIDGES: I have a friend who's a Zen master,
who called me up the other day and he said,
"Jeff, I want to talk to you about something."
I said, "Okay." And he says, "As you probably know,
"among a lot of the Buddhists, the Dude is considered a Zen master."
And I said, "What are you talking about?" He goes, "Oh yeah, of course."
I say, "I don't understand." He says, "Oh, yeah.
“The Lebowski is riddled with Zen koans, but in a modern context."
He says, "The Coen brothers must have..." I say, "We never mentioned Zen."
Fucking A.
BRIDGES: I think the guy kind of likes to let this one moment
fall into the next, you know.
He doesn't have too many... He doesn't plan it out too much.
Yeah, fuck it, man.
You can't be worried about that shit. Life goes on, man.
STEVE BUSCEMI: My wife and I had a theory
of what it is about, this film, is that I think
everybody wants to be the Dude.
We just love him so much, and what a wonderful way to go through life.
BRIDGES: I approach most characters that I do in a similar way,
whether it's the costume, or different personality traits or whatever.
I always look into my own kitbag and see what I might have
that might apply to the guy.
But to be faithful to the words, you're able to create that difference
that helps you separate yourself from the character.
I am not Mr. Lebowski.
You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude.
So that's what you call me. You know?
That or His Dudeness,
or Duder or, you know,
El Duderino, if you're not into the whole brevity thing.
JULIANNE MOORE: It was a major disappointment to me that Jeff Bridges
didn't win an Academy Award for that performance,
because I think it's genius. I mean it really, really is,
when you think about all the lines you remember him saying,
how he said it, what he was doing.
That's fucking interesting, man. That's fucking interesting.
BRIDGES: It was fun coming to work.
There's an aspect of acting that's a lot like pretending
when you were a kid, like, "Come on, let's pretend," you know,
"you be this guy, I'll be this guy."
And that's what it was like. It was coming to work every morning
and playing with the coolest kids, and you had all the cool outfits.
You know, it was fun.
JOHN GOODMAN: Walter's an amazing guy.
I think he fancies himself at a hunting club with a bunch of old warriors
sitting around with smoking jackets and a dunce cap.
I'm finishing my coffee.
I still got my army coat, my vest,
and the mandatory California cargo shorts on, and the head band.
There's something sad about a fat, middle aged guy wearing a head band.
Fuck it, Dude.
Let's go bowling.
Ethan told me about it, before they had it written.
And he was just describing the character to me and I was sold from jump street.
They said they knew guys, and that Walter's based on four people.
BRIDGES: One of the things I love about the Dude and Walter,
in that they're very opposite, but they seem to...
"It's all right, that's fine." And they respect each other in their differences.
Just take it easy, man.
I'm perfectly calm, Dude.
Yeah, waving the fucking gun around?
Calmer than you are.
Will you just take it easy?
Calmer than you are.
GOODMAN: I never really knew how long they had known each other
or how they met or anything like that.
None of that really went into it, for me anyway,
I was having too much fun to do research.
WALTER: You don't have ransom without a hostage.
That's what ransom is.
Those are the fucking rules.
For as big of a load as he is, and a fat mouth, he just,
very tenderly, I think, cares for Donny,
and he was protecting him from these bullies.
And that's what they were.
Are these guys gonna hurt us, Walter?
No, Donny. These men are cowards.
GOODMAN: And that's what they were to Walter
with his thousands of years of history of Jewish repression.
I fuck you!
You can't really see it that much, but he did get stabbed on the side,
he took a sword for Donny.
And then, poor little guy has a heart attack.
BUSCEMI: That is my favorite screen death.
People compliment me on the wood chipper scene in Fargo,
but I don't feel connected to it, because I wasn't there.
This death, I was actually there and I loved the eulogy that Walter gives.
GOODMAN: They wanted to send him off right,
and Walter just never checked which way the wind was blowing.
He was one of us.
He was a man who loved the outdoors...
Then you learn that Donny is in fact a surfer.
And as a surfer he explored the beaches of Southern California
from La Jolla to Leo Carrillo
and up to Pismo.
That's the only time it's mentioned, and I love that about this guy.
And he is a mystery. You don't really learn that much about him.
Mark it, Dude.
JOEL COEN: What I think is interesting about Steve's
performance in the movie is that
he's so good that you can watch him in a lot of the scenes exclusively
when there's a three shot
and the whole scene kind of plays out on his face
even though he doesn't have anything to say.
Donny loves these guys, and I think they love him.
But he gets on Walter's nerves.
What's during league play?
Life does not stop and start at your convenience,
you miserable piece of shit.
BUSCEMI: It's all the script. That's where I start, on anything I do.
They posted the next round for the tournament.
Once I'm in the costume of the character, that for me is a lot of it.
I don't even think there's one shirt that has his name on it.
He is sort of in his own world.
MOORE: What was so great about the whole movie is that
everybody's in their own universe and the worlds kind of collide.
I don't know if Maude is in anybody else's world, she's in Maude's world.
BUSCEMI: I love in those scenes, with Julianne and Jeff,
but David Thewlis is in there, you don't know why.
He's just there and he's giggling.
Maude's this rich girl with a very affected voice.
People said, "What accent were you using?"
I'm like, "It's not an accent, it's an affectation."
You know, she should have this acquired sound
that she thinks is interesting, that's sort of East Coasty.
There's sort of this Bohemian-aristocratic contrast thing going.
My art has been commended as being strongly vaginal,
which bothers some men.
The word itself makes some men uncomfortable.
Vagina.
The naked flying, and all that kind of stuff, that was...
It was to be as provocative as possible.
I mean, that's what Maude was about, about provocation.
Do you like sex, Mr. Lebowski?
Excuse me?
Sex, the physical act of love. Coitus.
Do you like it?
That was what was so great about being with Jeff, his character's so laid back
and so kind of accepting, like, you know, "The Dude abides, man. Whatever."
So he's all like this, and she's all like this.
But they seem to have a mutual kind of respect.
Jeffrey.
Maude?
Love me.
MOORE: "Jeffrey," she calls him "Jeffrey" all the time.
That is probably the only time I've ever had a hard time keeping a straight face,
was when I was working with Jeff, because he was so funny.
He was so, so funny.
What is that, yoga?
It increases the chances of conception.
I knew that they wanted something outrageous
'cause everyone keeps talking about him.
I thought he was going to be a big part, and when I read it,
I was like, "What? It's so tiny."
I knew he was a nemesis of the Dude and Walter,
so I just figured if it's that big, I could take it into the outer limit.
I happened to be very thin at that time and I had the idea of...
I thought, "Oh, let me grow a goatee," and the hairnet.
Add to Jesus,
and I have a nail that could go with my jumpsuit.
I showed it to Joel and Ethan and they thought it was really funny.
So I added a lot of stuff on the day, the shining, the licking, the dancing,
all that stuff.
Joel and Ethan would do it for me, like before I shot it.
People don't realize that they like to imagine how you're going to do it,
and Joel and Ethan would be acting it out for me all the time
with the whole click thing.
"Click, man." I was laughing with their, you know...
JESUS: You pull any of your crazy shit with us,
you flash a piece out on the lanes,
I'll take it away from you and stick it up your ass
and pull the fucking trigger till it goes click.
TURTURRO: I threw in everything but the kitchen sink,
not thinking that they would put it in
because you only have a couple of days.
And then when they edited that sequence...
In so many movies you try things, it never makes it.
Every little thing I put in, like with the licking of the bail thing,
I thought, "Well, the guy's a degenerate so that could be his thing."
I was just trying to get into the whole groin area of the character.
Nobody fucks with the Jesus.
Jesus is an icon, that's why I want to make it a sequel.
I want to because, you know, I don't really have to do much.
Just put the jumpsuit on and get into shape.
What's this day-of-rest shit?
TURTURRO: Without the suit, he's nothing.
He's like Superman. Without the jumpsuit, it's like Kryptonite.
He doesn't have it.
I think Jesus, later on, went to prison and then he got out again.
He drives a school bus. I know that for a fact.
And then he just sits there as all the girls come up and he looks at them.
He's trying to control himself and he has to pray.
Maybe when he prays, that's when he gets in touch with the Dude.
This is a man who's looking for redemption.
It's like a sports movie.
Eight-year-olds, Dude.
This is his second coming, man. There's Rocky II.
Jesus is the second coming. He's coming back, man.