‘Texasville’ a Homecoming for Jeff Bridges, ‘Show’ Cast

Talk about deja vu. Jeff Bridges felt it when he returned to the hamlet of Archer City, Tex., for the sequel to the 1971 milestone film, “The Last Picture Show.”

Bridges wasn’t alone. Also returning for “Texasville” were Cybill Shepherd, Cloris Leachman, Eileen Brennan, Timothy Bottoms, Randy Quaid and director-writer Peter Bogdanovich. For many of them, “The Last Picture Show” marked the beginning of their film careers.

Making “Texasville,” Bridges said, “was like constantly being hit over the head by deja vu. Every day I’d grab Peter and place him in some corner on the street where we were shooting and I’d say, ‘Now 20 years ago what did you say to me as I was standing right here?’ ”

“Texasville,” which opens Friday, portrays the oil economy’s change from boom to bust.

“It was a tough shoot; we were working six days a week, sometimes 14 days straight, long hours,” Bridges recalled. “But it was a lot of fun, great cast, great crew. We kind of picked up the ball where we left off.”

Bridges remembers sitting around a table in the Archer City hotel 20 years ago with other cast members. All agreed that they were involved in something special.

“It was the show that really put me on the map,” said the actor, who won the first of his three Oscar nominations (others: “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot,” “Starman”).

Bridges had made two previous films, but mostly he had been known as Lloyd Bridges’ kid. He and his brother, Beau, and their sister, Cindy, grew up with a famous father, but his parents, now married 52 years, kept them out of the movie whirl.

With the father often away on film locations, the job of disciplining the boys fell to their mother, Bridges recalled. “I remember when she decided too late that she would spank us. She decided to do that when I was about 14 years old, and it always ended up with me chasing her around the house.”

Lloyd Bridges tried to compensate for his absences by including the boys in his work: “Whenever there was a role for a small kid in ‘Sea Hunt,’ he would ask me if I wanted to be in it. That was great. I worked with him a lot when I was a kid.

“I really consider him my teacher; he taught me all the basics about acting. I remember sitting down with him and going over all the lines. He’d tell me to make it real, make it appear to be happening for the first time, listen to the other actor.”

His philosophy about picking film roles:

“I like to mix them up. For my own enjoyment, it keeps the boredom level down. Also I think the audience, subconsciously or consciously, carry you with them in the baggage from the films you have done. I try to do different roles so you never know what this guy is going to do. Is he going to kill somebody or be a nice guy? You don’t know.”