Jeff Bridges will have appeared in all three Tron movies when Tron: Ares finally releases, and, while the actor loved the filmmaking process on each film, he despises his de-aged character from Tron: Legacy. Bridges technically played two roles in the 2010 legacy sequel (doing legacy sequels before they were cool), appearing as his original character, Kevin Flynn, and his corrupted digital counterpart, Clu. To set the two apart, Clu was digitally de-aged to represent Bridges during his appearance in the first movie. In 2010, digital de-aging was in its infancy, and the results aren’t flattering to the actor.
Speaking to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Jeff Bridges recalled working on Tron: Legacy, and recounted the process of being digitally de-aged. In the modern age of A.I., where deceased actors are being brought back to life using similar technology, Bridges was asked if it scared him, knowing there were 3D scans of himself out there. The actor replied as coolly and calmly as you’d expect The Big Lebowski star to react to such a notion, and said:
“It’s the new thing. When I have a gig, it will be leasing my image. I can say, ‘Yeah you can do that.'”
While Jeff Bridges now has a positive opinion on the process of being digitally scanned, he remembered the results in Tron: Legacy, and joked about the de-aged version of his character, likening him to a popular political commentator. Bridges said:
“I got scanned, and I’m in the computer for when I did Tron
[
Legacy]. And I wasn’t particularly fond of that recreation of myself. I thought I looked like Bill Maher than myself.”
Jeff Bridges Remembers Shooting the Original Tron
Tron is one of the most iconic and influential sci-fi movies of the 1980s. Filled with vibrant colors, representing Kevin Flynn’s computer program, the movie was actually shot in black and white, and the color was added in during post-production by hand. During the conversation, Jeff Bridges looked back on the original Tron, and remembered how bizarre the movie felt to shoot. The actor said:
“Oh, it was so bizarre. In a way, things that are that off the wall, they hadn’t been done, and it’s kind of safer in a way, because there’s nothing to compare it to. It’s just there. We shot in 70mm black and white. Hand tinted by some ladies in Korea. We had black duvetyne with white adhesive tape. Everybody was encouraged to wear colorful clothes, because it was all black. And our suits were all black. But you’d go outside after a day’s work and just ‘Boom!’ color would just rush into you. Wonderful.”
Jeff Bridges is set to return to round out the Tron trilogy in the upcoming Tron: Ares, directed by Joachim Rønning. Alongside Goldblum, the movie also stars Evan Peters, Gillian Anderson, Lared Leto, Greta Lee, Cameron Monaghan, and Jodie Turner-Smith.
Tron: Ares
is set to hit theaters on October 10, 2025.