JEFF BRIDGES: ‘STARMAN’ TO STAR?

Will “Starman” make Jeff Bridges a star?

As critics reviewed the movie--the story of an alien/human love affair (co-starring Karen Allen)--they repeatedly raised that question. As one Newsweek article stated: “It’s very tempting to say this is the movie that will finally make a star of this extraordinarily gifted and underappreciated (actor).”

While many critics have praised the 35-year actor’s choice of film projects, others maintain that his appearances in box-office losers such as “Kiss Me Goodbye,””Tron” and “Against All Odds” have kept him from being catapulted into Stardom’s Big Leagues (populated by De Niro, Hoffman and others).

Bridges chuckled at all the surmising recently over breakfast in a Santa Monica coffee shop. “There are people who ask, ‘Why do you pick such crummy movies?’ ” That’s such a weird question--I get asked it all the time. . .it fascinates me,” he said, shaking his head. “You see, I love aspects of all my movies. I’m really pleased with the characters I’ve done.” He shrugged, smiled and went back to his omelet.

The actor’s nonchalance about such critical musings is not out of character. Affable and easygoing, he wears his career like a comfortable old sweater--it’s always been there and it always will be.

Picking a role, Bridges explained, “is kind of a gut-level thing with me. Either I get a feeling about one of the characters, or it’s something I haven’t done before--something new, another color for my palette.” However, Bridges allowed that playing an alien who clones the body of a dead house painter was one of his most difficult roles.

“Usually you can talk to people in the real world who are like your character,” he explained. “In this case I turned to my children for some of their attitudes, and to some of my stranger-looking friends--you know, guys who seem like they’re from outer space.” He grinned, asking, “You have friends like that, don’t you? The way their eyes look at the world seems more objective, less judgmental.”

For his character’s physicality, Bridges turned to his pals: “I worked with a choreographer friend of mine, Russell Clark, who taught me to really think about every movement--to send a message, then respond. I wanted to give the appearance of riding in a human body rather than use a break-dancing kind of look.”

He praised the on-screen reactions to his character by Allen and Charles Martin Smith (who plays a pro-alien government scientist). “The job of selling that stuff--the looks they throw at some of the ‘wondrous’ stuff I do really helps the audience.”

“Starman,” however, was only one of a variety of topics the actor discussed. He was just preparing to star opposite Glenn Close (“She’s just amazing!”) in “The Jagged Edge,” a murder/mystery/love story to be directed by Richard Marquand. He also discussed the ongoing search for a project that could star the Bridges family--father Lloyd and the two brothers--”one that will transcend the gimmick.”

His wife and two daughters were mentioned frequently throughout the morning, and he discussed at length his involvement with the End Hunger Network, a coalition of organizations dedicated to eradicating world hunger.

Bridges recently organized a screening of “Starman” to benefit the organization with which he has been involved for six years.

“I got involved when I started to find out about the immensity of the problem,” he explained, sincerely earnest about the topic. “Some of the facts that struck me were that the same amount of people who died at Hiroshima die of starvation every three days; and that more people die in five years from hunger and related diseases than all the people in all the wars, revolutions and murders in the last 150 years.

“The most impressive fact is that it doesn’t have to be that way anymore, according to both conservative and liberal experts, who say that there is plenty of food and technology, both of which have already ended hunger in about 40 countries since World War II.

“All that information made me . . . tremendously guilty,” he added. “First, I felt that I had to do some kind of a giant, sacrificial thing that I wasn’t willing to do--I mean, I like eating in nice restaurants, I like flying first-class and living in a nice home.”

Rather than perpetuating his guilt, Bridges and friends, Bud Cort, Dennis Weaver, Valerie Harper, his brother Beau and others formed an entertainment-industry world hunger contingent. Last year they produced a show on the subject hosted by Burt Lancaster, Gregory Peck and Jack Lemmon that raised $176,000 when it aired in Los Angeles. Bridges said plans are under way to air the special in 50 more cities in 1985.

“In a way, this is what ‘Starman’ was all about--when things are worst, we (the human race) are often at our best,” he said. “Sometimes we just get too calloused to really see our own beauty.”

Asked how he would feel if superstardom did indeed spring from “Starman,” Bridges first replied, “I don’t know. I’ll have to cross that bridge when I come to it.”

Later, he returned to the question: “Actually, I’m drawn and repulsed by power (that comes with superstardom) at the same time. In a way, I want to be a very powerful human so that I can affect the world and make it how I want it to be. Then I’m repulsed by that idea, because it involves more responsibility. When you up the ante, you can get hurt a lot more and people can dig at you a lot more. I don’t want that.”

The seriousness of the conversation suddenly took a lighter turn when Bridges was asked how he could possibly top the Christ-like role in “Starman.”

Eyes twinkling, he suggested, “Play the devil?”