Academy Award-winning actor Jeff Bridges, known for playing a tough guy on screen, has opened up about enduring tough health issues after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Bridges, 74, announced he had a form of blood cancer in October 2020, per People.
His health journey started when a trip to the doctor revealed he had a stomach tumor.
“God, looking back on those, I really winced because I didn’t know it at the time, but I had a 9 by 12 inch tumor in my stomach — 9 by 12 inch! — while I’m getting smacked around and punched in the stomach and stuff,” he said of filming the show “The Old Man” prior to his diagnosis. “Didn’t hurt. There was no pain. But then I had this long hiatus [from filming].”
Bridges had chemotherapy during that hiatus and also had COVID-19, which further compromed his health.
This left him wondering if he would survive or he was “even going to do a season 2″ of “The Old Man,” a drama aired on FX.
“While I was sick, I thought I not only wouldn’t go back to ‘The Old Man,’ I thought I might just kick the bucket. It got down to that,” he said.
But then a doctor told him to start fighting.
“I remember one doctor said, ‘You got to fight, Jeff. You’re not fighting,” Bridges said. “And I had no idea what he was talking about. I was in surrender mode, just, ‘Everybody dies. This might be me doing that.’ And out of that surrender, like I say, all of this intense love surfaced, and maybe that’s what caused me to survive, I don’t know. But I didn’t relate to the fighting thing, more of a surrendering.”
His chemotherapy treatments, along with intensive physical therapy, helped Bridges recover.
It also helped when a particular goal was set — for Bridges to be well enough to walk his daughter Hayley down the aisle for her wedding.
“I didn’t know how I could do that, but I said, ‘Well, let’s train. Let’s put that as our goal,’” he said. “So we worked on that. And turned out not only did I walk her down the aisle, but I got to do the wedding dance with her. Then I’d rush to my table and put my oxygen on!”
When filming started for season 2 of “The Old Man,” Bridges’ stomach tumor was the size of a marble.
Now, his oncologist has said the actor has made remarkable progress.
“I don’t know the exact size of it. I get MRIs and all that down the line, but my oncologist says, ‘You’re looking good, man.’ And I get all my blood tests and everything and everything’s going real well,” he said.
He has also learned some valuable lesson along the way.
“All of your strategies for life, how you work — all of those get heightened,” he said. “And love, that’s the word that comes to mind. To see how much I love my family and my friends and the nurses and doctors that were caring for me, and how much love is coming at me. So it just exacerbated love, basically.”
