Jeff Bridges (‘The Old Man’): Oscar winner could finally add an Emmy to his awards collection
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Jeff Bridges came roaring back to our screens this year with perhaps his finest-ever TV performance in the FX drama “The Old Man.”
The series follows Bridges as retired CIA agent Dan Chase, who is forced to go on the run and into hiding after killing an intruder who broke into his home. He is hunted down by John Lithgow‘s Harold Harper, the FBI’s Assistant Director for Counterintelligence. Bridges and Lithgow, two veterans of both the small and big screens, excel here in performances that prove why they deserve their status as two greats of acting.
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It is no surprise that Bridges is commanding in his role as Dan Chase. He’s an actor who always demands your attention on-screen and here is no different, whether muttering gruff dialogue or tussling as an aging man with a younger enemy. Bridges imbues Dan with weight, gravitas, a world-weary intelligence, and, impressively, a sense of physical danger despite his age. What makes this performance all the more impressive is the fact that Bridges was undergoing his own off-screen battles with cancer and COVID. It’s an admirable feat, this, and Bridges has earned the respect of everyone and anyone who has watched “The Old Man,” including critics.
Rebecca Nicholson (The Guardian) explained: “There’s Bridges, magnetic in every scene, whether he is rolling around on the floor with a much younger and fitter enemy, or driving away from conflict, making a split-second decision that might have catastrophic consequences. Dan Chase is slow and wheezy, but Bridges imbues him with just the right amount of buried menace and rage to indicate that even now, you wouldn’t want to cross him.”
Michael Starr (The New York Post) observed: “Bridges, as mentioned, is solid in the lead role; he emanates a tangible world-weariness combined with the killer instinct that’s such a big part of his history while simultaneously (and unashamedly) adjusting to the realities of his ongoing health issues (often with dark humor), colored by his aforementioned real-life maladies.”
And Entertainment Weekly wrote: “‘Senior citizen Jason Bourne’ is a great concept for a show, and Jeff Bridges — still a commanding, alluring presence at 72 — is the perfect guy to star as Dan Chase, the former CIA operative-turned-fugitive at the center of ‘The Old Man.’ Bridges is completely believable as a lumbering hulk of deadly force, and yet he also gives excellent ‘peering at you over his readers’ grandpa charm.”
This overwhelming positive reception has led to Bridges being included in our predicted lineup of nominees for Best Drama Actor at this year’s Emmys alongside Brian Cox (“Succession”), Pedro Pascal (“The Last of Us”), Kieran Culkin (“Succession”), Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”), and Jeremy Strong (“Succession”). Bridges is just ahead of fellow competitors Diego Luna (“Andor”), Paddy Considine (“House of the Dragon”), and Harrison Ford (“1923). But there are multiple reasons to stick with Bridges here and predict him to earn this nomination.
Firstly, Bridges is a veteran. Emmy voters love nominating veterans, particularly in this category. Cox was nominated in 2020 and 2022 for “Succession,” Ed Harris was nominated in 2018 for “Westworld,” and Anthony Hopkins was nominated in 2017 for “Westworld.” Bridges would fit right alongside these names in this trend. Plus, he is an A-list, Oscar-winning star. Voters love those, too — again, specifically in this category.
The aforementioned Hopkins, who won the Best Actor osar in 1992 for “The Silence of the Lambs” (he later won a second Best Actor award in 2021 for “The Father”) was nominated in 2017. And Kevin Spacey was nominated in this category in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 for “House of Cards” after winning Best Supporting Actor in 1996 for “The Usual Suspects” and Best Actor in 2000 for “American Beauty.” Emmy voters have also nominated a whole bunch of Oscar nominees in this category, including Steve Carell (in 2020 for “The Morning Show”), Harris, and Woody Harrelson (in 2014 for “True Detective”). Again, Bridges would fit this trend, too.
Bridges won that Oscar in 2010 for Best Actor for “Crazy Heart,” while he has also been nominated for a further seven Academy Awards. He’s a three-time BAFTA nominee, a four-time Critics Choice Awards nominee with one win, and the recipient of the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award from the same organization. He’s also been nominated for six Golden Globes (with one win) and was given the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2019. He’s been nominated for six SAG awards with one win and is also an Emmy nominee. This is a respected thespian who is loved by multiple major awards bodies. He has proven awards backing across his entire career.
However, it is curious that he has only received one Emmy nomination. That came in 2010 for Best TV Movie/Limited Series Actor for “A Dog Year” (he lost to Al Pacino for “You Don’t Know Jack”). The fact that this great, seven-time Oscar-nominated actor has only ever earned that sole Emmy bid feels like a massive oversight. Bridges is well overdue some proper love from Emmy voters — a man of his stature deserves more than one measly nomination. Voters will want to reward Bridges properly and this is their chance to do so. Plus, Bridges went through an incredibly tough time while filming this series. He battled cancer and COVID and still ensured he did his job to the best of his ability. That will have earned him a tremendous amount of respect from his peers.
In fact, it already has. Bridges has already received some awards attention for his performance in “The Old Man.” He was nominated for Best Drama Actor at the Golden Globes (losing to Kevin Costner for “Yellowstone”), picked up the same bid at this year’s Critics Choice Awards (losing to Odenkirk for “Better Call Saul”), and was nominated for Best Drama Actor at this year’s SAG Awards, too (losing to Jason Bateman for “Ozark”). That’s three major awards bodies who all nominated him for his work on this show. It would, frankly, be a shock if those three precursors didn’t lead to an Emmy nomination. He has the support, he has the status, and he has the talent. Bridges should be a no-brainer.
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