Jeff Bridges Says COVID, Cancer 'Heightened the Experience of Dancing with My Mortality' (Exclusive)

The actor was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2020 and has since battled two cases of COVID-19

Jeff Bridges is speaking candidly about how dealing with various illnesses as an immunocompromised individual changed his outlook on life.

In an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE, the Oscar-winning actor, 73, says that battling cancer and two bouts of COVID-19 in recent years "sort of heightened the experience of dancing with my mortality."

Noting how "the people closest to me" — which includes family members such as his wife, Susan Geston, and their three daughters — "were so supportive about the cancer and COVID," Bridges says, "It just brought to my attention how much they loved me, and how much I loved them."

"It just heightened the experience of most of my philosophies in life, and it all gets down to that corny 'L' word — love," he continues. "That seems to be what's running my ship, and going through these tough times, it kind of exacerbated all of that philosophy of love."

"When you get close to losing something like that, your gratitude and your thankfulness for what you have, the people that you love, and the love that you feel for your loved ones, grows," adds Bridges. "It just magnifies it, and that was something positive that came out of it."

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Back in October 2020, Bridges revealed that he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, in a Twitter post. Soon after, he began chemotherapy by infusion, followed by oral chemo.

In January 2021, the star contracted COVID-19 before he was able to get vaccinated. The illness hit him hard, given that his chemo treatment had weakened his immune system.

"I had no defenses. That's what chemo does — it strips you of all your immune system. I had nothing to fight it," Bridges previously told PEOPLE last May. "COVID made my cancer look like nothing."

After spending almost five months in the hospital, where he told PEOPLE he was "pretty close to dying," Bridges recovered from COVID and his cancer is now in remission.

RELATED VIDEO: Jeff Bridges Says He Was 'Pretty Close to Dying' from COVID While in Chemo for Cancer

The Big Lebowski star, however, contracted another case of COVID-19 more recently while he was traveling across the globe in promotion of his FX series, The Old Man.

Though he admits his second round with the illness "wasn't a severe case," Bridges tells PEOPLE it played a large role in his involvement with AstraZeneca's Up the Antibodies campaign, which helps immunocompromised people learn how they can keep themselves safe as COVID-19 continues.

Highlighting how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) expired the Federal Public Health Emergency (PHE) for COVID-19 on April 10, and declared the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bridges says, "It's great news, except for us folks who are immunocompromised. It's not over, because we're more sensitive to the virus."

Later this month, Bridges will post a call to action on his Instagram page, where he will use #MyCOVIDReality to detail his experiences with COVID as an immunocompromised individual, while informing others how they can help out too.

"We're all in this together," Bridges says. "That's a phrase that pops into my mind often, and if there's anything positive coming out of this COVID business, it's that we are all in this together. We are one community on this planet. We're all vulnerable to these kinds of viruses."

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Read the original article on People.