'Tron Legacy' Star Jeff Bridges On Shooting In 3-D, Returning To Kevin Flynn And More

Last June, MTV News traveled up to Vancouver to visit the set of "Tron Legacy," Disney's 3-D stand-alone sequel to the 1982 sci-fi classic. Along with a select group of journalists, we toured the set, talked to cast and crew and immersed ourselves in all things "Tron."

A studio-imposed embargo has now lifted and we can bring you the first of our interviews. Here's some of what Jeff Bridges — the star of both the original film and the new one in the role of Kevin Flynn — had to say.

Question: How has Flynn changed?

Jeff Bridges: It’s certainly a different deal. We made "Tron," there was no Internet, man. No cell phones. No laptops or any of that stuff. So it's a completely different world that we're showing up in here and the look of the film, it certainly benefits from that.

Question: What's it like coming back to this character?

Bridges: It seems like we had a long weekend basically because [Steven] Lisberger, who directed the first one is very involved in this one, which is great — having the source of the material still engaged. I think it gave us all a lot of pressures because he’s such a wild cat but it's also kind of grounded in that first movie that was so unique and everything. I heard that years before it came out I heard, "Oh, they're gonna do a "Tron 2" and I couldn’t believe. I said, "You’re kidding me?" Nothing happened and finally this came about and I was so pleased and we did kind of a, "Hey, this is not that strange."

Question: Have you seen the 3-D footage?

Bridges: It’s just great. It’s better, more sophisticated, more refined. Joe [Kosinski], our director was an architect. That's where he's coming from. It's interesting — different filmmakers, where they come from and what they bring to the film and he's an architect, so the film has a very heightened design feel to it.

Question: What was your reason for wanting to come back?

Bridges: Well I got a pitch from Joe, who by the way, this is his first film. Can you imagine? I don’t know if it’s the most expensive ever made but it's right up there. To have a first time guy. Got to give Disney credit for taking that risk. They were smart because he’s such a calm, can do guy. He’s gonna pull this off. He made this wonderful pitch on the story, where it was going, and that was intriguing to me, and he showed me his commercial reel. He's out of commercials, and I saw some of the technology that he had available to him that he could use. And then it was basically the same reason that I did the first one. The first one was cutting edge technology at that time and this one certainly is for this time. And it's a whole different way of making movies I hadn't experienced. A little bit in "Iron Man," but nothing like this.

Question: Tell me about [Steven] Lisberger.

Bridges: Well, it is a little bit strange. I’m excited because I think he's gonna be in it somewhere in the movie. It will be fun to play with him. Just him being involved in it was a big plus for me. I think you asked what made me gave involved again. Another chance to work with Steve and do that. And Bruce too. Bruce is in it. Boxleitner.

Question: Do the younger cast members come to you for guidance?

Bridges: How do I throw this disc? No, I think we just used Frisbees in the old one. We were more sophisticated. It was pretty funky back then.

Question: Compare the directors.

Bridges: It's kind of a shame in a way, but the more seasoned directors a lot of times have more difficult getting a job than first time guys. New kid on the block kind of thing. I’ve had great luck with first time directors. I love working with them because it’s like you know, Orson Welles directing "Citizen Kane." He doesn’t know what he can’t do. He’s just so open, you know. And Steven was like that. I remember I couldn’t believe it, we showed up the first day at work and around the walls of the studio — this is the first "Tron" — are video games that you have to put quarters in just all over. I said "God, Steve you don’t think this is gonna raise a little hell with the work?" He said, "I don’t know. I figured you might want to prepare before you go on the grid." I said okay. So actually both things did happen. It did hold up the work every once in a while, but it was great fun. I remember I got locked into this game, Battlezone. You familiar with that game? The tanks. God, hours, and they would come and try to yank me away. I’d say I’m preparing, I’m preparing.

Question: Do you get the feedback immediately?

Bridges: Well, this is shot in 3-D. The first movie I’ve done in 3-D. Kind of interesting and the video playback is in 3-D, so you can see what that's like, but all of the effects, they're not. They have a thing called privies, which is a preview but in a very low res. So the whole movie is basically privies already, and that helps a lot when you’re doing things where you can't see what's actually gonna be in a movie that the director can actually talk you through.

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