>> on behalf of our members worldwide i'd like to welcome our speakers and attendees which include guests of our speaker as well as working journalists. i'd like to welcome our c-span and public radio audiences. as the speech concludes i'll allow as many questions as time permits. i'd like to introduce our head table guests. on your right eleanor cliff, columnist for "newsweek" magazine. rick dunnham, the president of the freedell. donald linewand, the immediate pass president of the press club. billy shore, founder and executive director of share our strength and the guest ofs speaker. andrew schneider, associate chair for kiplinger and speaker's committee chair. skipping over our speaker for a moment, melissa charboneau, clark bunting, president of the discovery channel. governor martin o'malley of maryland, a guest of the speaker. [applause] >> robert yune, cnn political research director. justin duckham from talk radio and new member of the national press club. paul mckella, executive producer of f.b.r. films. thank you. our audience may recognize today's guests as he is affectionately known in certain circles. they call him the dude. the moniker is coined to actor jeff bridges since he played the unemployed slacker in the cult film "the big lebowski." he is given another title other than dude, named oscar winner. at the academy awards, bridges received the best actor award for the portrayal of country singer bad blake in th film "crazy heart." today he's at the press club in his latest role as the spokesman for share our strengths, no kid hungry campaign. bridges, along with share our strength's founder billy shore, is launching a nationwide initiative to stamp out childhood hunger in the u.s. by 2015, a goal president barack obama embraced during his presidential campaign. this week bridges met with two top advisors of president obama, agriculture secretary tom vilsack and education secretary billy duncan to spotlight what he calls a hidden epidemic, the nearly 17 million american children every day who don't have regular access to food. bridges in 1983 founded the end hunger network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to feeding children worldwide and juggled this with his acting career. the son of the late film and tv star lloyd bridges appeared in films including "seabiscuit" the fabulous baker boys, american heart and "fearlosis." he received four oscar nominations in "the last picture show, thunder bolt, and the contender where he played the president of the united states. he also played a journalist starring in "jagged edge" he played a newspaper publisher on trial for murder and the author of these remarks did not note his legendary turn in masculine anonymous with bob dylan. please tell me what that film meant when this is over. he is also a musician and played guitar and sang on the "crazy heart" soundtrack. welcome to the press club, the oscar-winning actor, the dude himself, mr. jeff bridges. >> thank you. thank you all so much. vocs wagon. i say that -- volkswagen. melissa challenged me and promised is she'd buy me a cup of coffee if i worked it in my speech. i thought i'd get that out of the way. well, i want to say thank you, first of all, to all the people here in this room and who aren't in this room that have made the no kid hungry campaign a reality. i want to thank conagra foods foundation, the food network, our friends in the culinary industry, bob lanier of the nba and also all the nba players involved, and the teachers and i especially want to acknowledge governor martin o'malley from maryland. the governor is the first to make his state a no kid hungry state, and he's been an inspiration to all of us and hopefully all the rest of the governors. and i'd also like to acknowledge tony hall who is a personal hunger hero of mine. thank you. good p to see you. it's an honor to be here today. and i'm here to kick off the no kid hungry campaign. i'm the national spokesperson. and i thought i would begin by letting you know a little bit of my background regarding the hunger issue. back in 1983, i helped found an organization called the end hunger network. and we are all about creating programs and events that make ending hunger a national priority, events like live aid. we were responsible for making all the facts and figures that were announced between the musical acts. we created the end hunger presidential award. these were ceremonies held in the white house honoring hunger heroes. we created primetime to end hunger, and this was the first time that all three major television networks joined together and dealt with the hunger issue in all of their primetime television shows. we created the u.s. mayor -- end hunger mayor awards, and that was focusing attention on positive action in various communities. and something i'm particularly proud of is we produced a movie called "hidden in america" that was all about what it's like living in our country and being a member of the working poor and not being able to afford putting food on your table and a roof over you and your kids' heads and health issues and so forth. one of the reasons i'm particularly proud of this is that my brother, bo, my big brother, he starred in it and he was nominated for a screen actors guild award and the film also was nominated for three emmys. we created a fast forward to end hunger, working with the video retailers, $3 million for local food banks. most recently, we've gotten into partnership with a wonderful organization that's been dealing with ending hunger for about as long as the end hunger network has and that's the share our strength, a wonderful organization. they've come up with a campaign to end child hunger in our country by 2015. and i'm just so thrilled to be the national spokesperson for this campaign. according to the united states department of agriculture, currently we with 17 million of our children living in food insecure homes. these are households where they're not certain if they're going to be able to get enough nutritious food to lead a healthy, active life. one in four, 17 million. we currently have 44 million who live in poverty, 15.5 million of those are kids. poverty is a very complex issue. but feeding a child isn't. and there's some good news in all of these dire statistics. the good news is that there are programs in place that we know work. and these are federally funded programs like the snap program, formerly the food stamps, the w.i.c. program and the school meal programs, breakfast, after school, and summer programs. so the problem is not having the right programs in place, the problem is that they're not reaching enough kids. for example, there are 19 million kids who are eligible for school breakfast, free or reduced price breakfast. only half of those kids actually get those breakfasts. it's a particularly difficult time for kids who are challenged with hunger because they're looking towards the school to be their main source of nutrition, only 15% of the kids who are eligible for that program are participating in it. we've got to turn that around. that's the key to ending hunger in our country, making sure that families know how to access these programs, making sure that our kids have enough food to thrive. our kids, they don't have a direct political representation. no child really chooses to be hungry and no one gains when a child is hungry. when a child doesn't get enough nutritious food, they fall behind physically, academically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally. and of course they suffer, but right along with them, their families suffer, their community suffers and their country suffers. adults who experience hunger in their childhood, they don't have the same educational and technical skills, so they create a work force that isn't strong. so ending childhood hunger definitely ends the needless suffering of our children but also contributes significantly to solving many of america's problems, problems like health care, education, work force, competitiveness in the -- let me back up. in movies you would say take two and it would be a fine thing. take two. anyway, what i'm trying to say, is that it's not only about ending this terrible suffering that's going on with our kids, but ending hunger is important for our nation, you know. i just found out that there was a report from the pentagon that only 25% of our citizens between the ages of 19-14 are fit to serve in the military. very patriotic to end childhood hunger, don't you think. with your recent election, we've found out that there's -- you know, many issues that our country is in disagreement about, ending childhood hunger is not one of those. there's a lot of common ground here. everyone wants to have our kids have a healthy start. so no kid hungry, we're not proposing new programs, but we're proposing more effective use of the ones that are already in place. now, these programs that are available, there are barriers to them. blockages that we have to look at, things like transportation, for instance. you know, it might be a case of a child taking the bus to school, it might not get him there in time to take advantage of the meals that are available to him. or, you know, the summer meal programs, he might not have safe transportation to where that particular location that those meals are being held. shame. embarrassment. is a huge factor in all of this. you know, for a kid to be pointed out, that's johnny, hen can't -- he's a poor kid, he can't afford food, he's got to eat this free meal the school provides. and then the parental side of that, being a parent and being ashamed and feeling oh, i can't provide for my child, it freezes your action, you know. thinking oh, i might not be eligible because i'm working or the red tape -- there's too much red tape to figure out what to do here. so these are things we to look at and these are the reasons that a child with hunger exists in our country. so this attention that needs to be paid to these programs, where are we going to find that attention, who's going to give that attention, well, we can do that. come on. we're the guys. this is our country. we're the ones who are going to do it. [applause] >> i am asked, why are you doing what you're doing, why are you doing this hunger, why are you interested in that? it seems like an odd question, and seems like the most natural thing in the world for me, really. i'm so fortunate. i was born very lucky. my folks, talking about my dad, my mom. what wonderful parents i had. and they were fortunate enough to be able to provide for their kids, as i am lucky to provide for my three daughters. i can imagine, you know, what it must be like, the feeling of failure and depression that just, you know, freezes you, not being able to afford to put food in front of your kids to eat. you know, my profession involves getting in other people's shoes and seeing what that experience is like and trying to imagine what it must be like, but that to imagine what it must be like, not being able to provide for your kids, that's available to all of us, something we all can look inside, can feel that. and, you know, another reason i'm doing what i'm doing is that i have hunger, a different kind of hunger. it's the hunger to contribute, you know, to create the kind of world that i want to live in and i want my children to be raised in and bring up their kids and their grandkids. and this hunger to participate. you know, we're all in this together. and i find when i do participate, i feel connected and that connection feels really good and it feeds this hungry feeling i have. so that's kind of what -- some of the reasons why i'm here. i'd like to encourage all of you and anyone who's out there listening to our talk here today, to go to nokidhungry.org and find out what you personally can do to end hunger in our country and take the no kid hungry pledge. i believe that no kid should go hungry in america. and by taking this pledge, i'm adding my voice to the national movement of people committed to ending childhood hunger in our country. and something else i'd like to encourage congress to do, there's a very important bill in the next couple of weeks coming up, the child nutrition bill. and this is so important that we pass this bill to end childhood hunger in our country. and i want to invite the viewers out there in tv land to call their congressman and encourage them to pass this bill. it's most important. [applause] >> before we get into the question thing, a quote that i came across i wanted to share with you guys from mohammed unas, the founder of the bank and a nobel prizewinner. this is what he had to say, a society that does not pay attention to its children is bound to be a society on a rapid downslide if a nation has a dream, it can only make it come true through its children. thank you guys. [applause] >> thank you so much for your time today. >> thank you so much for your time today. we have many questions from the audience, and please be able to keep them coming and as well as you can send them through the internet and get them at the audience from press.org. the first question is, do you recall the f+ tst time the issue of childhood hunger caught your attention or what moved you to get involved? >> back in the early 1980's, i was made aware of the enormity of the problem of world hunger and the fact that, number one, we had enough food to end world hunger, we had enough money and knew how to end it, many countries had ended it, we knew the solution, the missing ingredient was creating the political will, and of course governments are made up of individuals, so i looked inside myself and said, what am i willing to do to create that political will, not just, you know, make a quick contribution to some organization that kind of scratches my guilt itch, but something that, you know, kind of works with my life, something that i do in a natural sort of way and that i can continue to do until the problem is ended, and so i said, well, i'm an entertainer, i'm involved in the media, i do things like we're doing right here, right now. i said, well, yeah, maybe that could help. yeah. so i created, along with jerry michot, who is here today, the end hunger network and that's what we did, worked towards ending hunger through doing the stuff we're doing right now, putting out the mes. and then about maybe 20 years ago we shifted our focus from world hunger to hunger here in our country because some of the safety nets i mentioned, food stamps and the w.i.c. program and the school meal programs, theno weren't being fully fuppeded and there were holes in these safety nets and we thought it was important we shift our focus to hunger here in america and that's what we'll do now. >> several questions along the lines of this one. what do you suggest the average american do to help reach the abo15 goal? >> weled, i would advise kind o the path that i took. i think iames a good one to loo into your life and figure out what you might do, you know. if you're a teacher, for instance, the no kid hungry campaign is something that ãfualls rige'r in line with wha you can do. if your students don't have enough calories to make those brain cells fire, they're not going to be able to learn. so, you know, feeding kids is also an education, an educational issue, so you just kind of look inside whatever you can do, there's something yomigcan dige i love the title of the organization that we're in cahoots with, share our strength. we all have strengths. weled, share that. >> swif shing from the average american, what can president o? ending child hunger? >> well, he's done a wonderful thing already. he's declared that we can end childhood hunger by 2015. that is eno awous, like kennewo saying we're going to put a man on the moon in 10 years and all en that creates a whole new context for the problem. omeow for guys that were ao about the right kind of fuel or the shape of the rocket, now, elpation, come on. bring your disagreement with me so we can figure out how to do this together. i think what president obama deas done is a wonderful thing. and now it's up to us to support that. >>hilarlier you mentioned the pentagon study about the lack of physical fitness. in that stuwon a lot of the concern wasn't actually childhood hunger but childhood obesity. there's a twin hunger of obesity in the u.s. hoeydo you square the context between those two problems occurring simultaneously, is there a problem with not what children eat but what they eat? >> this particular school, the l.c. stokes school, they took that money and they hired a chef who goes out and shops and it turns out that it costs less for her to shop that way than use this food that the government has some kind of connection with that you get these fast food stuff. so at this school she encourages the kids to build a beautiful garden, vegetable garden and they use that garden for the salad bar, you know. and we're talking about obesity. it occurred to me, you know, if you're a kid and you're having pizza pockets or whatever, a ton of trashy food, your palate is going to dig that stuff. that's the kind of food you're going to get in the habit of eating and when you become an adult, you're going to say i want a pizza pocket. where if you're a kid and eating salad, you develop a taste for that stuff. so obesity and hunger are very closely related. and that's my thoughts on that. >> record budget deficits and concerns about cutting costs in government tends to cause programs to try to do more with less and sometimes that can be cheaper ingredients, cheaper food. when you're talking about the pizza pockets which tends to be less expensive than a lot of other issues, it would seem the trend from the overall governmental perspective would be more pizza pockets and fewer salads, rather than the other way around. so how from a policy standpoint do you convince people when they say deficits and they see revenues in that they can actually support this and that this should be a government priority? >> well, for one thing it doesn't cost any more, you know. this school, with that same money the government is providing, they're buying more nutritious food for their students. for a cheaper price. because they -- you know, they think about it, they care. they shop specifically for what their kids are needing. and then when you think about it, you've got to think long term on this deal. it's not only a hunger issue, it's an educational issue. it's an economic issue but it's also, you know, a military issue. like we're talking here, defense. it weakens us in so many different areas that we have to address it, not only for the suffering kids but also for our nation's security. >> this is a question from the internet. where are this country's priorities when funds for food stamps are cut to hire back laid off teachers, why must a children's educational and nutrition needs have to compete for government funds? >> that's a good question. you know, i'm going to shoot that over to my colleague here, billy. >> sure. >> let me introduce billy shore, the founder of share our strength. >> thank you. first i'll take advantage of the opportunity to thank jeff personally for your incredible commitment and leadership. this has meant the world to us and you're making a huge impact. and we just had the opportunity with jeff to meet with the secretary of agriculture, tom vilsack, and one of the things we were talking about is although some cuts had been made in programs for kids to fund teachers, there's been cuts made in the snap program's future benefits to fund the child nutrition bill, both secretary vilsack, president obama, most of the congressional leadership have committed if we pass this child nutrition bill that the senate has passed, if that becomes law, they will work to make sure these other offsetting costs, which would detract from future food stamps and snack benefits and other educational programs those would be restored. i think to jeff's point we've tried to create a program here with no kid hungry is that does not necessarily take from one program to give to another but says so many kids are eligible for these programs that aren't participating, jeff has used the figure and i think accurately over the last day or so, there's a billion dollars, $1 billion available to state governments to get kids -- to get kids more enrolled no these programs, something mark o'malley has made available in maryland and something other states are looking to do. so this doesn't have to be playing one side off of the other. >> and actually while we're bringing the band up onstage, we have a question that was actually addressed to governor o'malley, if governor o'malley can please come on down. we have a question for you, governor. leader of the first state to embrace this. how are you going to make this campaign work in maryland for ending childhood hunger by 2015? >> sure. we first of all partnered with share our strength but the truth of the matter is because of the existing programs out there, this is much more a matter of organizing, political organizing, and addressing those -- what do you call them, gaps, areas of underachievement where you know the kids are most vulnerable, you know where the families are most hungry and also happens to be the places where you have the greatest opportunity to be able to do the greatest amount of good, if you'd only focus your effort. so increasing enrollment -- and you can't do this sort of thing where you wake up in 2015 and say to yourself, golly, this is the year we wanted to eradicate hunger. you know, you have to do it not even annually. the government is great at doing things annually and it usually only measures the inputs. you have to measure the outputs in terms of additional kids enrolled in these programs every two weeks. and if you do that, it might be a few hundred, couple hundred over a couple weeks but over a period of time you look back over your shoulder in a complete year and see you're making the graphs move in the right direction and over the period of five years, you'll say wow, you know what, we signed up five times as many kids for school breakfast as were signed up three years ago. we signed up three times as many kids for the summer nutrition program. but it's something that people work against deadlines and like miserable results, everybody has that hunger to give back and be involved. if you measure it openly and transparently and do it against the deadlines that people are accustomed to working against in their own lives and businesses, you can make a lot of progress. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, billy shore and governor o'malley. switching over to a different topic, we have several questions about your film career and transitioning into that, there are many celebrities with many causes, promoting many worthy causes for many reasons and there's a certain amount of attention people can give to different issues. how do you try to set yourself apart from other celebrities with your cause and do you fear people get celebrity fatigue as yet another hollywood actor tells them what good they should do for the world? >> i don't know about that. i'm just a guy out there trying to make the world, like the man says, i have a dream. me, too. i'm just out there trying to express that dream. and i got the feeling, like the other guy said, i'm not the only one, you know. i think we all can use our imagination and imagine how it could be better. and i don't know about this. you know, i don't know about that, the thing that celebrities aren't supposed to say stuff or something. i'm not sure. like we get in a conversation, i don't have a set sound bite for that one. i don't know. >> you talk during your speech about getting into the shoes of your characters. what was the character's shoes that was most difficult for you to put on? p >> well, two come to mind. one was -- anybody see "the vanishing?" i played a terrible person. i buried people alive. so that was kind of challenging . but, you know, the opposite of that was "crazy heart" was extremely difficult because music is so dear to me, and i was getting a chance to work with my dear friend t-bone and steven prutin and john goodwin. man, i was anxious. i did not want to drop that ball. this was going to be such a great opportunity. that kind of created a different kind of difficulty for me. >> what kind of research did you do for "crazy heart? " were you on the road, what kind of preparation were you doing to get ready for that role? >> the boozing -- we had something called sense memory that i used. you know, i tried that thing, it's a drunk scene, i think i get a little drunk. that didn't work. i tried that. that doesn't work because you got the rest of the day. but no, what we did when i first got the script, i turned it down because there was no music attached to it, no songs. i said this movie doesn't have good music, you know, it's not going to be any good. then when i found out my dear friend t-bone burnett was going to be in charge of the music i said ok, ok, this is in good hand. but we didn't have any songs. we had to come up with the songs. so a lot of the preparation for that as far as, you know, being a musician and so forth was, you know, actually writing those songs and working with a wonderful band t bone put together and learning those songs and getting the costume on and getting the guitar and being the guy as soon as i could. >> of course you've been known as a prolific actor in your career in hollywood and always seems to be other projects coming up. in one of these is a remake of a famous film. how does one prepare to be in a remake of a film such as "true grit" so many people know and remember and identify with so many iconic performances? >> well, when i got the call from the cohen brothers to do "true grit" and the cohen brothers, they're masters, lebowski. let's hear it for the brothers. so yeah, you want to go -- they're throwing a party, you want to go. but i said, why you guys doing "true grit"?" i don't understand that. they said, have you read the book? i said no. and they said we're not really referencing the film, we're referencing the charles portis book. and i read the book and i said oh, now i see why. the book is very coenesque and it's a wonderful book. so that's -- >> if there were any film that could be remade, which remake would you want to act in and what role would you play? >> oh, that's interesting. all right. what pops into my mind is "sea hunt." because -- and the role i would play would probably be producer. i don't think i would step into the particular flippers but sea hunt, my father did such a remarkable job in that. scientists, oceanographers come up and say your dad is the reason i'm doing this. and i just recently got involved with a wonderful organization call the pollution coalition that is trying to get rid of single use plastics, these plastic bottles, you know, they say they're biodegradable but what really happens is they break down to very small little particles that microscopic organisms in the ocean eat those and the birds eat those and it just pollutes our whole planet. i learned about these jires that the ocean -- on the planet we have five jires, like big whirlpools and they're just packed with plastic. i don't have the facts in my mind right now, but it's tons and tons, billions, i want to say, probably true, billions or millions, i get that confused sometimes, but i thought this is a job for mike nelson, you know. our oceans are a big concern for me, and i work on saving our oceans as well. so that's something that popped into my mind. >> how about roles you'd like to play in films that you'd participate in in the nonfamily category? >> ok. how long do i have to think about that because nothing is popping in my mind. you know, i'm not one of those guys who says i've got to play you know, lincoln or something like that. i sort of take it as it comes. every once in a while, i will produce a film like "hidden in america" when i talk that bo was in, i produced that and was very gratifying and i produced another film called "american heart." and that was maybe the only time i really went out in kind of an aggressive way to see if i could get a movie realized, but i mainly just kind of field the stuff that comes in. there's a lot of wonderful stuff that does come in. i'm fortunate that way. >> a couple people have questions about your marriage. [laughter] >> they're good questions. they both say you have one of hollywood's most admired marriages. any tips on marital happiness you can share? the second question, are susan and your children involved in the fight against hunger? >> good question. what was the first part of it again? >> jeff bridges, tips on a happy marriage. >> well, falling madly in love helps. for me and my wife, it was love at first sight. i reached for my wall ther here -- wallet here because i have a picture. i can tell a long story. i've got a little time. i've got a picture in my pocket -- let me back up and start the tale in a little different way. i'm in montana, we're shooting "rancho deluxe" and i see this gorgeous girl. she's working there at this dude ranch making beds and, you know, serving food and stuff. and she's gorgeous, but she has a broken nose and two black eyes. but i can't take my eyes off of her. i keep looking over the paper, the magazine, how the guy dos and she'd bust me every time. i finally get up the courage to ask her out. and i said, would you like to go out with me? and she says no. and i said really? and she said no. it's a small town, maybe i'll see you around. and it turns out that her prophesy came true. and we cut, 15 years later, we're married with a couple of kids. and i'm at my desk there going through the mail and i open a letter from the makeup man on that particular show, and he says, i was going through my file also and came across a faff of you asking a local -- a photograph of you asking a local girl out. would you like that? i thought you might like that, it's a picture, two photographs, a two-shot and a single shot of my wife. what are the odds of that, capturing a photograph of the first words you ever uttered to your wife, asking her would you go out and her saying no. i keep it. and maybe that's one secret. i had that in my pocket. whenever i think about, was she the right girl or whatever, i say hey, come on, who are you fooling? look what you've got in your pocket. but also, i would say, you know, it's like that same, the punch line of the joke, how do you get to carnegie hall? practice. that's how, you know, you create a good marriage. you practice. you pay attention. it's the same thing about ending childhood hunger. it's all the same stuff. you pay attention with what's going on and you participate. so my wife and i have a problem when it comes up and if you've been married, we'll be married 33 years now, they come up, you know. [applause] >> and we have this little technique we do sometimes when it gets kind of rough. we just sit opposite each other quite close, look at each other, and one person's task is to express, say what they're feeling and the other person is to receive. listen, don't be thinking oh, now, when she stops talking i'm going to say this. no, just listen, get her side and then when she kind of runs out, now i go. and we go back and forth like that for as long -- until we're exhausted or whatever. and we might not solve the problem in that instance but something has shifted out of that and we keep meeting like that and that seems to be a good technique that helps our marriage. >> what is the greatest challenge you've had to face as a, quote, unquote, famous person? there's the quote. [laughter] >> it's a moving question. i'm trying not to break down because it's right here. give me a second. maybe i can get something else out. >> mental telepathy. you know what i'm talking about. this is the most important thing. right here. the movie, the reality of ending childhood hunger in our country. this is the most significant thing i've ever done. >> so following on that, our next audience question, do you have any film projects planned or documentary projects that may be spotlighting the hunger issue? >> yeah. visiting that school, the l.c. sfokes school, i thought wow, let's make a documentary of this school that we might share with other schools. and also wonderful public schools are doing things like this. so we're really looking towards making a documentary of that school and other schools doing this and try to, you know, share our knowledge. you know, one of the things that the governor here, you know, him stepping up and being the first, now we were just talking, you know, california, that's where i'm from, i'm hoping that governor o'malley will help jerry brown, you know, get with the program, too, and make california a no kid hungry state. >> you're going into the recording studio after you leave washington. what are your plans for a new album? >> well, i get to work with my buddy t bone burnett. tomorrow i leave here, go to texas where t bone will receive the steven brutin award, he's our friend who died shortly after "crazy heart" was completed and was my music hero, and will be playing there a bit. and then we're going to zip back to l.a. for maybe six days we're going to go in the recording studio with this incredible band that he's put together and as far as the songs go, we don't really know what they're going to be. t bone came up the other day and we went through a bunch of my songs and a bunch of john goodwin songs, probably my oldest friend, we go back to the fourth grade and have been painting together and doing creative things together so probably will be some of his songs on there and maybe some greg brown tunes. you guys know who greg brown is? anybody know who greg brown is? yeah, man. check him out. he's good. >> one question that you're much less likely to be asked once you leave washington, d.c., but it's pretty common to ask when you're here, you've been an actor and you've been politically active, would you advise your children or grandchildren to go into movies or politics? >> a couple of things come to mind with that, you asked a question before, were my kids involved with this issue, all of them are and they all participate in different ways. my eldest daughter, isabel, she joined me not too long ago on the first socially engaged buddhist symposium that my friend bernie glassman gave there in massachusetts, and it was a wonderful, wonderful gathering. and isabel is close on my side with me, many projects relating to hunger. >> tomorrow's veterans day, this question from the audience would like to hear about your experience in the coast guard. >> yeah, it was the coast guard reserve. seven years. and i kind of -- i was very, you know, proud to serve my country in that way. my brother was also in the coast guard. and i remember doing -- i'd go out, you know, and tend buoys and this sort of thing for weeks at a time. in a way it kind of reminded me of a movie. i'd be dressed up and play a character, get -- [laughter] >> but i'm an actor. i've been raised as an actor, so most things seem like movies to me. [laughter] >> question, and once again about film remake. if "big lebowski" ever gets remade, what young actor would you like to see in your role? >> gee, i don't know about that. you know, they probably will make it so many years down the line there will be new guys. what actors now around could play lebowski. oh, man. who is that guy -- you know, in the movie with robert downey jr., a long time ago, greek -- galafanokolis? so many great young actors out there now. >> who is the young actor now that isn't paid attention to enough by the audience, who should people are watching more closely? >> gosh, another good question. now would be a good chance to herald somebody and no one is coming to my mind. well, i know one, a perfect one, jordan bridges, my nephew. [laughter] >> absolutely. yeah. jordan. >> also on the family topic, how did your father influence your push to acting? >> good one. >> well, unlike a lot of people , you know, who are actors, he really encouraged all of his kids to go into show biz. he just loved it. my first movie was at six months. i was six months old, he was visiting a friend of his, john cromwell, who was making a movie and he was visiting the set with my mom and they needed a baby in a scene, jane greer was the actress, and so my mother said here, take my baby. and i was a rather happy baby, and in the scene i was supposed to cry, and so my mother said, just pinch him. so they pinched me, and now we cut maybe 30 years later, and i'm making a remake of a movie that jane made, her movie was called "out of the past." my movie was -- what was it? "against all odds." and jane was playing the mother to her original character's part, and i had a scene with her, with jane, and i said, jane, i'm having a little problem here, would you just give me a little -- and that was a side because you were asking about my dad. but anyway, my dad was very enthusiastic and wanted all his kids to go into acting. and i was in love with "early sea hunt." and i remember him sitting me on his bed teaching me all the basics, seem like it's happening for the first time, you know, don't just wait for my mouth to stop and then you say your line. you've got to hear what i'm saying, you know, and then respond or, you know, go out of the room, come back. i want you to do it completely different, things like that. so he taught me all the basics. but the most important lesson, and this is really evident when i got to work with him as an adult in two movies in "tucker" and "blown away." whenever he came on the set, the joy that he was experiencing was like contagious, and it would just go throughout the room. he loved what he was doing so much. and i think that's kind of what i learned. his whole approach. not only to his work, but just in his life. he was a very joyous, joyous guy. >> a few minutes ago you were talking about the most difficult parts of dealing with fame in your own role, how do you encourage other people who are well-known actors, celebities who may not be involved in hunger and other causes and how and why they can get involved to use their own platforms for social good? >> i'm not sure -- >> how do you encourage other people when you're at an event and see other people who may have power or messages to draw upon, what do you tell them to encourage them to get involved the way you're getting involved in hunger or whatever issue they may choose? >> just do it. i mean, it's as simple as that, i want to do this and then when you kind of make that declaration to yourself, things are going to pop up in the universe that are going to support that. >> we're running low on time. but there are a few important matters to take care of before we ask the last question. so if you'd just abide for a moment. >> aim abiding. >> we appreciate that. first of all, we'd like to remind our guests of future speakers, on november 29 we'll have steven shoe, the u.s. department of energy will be here. then december 2 we'll have the chairman and c.e.o. of the coca-cola company who will be speaking here at a national press club luncheon. second important item of business, a moment we always have here at the national press club is the presentation of the coveted national press club mug. [cheers and applause] >> wow. thank you. beautiful. >> governor o'malley doesn't even have one of those. [laughter] >> we'll get that taken care of. [laughter] >> we do have a final question here, dealing with a lot of the words that have been spoken here and you were quoting some famous speakers in your own address and many famous names have come up in this address as well. and people have words to live by, they do have words to abide by. and as many people here i'm sure will abide by your words, but i'm wondering, what are the words the dude abides by? >> connection. joy. those are words popping up in my mind. and participation, you know. enjoy the fact that we're alive right now and can participate in this world and make it a beautiful place. [applause] >> thank you, jeff bridges. [applause] >> i would also like to thank you all for coming here today. i'd like to thank the national press club staff, including its chef, susan d oh, lbert, and the staff for putting together a wonderful meal today. [applause] >> as well as our organizer, melinda cook, the library staff which helps with its research, the eric freedheim library at the press club and all the support they're doing for journalism and you the audience has for supporting the national press club today. for more information about joining the national press club and on how to acquire a copy of today's program, visit our website at www.press.org. thanks again to our speaker, thanks again to our guests. thank you to you and this meeting is adjourned. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp.2010]