The Dude on the 10th-anniversary screening of "The Big Lebowski":
If you want to take a road trip, I highly urge people from Princeton [to come]. This will be a chance to change your life and have a great time. It will change your life potentially if you decide to make that trip. Bottom line: You're going to see a movie that is going to be a lot of fun. It was pointed out to me that this is April 19. What happens at midnight? It becomes 4/20. So come celebrate 4/20 with The Dude!
On his character's appeal:
The Dude is like The Fool. Every king has a fool who is allowed to tell the truth without getting his head lopped off. Mythologically, that's the appeal of the character. He tells it like it is, and in his own way he sees through the bullshit.
On "The Big Lebowski's" longevity:
[The movie] has an appeal on a bunch of levels. A lot of the people who saw it the first time liked it, but they didn't love it. I saw it two or three times when Joel and Ethan showed it. A year or two later, I channel surfed into it by mistake. You come upon a certain scene, like Jesus' entrance and go, "Wow! That's absolutely brilliant cinema!" Jeff Bridges told me he had the same exact experience. The film is almost like a greatest-hits album. Ultimately, why people like this movie is because it makes them feel good. People tell me that they watch it at Christmas time. It's a movie you like to watch with other people. It's not the lowest common denominator; it's the funniest common denominator. What do drugs do? Supposedly they make you feel better, and this movie, for the three generations of a family at Christmas time, is guaranteed to do that.
On the nation's current political and cultural climate:
A movie like "The Big Lebowski" takes on a different meaning depending on the cultural and political environment. We're in a very tenuous time. Every student at Princeton has no idea what their economic future is going to be. They may think they have a game plan. Guess what? You tell me how secure you are getting a job in Wall Street, but to quote Dickens, we are in the best of times and the worst of times. [We are] heading towards the worst of times, but the grand opportunity is that this is going to be the best of times. I have been fortunate to meet a lot of people who have changed the cultural, political or entrepreneurial landscape. I was there when Bill [Gates] and Paul [Allen] and those boys were putting together Microsoft. The point is a bunch of people working together can [make a difference]; rather than dying of terminal boredom in some job where you use one-tenth of your brain power, which is where 90 percent of the students at Princeton are headed if they don't take control of their lives.
On the Coen brothers, "No Country for Old Men" and pneumatic sex toys:
Joel and Ethan Coen are absolutely some of the great satirists of our time, whatever particular genre they are in. "No Country" is not only a film incredibly well done, but one of the underlying thematics is the corrupting desire to get money. [Here, The Dude digressed on the connection between sex toys and the villain's cattle gun in "No Country," much to my amusement] ... on the lighter side I know a lot of women out there like sex toys. I'm sure plenty of them at Princeton have their vibrator. I thought that battery operated was working, but obviously, pneumatic is the way to go. Go pneumatic, women! For that to win the Academy Award ... [it's] a very dark movie, to say the least. But why the Academy got that movie? They saw a portrait of America at its basest level.
On how The Dude's icon status affects his personal life:
It hits on a lot of levels. It's the great gift that Joel and Ethan Cohen gave to me after getting them into the industry. The biggest thing on a personal level this allows me to do is that no matter where I am people come up to me and go "The Dude!" and treat me like a lifelong friend. I live in Hollywood and I'm around a lot celebrities. The kind of odd celebrity that I have is that people are instantly comfortable with The Dude character... men, women and businesspeople. Harrison Ford will come over to me and yell "Dude!" and give me a big hug. I am an instant friend with people, how cool is that?
On whether the Dude of the film resembles Jeff Dowd:
What Joel and Ethan did is imagine what they thought I was like after [my friends and I] were activists in the '60s and '70s before we went back to work. Yes indeed, me and my friends were hanging real heavy in Seattle for a year being what you might call slackers. Everything they're doing is to be able to get some humor or be satirical. The bowling itself: Am I a big bowler? No! You'll notice that The Dude never bowls in the movie. What they do get right in the movie is that the body language is 100 percent me.
On the possibility of a "Big Lebowski" sequel:
Joel and Ethan have so many movies stockpiled already. You can only direct one movie per year, and their writing is well ahead of their ability to make the movie. They may not want to go there again, but by popular demand a lot of people want to do it. If the Coen brothers were Hollywood type of guys, we'd be on "Big Lebowski 4" by now. And believe me, Hollywood has come asking. Would I rather see Joel and Ethan make "Fargo" and "No Country for Old Men" than make a "Big Lebowski 2"? The answer is yes. Now would I rather see that than one of their studio movies they made? Yeah, probably. Obviously, the Tom Hanks movie ["The Lady Killers"] is not their greatest work. But then again, I'm really happy they made "O! Brother Where art Thou?"
The 10th-annversary screening of "The Big Lebowski" is taking place at the Count Basie Theatre, located at 99 Monmouth St. in Red Bank, N.J., on Saturday, April 18 at 9 p.m. For tickets and more information, check out: www.CountBasieTheatre.org.
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