The Big Lebowski Cast Reunion
This isn’t trivial man: yesterday at Lebowski Fest NY there was a reunion of the original cast of “The Big Lebowski”! The whole Lebowski adoration and Lebowski Fest thing is starting to get kind of lame, but a cast reunion certainly is not! A report by Time:
Who else but Jeff Bridges could convince a theater full of drunk (and stoned) movie fans that now was the perfect time for a little spontaneous inward meditation?
A very special edition of Lebowski Fest descended on Manhattan Tuesday evening – a hotly anticipated red-carpet reunion of the key Big Lebowski cast members, staged at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom and livestreamed across the Internet. But it’s a safe bet that those who were tuning in via computer screen experienced something quite different from those who made the trek to midtown, traversing midtown dressed as The Dude.
Just about anyone wandering New York’s 34th Street would have seen the party already in full swing curbside – the Jeffrey Lebowski and Walter Sobchak impersonators who lined up outside the venue, wrapping around a full city block. Many passed the time by swapping their favorite lines from the Coen Brothers’ 1998 cult comedy, always in search of subtler, smarter, more obscure references. These were clearly the most devout of the Dude diocese – the ones who had traveled hours for the chance to see their favorite bowling trio back in action.
Yet what quickly became apparent once the sextet of stars took the stage (from left to right: T-Bone Burnett, John Turturro, Julianne Moore, Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi) was that this party really wasn’t about them. Slowly but surely, the gathered Lebowski fans started something of a revolt, as they continuously chipped away at the formality of the on-stage discussion. Over the course of an hour, great fans gradually asserted themselves as rude guests.
Which isn’t to say that there was not adulation to spare. The first two stars introduced to the house were T-Bone Burnett (the film’s music archivist) and John Turturro, and the cheers that erupted from the Hammerstein floor quite obviously took Turturro by surprise. Here was a crowd that loved The Jesus, that could probably recite each and every line of Turturro’s role in the film, that had been waiting hours to let the star know just how much they appreciated his over-the-top antics. That reception paled, though, in comparison to the avalanche of shrieks that accompanied John Goodman, and the reverence with which thousands chanted “Duuuuuuude” as Jeff Bridges took the stage.
…Indeed, by the end of the hour-long discussion, it became clear that a good number of fans would have been perfectly happy if the whole Q&A had been excised entirely – if they could have given the actors a standing ovation, and then dimmed the lights, all watching the movie together. There was little interest here of listening to actors wax philosophical or nostalgic; fewer fans applauded John Turturro’s idea for a sequel, or Jeff Bridges’ interest in a prequel, than John Goodman’s outright rejection of the concept. “It’ll never happen,” he said, and these Lebowski fans seemed just fine with that.
