Well, thank God. It looks like GQ is going to do three separate covers (and cover stories) for their October issue, so it’s not like Justin Theroux has been anointed The GQ It Boy. Happily, it seems like Idris Elba will also get a cover (they’ll probably release it tomorrow) and today GQ has released their Jeff Bridges cover. You can see Jeff’s GQ pictorial here – he looks really, really good in those pics. You can read his interview here, and here are some lovely highlights:

Jeff Bridges on R.I.P.D. flopping at the box office:
“I had such a great time working on that movie. I remember what we were doing. I thought: This could be fun to see. And when I saw it, I was a little underwhelmed. For my mind, the studio made some, uh, choices that I wouldn’t have made.”

…his thoughts on box office numbers:
“It’s kind of fun when the movie’s coming out. It’s like having a horse in the race. And they’re lining up, and they’re off! And you’re rooting for your horse. And in this case, the jockey fell off the horse and you came in last. Ha ha ha. You know. That happens sometimes.”

…on anxiety, especially before musical performances:
“I go through the gamut of emotions. It’s kind of like emotional weather. Feeling anxious. You know, a lot of anxiety. And that’ll pass. Nothing will particularly change, except something inside. And then all of a sudden I’m saying, Hey, this is fun, being alive! Look at that! Look at this!”

…on meditating at his daughter’s wedding:
“We had a big party at our house. And to some people’s embarrassment—I think my daughter kind of dug it, my wife probably thought it was over the top—I led everybody in a big om-ing session for about five minutes.” He laughs. “I thought everybody got off. But I was pretty drunk myself.”

…on his approach to marriage & love:
If you know anything about Bridges, one of the things you know is that he’s been married for almost forty years, that he has spent the better part of his life (a) being one of the best-looking,most famous men in the world and (b) waking up next to the same woman he met in his twenties. But I’m particularly interested in something wise he said in an interview not long ago: In a marriage, every fight is the same fight, over and over again, in different forms. (Note to unwed readers: In a marriage, every fight is the same fight, over and over again, in different forms.) I ask him what his version of the fight is. “I’m gonna take a little risk here, but I think this is so,” he says. “I think that it’s not only the same fight that you have with your spouse, but it’s the same fight that everyone has with everyone—everyone. And basically the fight is: You don’t get it.”

You don’t get it?
“You don’t get it! What is, for me, being alive. And what you do to me. And the thing is: That’s true! I don’t know how you feel, what it is to be you. But that’s something to kind of celebrate and respect and honor! And that’s, that’s what we have in common. None of us, none of us, get each other. So you have to just be with that. And have a relationship with it. And, uh, usually what happens, if you hang with it enough, your love has to get bigger to hold that misunderstanding, that mystery.”

…his advice to men who have a desire to cheat:
“Well, live and learn. Go ahead and do it, and we’ll see how that goes.”

Seriously? Just do it?
“Suppression can kind of get you into trouble, too,” he says. “I was reading an interesting thing—this kind of goes with the meditation and the spiritual side of things that I’m interested in. The difference between suppression and refraining. When you touch something hot, you don’t have to repress the desire to touch it again.”

So you think you have to touch it first?
“Sometimes you do. It’s like that old thing about addiction, I guess. About people hitting their bottom.”

What was your bottom?
“Ahh. I don’t even want to talk about it. I don’t want to make that a public thing. But I hit bottom.”

…on if he is living out his teenage fantasy:
“Oh yeah,” he says. “Absolutely. Nothing like having a band.”

[From GQ]

God, I love Jeff Bridges. I love that he was drunk for his daughter’s wedding and he led everyone in a chanting session. I love the way he handled the questions about his box office bomb. I love that his advice to men is to figure out their sh-t – I think that’s probably good advice for most men. Go ahead and cheat and see how that works out for you. See if you do it ever again. Of course, it would be even better if more men were like The Dude. FORTY YEARS. He’s been married for 40 years. Mind-blowing.

Photos courtesy of Sebastian Kim / GQ.