“So fires are all around,” Bridges sighs. “Man, it’s fascinating you go to that question,” Bridges chuckles when I ask about his personal history with wild blazes, “because I have lost a house to a fire in Malibu, back in the ‘80s maybe my wife Sue has evacuated our house in Santa Barbara three times by herself while I was out making the movies and we lost 400 acres in our ranch not too long ago in Montana.” Bridges even marvels at his fortune, all things considered, since he was just back up in Montana earlier this year to attend the wedding of his daughter Jessie, and they saw how close wildfires came to encircling the community on the big day. After all, the fires have taken plenty from the otherwise always amicable Dude. This long personal saga even contributed to the appeal in doing Only the Brave, a film about hotshots-the 20-man “Type 1” crews who stop and suppress wildfires. It comes with the territory of being born and raised in Southern California, and then also having a penchant for owning beautiful stretches of rugged terrain in spots like Montana.

Jeff Bridges has a long history with fires.

Only the brave cast jeff bridges