Luckily for acclaimed actor Jeff Bridges, filmmaker Scott Cooper never quite got in tune with his original idea for a movie about the hard life of a country music legend. Because if he had, it's quite likely Bridges wouldn't have taken the stage as country music bad boy Bad Blake in "Crazy Heart" -- a role that's earned Bridges several major awards, including Best Actor honors from the Golden Globes and Broadcast Film Critics' Association, as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

Cooper said he originally wanted to make a biopic about Merle Haggard, but difficulty in obtaining the rights to Haggard's story prevented that from happening.

Fate intervened, though, when the filmmaker came across Thomas Cobb's novel "Crazy Heart." From it the filmmaker envisioned a character in Bad Blake who was equal in stature to four famous country music outlaws -- Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson -- and a role for Bridges that's put him on a highway to greatness.

"He found this book, and thought that he could tell the same kind of story that he wanted with Merle, but make it a fictional character made up of all his country heroes instead," Bridges said in a recent @ The Movies interview. "One of the first directions that he gave me was that, if Bad Blake was a real person, he'd be the fifth member of The Highwaymen."

Unfortunately, the glory days are gone. Bad is on a personal and professional downslide, and his biggest gigs come in bowling alley lounges, and backrooms of bars. Bad is flat-broke, a raging alcoholic with a failed marriage and estranged son in his past, and a man at 57 with no real career prospects -- apart from a tempting offer from his former protégé (Colin Farrell) if he can put his resentment aside.

It appears that Bad's career is coming to a sad conclusion until a ray of hope arrives in an attractive country music journalist (Maggie Gyllenhaal, who scored her own Best Supporting Actress nomination), who awakens a part of the musician he hasn't known in a long time.

Effectively, Cooper said in a separate @ The Movies interview, Bad is a country music song personified.

"All the themes of a great country song course through this film, from loss and regret to hope and redemption," Cooper said. "I hope that we've put those themes out properly through this film because those are things that a lot of the great singers and songwriters have sung and written about."

Cooper said that the only person who could embody those qualities was Bridges, and not solely for his acting abilities. Bridges can sing and play guitar, too, and his talents are on display throughout the film.

"I tailor-made the film for Jeff, and when I told ("Crazy Heart" producer and co-star) Robert Duvall that I wanted to make the film, he said there were two people that I needed to make this film, or don't make it at all," Cooper recalled. "They were T. Bone Burnett (to produce the music) and Jeff Bridges. I was fortunate enough to get both of them."

Getting Bridges was a huge coup for Cooper, because Bridges doesn't commit to projects that easily. A father of three with Susan, his wife of 33 years, Bridges, 60, said that he's at the point of his career where every move he makes has to count.

"I know doing a movie means that I'm going to be away from home and the things that I love for a very long time," Bridges explained. "So I really do my best to turn movies down unless it really grabs me and I've got to do it for one reason or another. In the case of 'Crazy Heart,' doing the movie was a no-brainer because it was about the music. Music is something that is dear to my heart. It's something I'll probably keep doing until the end."

While "Crazy Heart" focuses on Bad's personal complexities and how they relate to his job as a singer and a songwriter, it also addresses the mystery of what makes musicians tick. It's interesting to see how Bad can perform without missing a beat, even though he's falling down drunk and drowning his sorrows between sets. Music is clearly something that's imprinted on Bad's soul.

"The stage is his domain. He can be drunk or puking, or doing whatever he wants up there and still is king. He's very relaxed up there," Bridges said. "That's something about the pros -- they have that ability. Some actors have it, too. There are classic tales about some great actors who've downed a bottle of bourbon before going on to do a wonderful performance. There are pros out there that are able to do that. It's like driving a car or something. It's like second nature."

Watching Bridges performances over the years, it's not a stretch to say that the veteran actor makes his job look effortless. But despite his acting pedigree as the son of legendary actor, Lloyd, and brother of actor Beau, you'll never get Bridges to admit that he's a natural at what he does.

"My father taught me all the basics when I was 8 years old, preparing for a role in 'Sea Hunt.'He told me, 'Make it like it's happening for the first time and make it look natural.' You have to practice that," Bridges said. "That's the kind of acting that I aspire to and admire in other guys. Bob Duvall makes it look that way."

And in the best of circumstances, you can sometimes take something away from your characters, too, Bridges said -- and Bad was a good example of that.

"There's a song in the film that says, 'I used to be somebody but now I'm somebody else.' Bad probably wrote that song when he was down on his luck, saying he was once famous and not famous anymore," Bridges observed. "But you can also flip that coin around and say, 'I used to be an irresponsible drunk and now I don't have to be that way.' You don't have to be who you think you are. That's the great lesson Bad has learned."