Jeff Bridges’ tumor has shrunk “to the size of a marble”

(CNN) — Jeff Bridges is a survivor.

So far, the actor has beaten advanced cancer and a serious case of covid-19.

In a new cover story for AARP magazine, Bridges recounts that he was on a pandemic break from his series “The Old Man” when “I was doing some exercises on the floor and I felt what felt like a bone in my stomach.”

His wife Susan Geston suggested he get checked out, he said, but Bridges was hesitant to go to the doctor because he wasn’t in pain.

“I’m hiking and I feel great. My calves were really itchy and I thought, ‘I just have dry skin,'” Bridges recalled. Then I had night sweats, but I thought, ‘It’s hot summer nights. Turns out they’re symptoms of lymphoma.”

The 73-year-old man now says that he had a tumor measuring 23 x 30 centimeters against which he began chemotherapy treatment.

Then the covid hit him hard (partly because the chemo had wiped out his immune system), leading to a five-week hospital stay.

“Cancer was nothing compared to covid,” he said.

At first, Bridges said, he was willing to accept that he was old and dying. He then began to lean into the stoicism he learned playing Dan Chase, his role as a former CIA agent in “The Old Man.”

“For me, in that hospital bed, the obstacle was death. And that was the way. I kept thinking: Here is the problem, you know? Here is the challenge,” he commented. “I asked myself, ‘How are you going to do it? And I thought, ‘I’m a dancer and a musician. I’m going to improvise with this situation, you know?’

Now, according to Bridges, his tumor has shrunk “to the size of a marble,” he has recovered from covid and is shooting the second season of “The Old Man.”

“I didn’t think I would go back to work, really,” she recalled. “So at first I was like, ‘Well, we’ll see.’ But eventually it became, ‘Maybe I can.’ I have to admit, the idea of ​​going back to work still scared me. Then I started thinking about my recovery as a gift they gave me.”

FX’s “The Old Man” can be streamed on Hulu.