Jeff Bridges is "trying not to act" any more.

Jeff Bridges

Jeff Bridges

The 66-year-old actor doesn't want to make movies because they take up so much of his time and stop him from pursuing other things.

He said: "I really try my best not to do movies. I try not to act because I have so many other things I like to do, like playing guitar.

"Once you commit you are busy so I really try not to engage."

However, the Oscar-winning actor admits it is tough to turn down good scripts, such as his latest movie 'Hell or High Water', a crime drama in which he plays a sheriff.

He told BBC News: "You get a script like this one, and this cast, and you end up doing [another film]. That seems to be my modus operandi."

The movie sees Chris Pine and Ben Foster rob branches of a bank in order to pay the mortgage they owe to the same institution.

A shoot-out occurs after one robbery, with many gun-carrying members of the public involved, and the banks are desperate to obtain foreclosed property.

While Jeff admits the subject matter "makes you root for the bad guys", he doesn't think the bankers are the villains.

He insisted: "The enemy is us. I am the villain in my own life. We are all in it together, and we're a funky bunch - violent and greedy, but that's us.

"We really are in a dilemma - on gun control, what do we do? The barn doors opened long ago, and the horses are out. I belong to organisations to improve gun safety and it's a problem to know how to control them. They are prolific and it's too late. The right to bear arms was set in motion a long time ago - now how do we navigate the things of history?

"It's the same with nuclear weapons - and look what we did with slavery, and the native Americans. We have never 'fessed up and taken responsibility for these wrongs and it all piles up. Finally the chickens have come home to roost."

Jeff thinks the film is a "modern-day western".

He said: "Take away the cars and you'd be left with a pure old-fashioned western. That genre will never be killed off - it's too fascinating."