Your new movie is based on a book about a secret army unit that trains soldiers to employ “sparkly eyes” and other New Age-y techniques to win wars?

Yeah. I read the book and saw the documentary, and I was hooked. It was so wild I couldn’t believe it was real—that the government would sponsor something like that. Retired lieutenant colonel Jim Channon is the guy my character is based on. I asked him how he felt about his 
life’s work being made a mockery of in this movie, and he said he just wants people to come to his Web site, firstearthbattalion.org.

Not that you’re a hippie-dippy guy, but did you respond to the role because you saw a little bit of yourself in him?

Not consciously, but you’re probably right. I am attracted to the kind of movies I like to see myself, which are a little off-center and surprise you— when you think you know what’s going to happen, and then it doesn’t.

And how did Iron Man fit in with this philosophy?

It was a chance to work with Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau. I was a big fan of Jon’s going back to Swingers. We were lucky to have him as the director, because he’s so skilled at improvisation, which, it turned out, we used a lot. You would think with a big budget movie like 
that, they’d have a script. Often we’d show up for a day’s work and not know what we were going to shoot, so we’d go in the trailer and jam.

How often do you get called the Dude in your day-to-day life?

Often. It’s a favorite of my movies. I just love it. I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t a bigger hit when it first came out. It kind of went under the radar. It happened over in Europe, and then it splashed back over here and got a cult following going.

Right. Lebowski Fest. We heard you went to one.

I had my Beatles moment there. I got a little band together and played some music to a sea of Dudes.

Were they all wearing robes and drinking White Russians?

Sure. There were all different sorts: some Little Lebowski Urban Achievers and a few Jesuses there.

You never get tired of it?

I rarely watch my movies on the tube, but Lebowski is kind of like The Godfather for me. I get hooked. I think, I’ll watch until he licks the ball…Well, now I’m going to wait for the next scene, then that one.

You just finished the Tron sequel. Your costar is none other than Olivia Wilde, Maxim’s reigning Hot 100 No. 1.

That was the big news on the set.

Did you give her a lot of crap?

No, we applauded. That was great. She was wonderful. Pretty inside and out, and she’s great in Tron Legacy.

Can you give us a sneak preview?

It’s hard to talk about it, because I don’t want to give too much away. Of all the innovation the first Tron had, this is today’s version of that. Everything’s moving so fast.

What were the differences being on set, compared with the first Tron? Did you feel like you were 
on the cutting edge of technology back then?

The thing I remember from the original Tron…Do you know what a dance belt is? It’s kind of like what ladies wear, a thong. So it’s not fun to sit down, and we were in these tights all day. And it was this black set with white adhesive tape. It was quite primitive by today’s standards. They shot it in 65 mm black and white and then sent it to Korea to be hand-tinted.

And the new one?

It’s like the old one came true. I actually found myself being scanned into a computer just like in the first Tron. They’ve got me in there now, and they can jack with me however they want.

You come from a Hollywood family, with dad Lloyd and brother Beau.

My dad had this famous TV series in the ’60s called Sea Hunt, and he, unlike a lot of movie actors, wanted to turn his kids on to it. I resisted at first. You know how kids don’t want to do what their parents say. But the show was so much fun, and I really got into it. I could see why he loved it so much.

He was awesome in Airplane!

We loved to see my dad in that movie, because in real life he was such a pure individual, really straight, so the pills and the sniffing glue...classic, isn’t it?