Legendary actor Jeff Bridges detailed his experience contracting COVID-19 while undergoing cancer treatments, saying he was "pretty close to dying."

In a People interview, Bridges, 72, recalled his harrowing journey fighting cancer and COVID at the same time. "COVID made my cancer look like nothing," he said. "I had no defenses. That's what chemo does -- it strips you of all your immune system. I had nothing to fight it."

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Bridges went on to describe his nearly five-month stint in the hospital from late 2020 to early 2021. The actor said he was in intense pain and could barely move at points in his recovery, leading him to nearly give up the fight. "The doctors kept telling me, 'Jeff, you've got to fight. You're not fighting,'" he said. "I was in surrender mode. I was ready to go. I was dancing with my mortality."

Bridges' slow recovery from COVID began after doctors started giving him convalescent plasma -- a treatment wherein the blood of a recovered person is used to help others heal from the same illness. "I started taking baby steps," the actor said, including seeing a physical therapist several times a week.

Calling the experience "a bizarre dream," Bridges described being shocked to discover in 2020 that some discomfort in his abdomen was actually a large tumor. "I had a 12-by-9-inch tumor in my body. Like a child in my body. It didn't hurt or anything," he said. The chemotherapy Bridges received for his non-Hodgkin lymphoma was successful in sending his cancer into remission.

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Bridges revealed his cancer diagnosis in October 2020 and seemed optimistic about the fight to come. "Although it is a serious disease, I feel fortunate that I have a great team of doctors and the prognosis is good, " he said. By September 2021, the actor revealed he had beaten his cancer as well as COVID. "I had a goal -- walking my daughter, Hayley down the aisle," he wrote on his blog. "Thanks to Zack & my terrific medical team, I was able to, not only walk Hay down the aisle, but do the father/Bride dance with her WITHOUT OXYGEN."

Best known for his roles in The Big Lebowski, Crazy Heart, True Grit, Iron Man and many more, Bridges received the Hollywood Foreign Press Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in 2019. The actor's next project is The Old Man, co-starring John Lithgow and Amy Brenneman, which premieres June 16 on FX.

Source: People