Alien Interview

The normally taciturn Tommy Lee Jones warms to the subject of Men in Black II.

   Despite having an extremely colorful background, Tommy Lee Jones does not like talking about himself — not to journalists, friends, nor even his co-stars. Even most of his fans know very little about the actor beyond the facts that he was born and raised in Texas and roomed with future Vice President Al Gore when the two were students at Harvard.

Some trivia buffs may know that Jones and Gore were the inspiration for classmate Erich Segal's main character in his novel Love Story. Jones made his film debut with a small part in the 1970 screen adaptation of that best-selling tearjerker. He toiled mostly in television throughout the decade, with roles in the soap opera One Life to Live, the TV movie The Amazing Howard Hughes, and the pilot for Charlie's Angels.

In 1980, Jones' star rose when he played opposite Sissy Spacek in the acclaimed Loretta Lynn biopic, Coal Miner's Daughter. He continued to work in television, winning an Emmy for his role as killer Gary Gilmore in 1982's The Executioner's Song and another nomination for the 1989 miniseries Lonesome Dove.

By the 1990s, Jones was a regular on the big screen, garnering his first Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for 1991's JFK and winning in that category two years later for The Fugitive. After picking up his award, Jones starred in a string of high-profile movies, including The Client, Natural Born Killers, Batman Forever, and Volcano.

In 1997, Jones' career took another turn when he joined Will Smith in becoming a pair of alien-hunting crime-fighters in Barry Sonnenfeld's Men in Black. The film became a summer blockbuster, and while Jones has had plenty of work in the meantime in such movies as U.S. Marshals, Double Jeopardy, and Space Cowboys, there was little doubt that someday he would return to battle extraterrestrials in a MiB sequel.

   That time is now as Jones reteams with Smith and Sonnenfeld for Men in Black II. This time around, Jones' Agent K has left the agency and become a postal worker with no memory of his previous job when he's pressed back into service to take on a new intergalactic threat.

In a rare and candid interview, Jones consented to meet with journalists to talk about Men in Black II and even a little bit about his career. Not as curt as he's been known to be in the past, the actor appears to have mellowed, presenting a new, more candid side of himself.

Q: You don't often re-visit characters in your films. What made you want to do a sequel to Men in Black?

Tommy Lee Jones: Well, I've only done it twice [the other time was in U.S. Marshals, the sequel to The Fugitive]. It was a lot easier this time because I had a happily established working relationship with Barry Sonnenfeld and Will Smith, and basically we couldn't wait to get back together and continue having the fun we did on the first.

Q: In this film, your character is the rookie and Will's is the seasoned veteran. How did you feel about the reversal of the roles?

TLJ: I thought that was a pretty cool, interesting thing to do.

Q: Will says that until you showed up he had trouble finding his character, but as soon as you arrived on set everything clicked into place. Can you explain the chemistry you two have together on the screen?

TLJ: I don't know. Will is a very hard-working actor. He has a very serious work ethic. He's always on time and very energetic. He buoys up the spirits of everybody on the crew, everybody on the set. And he understands my rhythms, I understand his. And we — I don't know how to answer your question except to say we try real hard. And I think it took some time for him to adjust to life outside of Muhammad Ali. When you put that much of your creative life together with your physical life in playing a role, it conceivably takes a day or two to walk away from that.

Q: What do you think about Michael Jackson being in Men in Black II, wanting to be a part of it?

TLJ: I didn't think about it at all.

Q: I was told that one of your last lines in the movie was changed after September 11. Can you talk about that?

  

TLJ: I don't know that that's the case. I don't know if we did anything in response to the events of 9/11. I don't know of anything significant that we did. The final scene was originally set on the roof of the World Trade Center. We felt it would be appropriate to change that. And we did. And that's about the only response we made.

Q: It is said that Barry Sonnenfeld runs sort of a loose atmosphere on the set. Is that true?

TLJ: Oh, of course. It's a lot of fun. Barry has the very wise theory that if you're not having any fun, you can't expect the audience to have any. So we have fun all day, every day. And it's a real pleasure to go to work. People are — you know, there are 60 people on a movie set that have to do the right thing at the same time every time if you're to get even one shot. And it's a lot of pressure for some people. It can be an impossible amount of pressure for some people. It's a real effort to keep people in good spirits and Barry's dedication to having fun makes the very serious business of shooting films even more serious, if you know what I mean. And we don't have a loose set. The people we work with are the best in the world. They just happen to have a lot of fun.

Q: When you watch a film like MiBII in which you star, do you laugh at yourself?

TLJ: Sometimes I laugh. I just — sometimes I'm just amazed at how good Will is or just how well a scene works. And I could laugh, I suppose, in a knowing way, but I'm critical and analytical when I watch these movies. And I certainly don't take them personally. It's not a personal experience for me.

Q: Are you a fan of the buddy-film genre? What kinds of movies do you like?

TLJ: I'm a fan of all good movies. And I don't think in terms of genre. I've heard the term applied to cinema before, but I'm always skeptical. What is a Western? So, it's a movie with horses and vests and guns, you know. I don't know what a genre is, but, sure, I like them when they're good.

Q: The first film exposed you to a whole new generation of moviegoers — young children. Do you mind being approached by tiny fans?

TLJ: I love to see kids have fun. And I like it when kids — when I'm able to improve the time with children. I love that.

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