Q: Have you changed as an actor since the experience of directing The Good Old Boys in 1994?

TLJ: Not much. Not really.

Q: Because you've been on both sides of the camera, can you understand a director's point of view better?

TLJ: Well, yeah. You know, I pretty much made a life's work out of understanding what a director needs from an actor. And I had some awful good actors working for me. Having the job of director and actor and writer were some of the happiest days of my working life. I love the material, I love the location, and I had a beautiful company of actors and it was — it really changed my life a great deal. But it didn't change the way I would relate to the directors very much at all.

Q: [MiBII co-star] Lara Flynn Boyle spoke about how wonderful it was to work with you, but she admitted she was a little uncomfortable licking your face before she really got to know you. Did it make you feel uncomfortable?

TLJ: No … we did that scene seven or eight times and I think we did that shot seven or eight times. And I think that Barry was looking at his budget and he found out that he had a little bit of extra money for CGI, or computer-generated imaging, and he said well, maybe this is a chance to put in a CGI shot. So, he told Lara to stick her tongue in my ear in case he wanted to turn that into a CGI scene. And I guess he wound up having the money to do it. That's about all there was to that.

Q: And you, of course, said, "No, no, I wouldn't allow her to do that?"

TLJ: No.

Q: Is it particularly difficult to act opposite computer-generated aliens, since they are added into the film later and you can't really see them when you're filming?

TLJ: No, not at all. We're often called upon to use our imaginations as actors, and CGI doesn't make anything easier and it doesn't make anything more difficult. It certainly enhances the effect of a science-fiction movie. And that's very much to our advantage in this case.

Q: There is talk now of possibly scanning some living actors into a computer so that they can be digitally recreated. What do you think about that? Is that tampering a little too much?

  

TLJ: I don't know. There's not a body of law in regards to that. We have control of our own likeness. Usually it's a contractual matter. To what extent you surrender that control with a so-called cyber-scan is vague. I really don't know. I have been cyber-scanned, and I don't know if it was for this movie or not. It was asked of the people who were doing it, "Can you control this?" and they said, "Sure, yeah." It was asked, "How can you keep this from winding up on the Internet, this image?" And  the question was asked until they finally said, "We have no control, we cannot guarantee you that this image will not be pirated and used for nefarious purposes." There needs to be a body of law in regards to this very issue and it doesn't exist yet.

Q: What about the old adage about working with animals? You have a lot of scenes with a very cute dog in this movie. What was that like?

TLJ: No problem. That little dog, I wound up liking that little dog because he had some — you know, I don't like dogs that have no skills. My own dog is a cow dog. He's a hound. He works very hard. He has skills and a life. He really earns his T-bones. And Frank [the pug] has a — Mushu is his name, I think. There's a little involvement. The dog will run across the room, hit a mark, and stop and sit down and stand up, look in whatever direction you tell him to. And I didn't have any problem with that dog. At first I didn't like him or trust him, because he's a dog, but then he became — when he showed that he could do something, then I liked him because I like dogs that can do something. I don't like dogs that can't do anything. I like good dogs. I don't like bad dogs. Okay? The part was played by a good dog.

Q: In Men in Black II, you play a postmaster for laughs. What was your reaction at seeing yourself on the screen like that?

TLJ: I was hoping that it would generate laughs. That was my reaction.

Q: When you wrapped the first movie, how interested were you at that time to go back to the story, to go back to the character?

TLJ: We were interested in making the day, getting the day's work done, and planning for the next day's work. I don't believe we gave any thought while we were making Men in Black to the possibility of a sequel. Nobody thought about that very long. It doesn't do a lot of good.

Q: Did you like the musical score of the movie?

TLJ: Yes, I did. I thought they did a terrific thing. It was a rap song, "Nod Your Head," I think it's called, and mixing that rap music with a 60-piece orchestra was a pretty cool idea. And they pulled it off very well.

  

Q: Will said it was your idea to have rap noises be an alien language. Is that true?

TLJ: When we spoke to the aliens in the post office? Yes. It was pretty cool.

Q: What is Will like on the set?

TLJ: He does a lot of things. He has a hard time playing just one character. He's got five or six different personalities that you can see at any given time. And they're all hilarious. One of them was that noise that you heard, I think a human boom box. I don't know what he called it, something like that. And when I heard him do that, it occurred to me right away that that should be the alien language that he should be called upon to use in the post office.

Q: Can you give us another example of an idea you guys came up with?

TLJ: I can't remember all the discarded ideas. It's like going through the wastepaper basket in an office somewhere. I don't remember the ideas that we killed. I remember most of the ones that were allowed to live.

Q: So, who thought up the human boom box idea?

TLJ: You know, I really don't know. It's hard to go back and look at a single day of work and say, oh, this guy thought that up, this guy thought that up, and then this guy changed his mind. There's never any profit in that kind of thinking. So I don't — the short answer to your question is I don't know.

Q: You, Will, and Barry seem to work very well together. Did that relationship form during this movie or was it established from the beginning of the first?

TLJ: Yes, I'd say we did from the very beginning.

Q: Could you see working with Will on a project outside this franchise?

TLJ: I don't know if anybody would let us do that. I would love to. I think it would be wonderful. But gee whiz, I mean, I'd do that in a minute, I'd start tomorrow. I don't know if anybody's got the — if anybody in California is brave enough to take that on. But I'm ready … I think we can do anything.

ALIEN INTERVIEW part 2

MAGAZINE ARTICLE

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