Helm attacks his Margarita, licks his lips and explains, "I met Tommy Lee Jones years ago through a mutual friend, Brad Dourif, a fine actor who is my neighbour up in Woodstock, New York. When the Coal Miner's Daughter deal came up, Tommy Lee apparently threw my name into the hat because there wasn't anyone in Hollywood quite country enough or something. Michael Apted [the directorl saw The Last Waltz [a film about the Band's farewelt coneertl and called me to Nashville to read for the part."
Over another round, Helm continues. "I felt like such a fool," he says, embarrassed at the memory "I'm reading the Ted Webb part and Apted is reading the Loretta part and he's calling me daddy and I'm calling him Loretta. Lord!" A month later Helm was back in Nashville, where he hooked up with his old buddy Tommy Lee. Together, they drove to the first location, in Wise, Virginia, and along the way Jones gave Helm a crash course in acting. "Tommy Lee and I split a bottle of Wild Turkey," says Helm, "and he told me what to expect, how to pull it off." Helm breaks into a huge smile. "Tommy Lee is a good ol' boy from Texas, but he went up there to school [Harvard] and read Shakespeare and did a lot off wild stuff that a country boy wouldn't ordinarily do. He told me things like don't look at the camera, don't move too quick, don't talk too fast, do everything at a certain rhythm."
