THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 30, 1994 TAG: 9406300051
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
DATELINE: 940630 LENGTH: Long
Today, one of them is vice president of the United States and the other is an Oscar winner.
{REST} Tommy Lee Jones, the Oscar winner and probably the richer of the two, has fire in his dark, intense eyes. A member of the press has just posed an inane question: ``What kind of pick-up lines did Al Gore use to get dates back in college?''
The brooding scowl reaches full force as Jones stares down the offender. ``Pick-up line? I'm sure I don't know what you mean. Do YOU know what you mean?''
The fidgety questioner hastily explains, ``I mean, did you and Al Gore ever double date?''
``I am not here to talk about flirting with women,'' Jones said. ``If you have a sensible question to ask, I will attempt to answer it, but, otherwise, I suggest you, perhaps, keep quiet.''
Tommy Lee Jones clearly would rather be playing polo. In fact, he would rather be doing just about anything else. He tolerates news people only because his producers demand it.
Earlier in the day, one writer reportedly walked out after four questions got no discernible answer. Another was chastised by him after she asked him if it were true he was as big a bully off-screen as he was on. ``If you don't know the difference between off-screen and on, then you should not be employed,'' he told her.
On-screen, Jones has experienced a remarkable resurgence of popularity by playing bad guys. After a slow period of mediocre films, his rebirth came with an over-the-top villain in the surprise hit action flick ``Under Siege'' with Steven Seagal. Then came his Oscar-winning role as the persistent Deputy U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard who hounded Harrison Ford in ``The Fugitive.''
He unveils a new mean-guy when ``Blown Away'' opens Friday. Jones plays a diabolically brilliant bomber who is a mixture of genius and madness in the big-budget action flick. Jeff Bridges is the chief of the Boston Bomb Squad who is trying to stop him before he blows up the entire city.
In fact, Jones will fill movie screens for the rest of the year. On July 22, he opens in ``The Client,'' as an unscrupulous federal prosecutor who uses devious means to make an 11-year-old boy talk. It's based on the John Grisham book and co-stars Susan Sarandon.
On Aug. 3, he plays a sadistic prison warden in Oliver Stone's ``Natural Born Killers'' - a satire of violence.
In the fall, he has the title role in ``Cobb.'' He plays baseball legend Ty Cobb as a nasty bigot, brawler and braggart; it has Oscar nomination printed all over it.
After that, he plays the villain Two-Face in the new ``Batman'' movie, to be released in the summer of 1995.
``Resurgence?'' he considers the question about his renewed stardom and frowns. ``I'm not aware of it. I don't think that way. I'm in a business and business, currently, is good. That's all.''
That's it. Blunt, flat and noncommittal answers that walk a fine line between outright rudeness and belligerence, with a touch of arrogance thrown in.
But yet, Jones' west Texas drawl adds a softening quality that suggests he is mildly wounded by having to be here. He hints that he wants to be the gentleman, but he simply isn't going to let anyone invade his privacy, not at any price.
Finally it is my chance to interview him. ``How do you approach researching accents?'' I asked, adding that his Irish accent in ``Blown Away'' and Southern accent in ``The Client'' are both distinctive.
``How do you think I'd approach it?'' he countered, staring back from that pock-marked and creased face.
I put the pen down on the table, as if to just wait for him to condescend to answer the question. Silence worked, and Jones talked. ``When I work, it is my job to fulfill the aim of the director, and to be a part of the team,'' he said. ``I'm there to serve the director, the other actors and the audience. On accents, I use tape recorders and things like that.''
It was more a vague dismissal than a real answer, but at least it was a complete sentence.
Jones graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 1969 with a degree in English. He won't talk about Al Gore, his roommate. Gore, however, told The Washington Post recently that ``Tommy has an unerring sense for the poetry of life that is not apparent to someone who simply sees his taciturnity. He went through a lot in his childhood. Childhood is crucial for a lot of us, but I think his was forged in a pretty hot fire.''
Jones grew up around the west Texas oil fields; he was born at San Saba, where he now owns a ranch. He lives there and in San Antonio with his wife of 13 years, Kimberlea, and two children. He has two polo fields and competes with the best.
His father was the closest thing to a traditional cowboy still left in the West of the era. But an early divorce reportedly left the young Tommy Lee not knowing where he belonged.
Tommy Lee went to prep school in Dallas and developed an early interest in such varied fields as theater, literature and football. He started acting seriously at age 16. At Harvard, he was All-Ivy in the bruising position of offensive guard and recruited his beefy football pals to be Roman centurions in a Shakespearean play. He felt that he wasn't heavy enough to try professional football.
His outstanding grades reflected his interest in literature. His favorites are Tolstoy (for ``War and Peace''), all of Shakespeare, James Joyce (for ``Ulysses'') T.S. Eliot, Bertolt Brecht and Victorian critic John Ruskin.
His movie debut was playing Ryan O'Neal's Harvard roommate in ``Love Story.''
Jones' other films include ``Coal Miner's Daughter'' (opposite Sissy Spacek's Oscar-winning performance), ``Back Roads'' (with Sally Field), ``Nate and Hayes'' (in a swashbuckling pirate role), ``The Eyes of Laura Mars'' (with Faye Dunaway), ``The Betsy'' (in steamy sex scenes) and ``Heaven and Earth'' (as a Vietnam vet who goes psychotic). He received an Oscar nomination for playing acquitted assassination conspirator Clay Shaw in Oliver Stone's ``JFK.'' On TV, he won an Emmy as convicted murderer Gary Gilmore in ``Executioner's Song'' and a nomination for ``Lonesome Dove.''
He won his Oscar for ``The Fugitive'' but claims ``I don't take it personally. It's the highest honor an actor can get, but it's just a matter of my current good fortune.''
The Oscar event, he said, ``is just a part of the job - a place where you see a lot of famous people, but it was good to get back to work the next morning.'' In his taciturn style, he's the epitome of the strong, almost-silent, man of the American West.
Andrew Davis, who directed him in ``The Fugitive,'' said: ``He's an interesting combination of being sophisticated and well-read and, at the same time, being a Texan cowboy. It makes him very mysterious. In a role, if you give him the gaps, he will fill in the holes.''
On ``The Client'' Jones said: ``The book was decent. On playing that lawyer, there are a lot of models around - pompous politicians who chase TV newscasters - media whores and Yankees.'' He almost smiled at that.
On ``Natural Born Killers:'' ``Oliver Stone is the most well-read director I know. We filmed it inside Illinois State Prison. Those guys live a pretty good life. The actors went in among the prisoners.''
On ``Batman III:'' ``My 11-year-old son, Bubba, is more impressed with this than any role I've ever taken. It'll be something he can see. It's a comic book character and doesn't sound like much of a challenge. The challenge will be more in the style than the substance. That will all depend on the director.''
He is now at work directing himself in ``The Good Old Boys,'' a movie for HBO. It is based on a script he wrote and is set in West Texas in 1906. ``I have no trepidations about directing myself,'' he said, ``but, then, I've only been at work on it for one day.''
As for his ever-growing list of dark villains, he said, ``I don't have to like them to play them. To the contrary, I don't even have to have sympathy for them.''
His eyes, once again, take on that dangerous look, as he adds, ``In case you were wondering, I'm not type-cast.''
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