“I just like being around a movie camera.”

Tommy Lee Jones
By E.C. Gladstone

Tommy Lee Jones is not exactly the first Oscar-awarded actor you would expect to “go Indie.” After all, the most recent flick from this soap opera veteran (One Life To Live, 1971-75) was cheerleader comedy Man of the House, and his biggest hits of the last ten years are the ultra-commercial Men In Black(s), Space Cowboys and Batman Forever. Then again, Jones, 59, is one of those Teflon performers who manages to maintain a certain grit in any venue, thanks to unforgettable roles in The Missing, Rules of Engagement, The Fugitive (there’s the Oscar), JFK, Lonesome Dove, the Executioners Song, and Eyes of Laura Mars.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, then, is not just another vanity-project Indie film. As Jones’ feature-directorial debut (he directed the cable movie Good Old Boys for TNT ten years ago), it may not be surprising that it takes place in the actor’s native West Texas. What will surprise, though, is the slow, contemplative tone of the film, and it’s decidedly non-flag-waving tenor. Jones plays a gringo cattle ranch foreman whose Mexican friend is mysteriously shot along the border region. Fed up with the inept and racist local law enforcement (represented in an ambitious performance by a nearly unrecognizable Dwight Yoakam), the foreman takes matters into his own hands, forcing a suspect border patrolman (Barry Pepper) to help him find an appropriate resting place for his friend’s remains.

Jones is clearly a deliberate filmmaker, choosing everyone he works with carefully, from screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams) to the aforementioned actors, and score composer Marco Beltrami. And it can’t be an accident that director Luc Besson is one of the film’s executive producers. It won Best Screenplay (Arriaga) and Best Actor (Jones) at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Phoning from his San Antonio home, Jones is admittedly tired from traveling and on his way to a Spurs game, both elements further exaggerating his generally established reticence as an interview subject. Nevertheless, we managed to get a few chuckles out of him…

EG: You’ve been in the business for about 35 years, and only directed a film once before ten years ago. What made you want to do this project, and why now?

TLJ:“I had a simple desire to satisfy my lust for creative control. I’m interested in making movies about my country, and Guiermo’s interested in making movies about his country, and it doesn’t take much time to realize the countries are the same.

EG: How did you find the script?

TLJ: “Guillermo and I pretty much developed it together. I asked him to make himself aware of a kid killed at the hands of the United States Marine Corps a few years ago in the town of Redford, but I didn’t want to make a movie about that kid. The incident revealed social tensions that were of concern

EG: You’ve done an awful lot of roles. This might not be the kind of role people would expect to see you do, or the type of film. Was that part of what was of interest to you?

TLJ: “I’d have to double check on the assumptions in the question. I’d have to ask you what kind of role it is and what kind of movie it is. If this is not what I do, what kind is this?

Continued at Pt. 2

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copyright 2007, ECG

Tommy Lee Jones
By E.C. Gladstone

EG: Well… there are a lot of words used in film that are tricky, words like “smaller” film, “Indie” film or non-Hollywood story. But I think you would agree it’s not what’s called a “commercial” film, it’s not a typical thriller or love story, more reflective of life than standard Hollywood narrative. Does that make sense?

TLJ: Yeah it does, and thank you. Of course we were looking to do something original, that’s the whole point of making a smaller, independent, non-Hollywood, not-necessarily-commercial film. You want to avoid in this case we certainly wanted to make the movie we wanted to and be as original as possible. We were making certain sacrifices in terms of pay, and we were asking other people to make sacrifices in terms of pay. Marco did not get paid what he usually gets paid. And what did we have to offer in return? Originality, and a chance to strive unhindered for beauty. And Marco, thank goodness, and several others, found that appealing.

EG:I would say the same of Barry Pepper, who I’ve spoken to in the past. His career so far has tended towards mainstream films and I can tell he has more to offer than what he’s been able to do so far.

TLJ: “Good kid. That’s right, and we wanted to create an environment where the best anyone had to offer, whether it be an actor, a composer, or a focus-puller, was welcome.

EG: Tell me about the score composer. You became interested in him because he was a student of Ennio Morricone?

TLJ: “I was interested in Marco because he knows how to write a film score. I listened to everything that he had done and I could tell he knew how it works. I was impressed that he was a student of Morricone, but of course I was far more interested in what Marco might do out of his own originality than what he might derive from someone else. I didn’t have a lot of money to offer Marco—I did have a beautiful movie and a serious interest in his originality.

EG: So you left him alone, pretty much, to do what he wanted?

TLJ: “Uh, no [chuckles] I did not leave him alone. I spent a lot of time in his studio looking over his shoulder. That’s what a movie director does.

EG: Well, everyone defines the task a bit differently. Some directors do have separate music supervisors, but you decided to take on that role as well.

TLJ: “That’s the way I work. I’m into everybody’s business, as producer/director/actor, I collaborate with everyone.

EG: So you want “ownership” of the artwork as much as possible.

TLJ: “Ownership is a legal matter. But control is something I want.

EG: What’s your relationship to music as an artist? On this film and in general, do you use it to get into a mood? I know some actors say they’ll put together a compilation of music that reflects their character.

TLJ: “Well you can see what my relation to music is by listening to the score and the soundtrack. I worked very closely with Marco on his score and chose all of those incidental songs very carefully. One of the first things that we did when we were putting the company together, for people to get a flavor of the world they were about to enter was create a sampler of music from the border region, going back to the beginning of recorded music, corridos from the Revolucion, Amalia Mendoza from the ‘40s, and our own contemporaries, Flaco Jimenez, Freddy Fender, and some redneck country music.

Continued at Pt. 3

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copyright 2007, ECG