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Jones' directing joy defies most words

It is not by accident that Tommy Lee Jones, Academy Award winning actor and avid polo player, usually chooses to play laconic characters. For even when he agrees to a rare interview promoting a film of his, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, he remains a man of few words.

Question: Had you long been looking for the right project to make your feature directing debut?

Dawn Jones/EuropaCorp (enlarge photo) Tommy Lee Jones sees what the camera sees during the filming of The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, a directing debut on locations that presented large physical challenges. Movie review

Answer: Oh, sure, you're always looking, high and low.

Q: So you started talking to screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga about a collaboration?

A: Yeah.

Q: Did you quickly feel comfortable in the director's chair?

A: Yeah.

Q: Is promoting The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada getting in the way of your playing polo?

A: To some extent, yes.

Together, Jones and Arriaga crafted a tale designed for him to direct. Starring in it was simply a necessity to gain financing. "I wouldn't think of (it as) creating a vehicle for me, the actor," he says. "We were just trying to make a really good movie and we knew we were pretty much going to have to count on me being in it if we were going to get it made."

As to the chief challenges to pulling the movie off, Jones underplays them. "Most of them were logistic," he drawls. "Remote locations, potentially hostile locations. By which I mean they were difficult to move people around and cameras around. They're quite beautiful, but they're hard to get to. Sometimes the weather was difficult to deal with, but every day was a complete and full joy to me."

The movie premiered last year at the Cannes Film Festival, where Jones was named best actor. As he recalls the experience, "Oh, it's amazing. There's a lot of flash bulbs and a lot of famous people. A lot of limousines, a lot of journalists. The food's pretty good. But it doesn't take long for your mind to become a total blank. You just get in the car and go where they tell you to go."

But do not make the mistake of asking Jones whether he agrees, as some critics have said, that his performance as rancher Pete Perkins is his best work yet on screen.

"I don't know," he responds uneasily. "I really don't have my performances ranked in order of good or bad."

Still, he concedes that he has a few on the bottom of his résumé that he would not mind forgetting entirely. "There are plenty that I would like to cut off of the list," says Jones. "Although I'm keeping the money."