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Tommy Lee Jones on In the Valley of Elah
By Fred Topel | Image property of Warner Independent Pictures.
Iraq war veteran Jake McLaughlin faced few threats more intimidating than working with Tommy Lee Jones. Before a scene in In the Valley of Elah, Jones told the first time actor not to say his lines too fast. The simple direction floored McLaughlin, but Jones explained his meaning.
Tommy Lee Jones In the Valley of Elah
“Well, in the last, I think, 10 or 15 years, you'll find if you pay attention to the vocal presentation of our young people, they tend to talk very, very fast and swallow half of their words,” Jones explained. “It's almost illegible, and if you're one of these things [tape recorders], it's even more difficult. So the point is legibility.”
The veteran actor was happy to help the war veterans, but did not go so far as to call himself a mentor. “I don't know that it's really mentor. We all do it. There are some actors, if there's something you say to a young actor to make their lives easier by way of advice, you always do it. That's the only way acting is taught really. It's a Socratic descent.”
The film follows a father (Jones) investigating the death of his son on the local military base. The actor keeps politics out of his profession. “I don't consider my private feelings to be relevant in any way actually. I don't have any political statements to make other than what you can see or divine or discern from looking at my work.”
In the Valley of Elah
In the Valley of Elah
Not that the film is a political statement anyway. “Why did I pick this role, at first I said no but I started thinking about it. I decided that dang, it's actually about something. And if we do it well, I think every single American will be able to relate to it. It's about something that we all have in common. If you have not been to Iraq or Afghanistan and gone to war and come home, you are akin to somebody who has. If you're not, you've been paying attention to it every day and it's been speaking to you in the dead of night. This is something that everybody has in common. So it's timely. That's what appealed to me was it was actually about something important.”
In some scenes, Jones found himself doing double duty. In a phone call with Susan Sarandon, playing his wife in the film, he had to keep her up to speed on his end of production. “The example of what professionals have to do, because the only communication between the two actors in the scene was the telephone, I had to say, ‘Okay, Susan, they're adjusting the light. Now, okay, there's the clapper. Okay, Susan, we have speed. And camera's ready. Okay, action. [Pretends to ball crying]’ That's about the way it works.’
In the Valley of Elah opens to theaters on September 14th.
For clips, trailers and more movie info, go to the In the Valley of Elah
Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Warner Independent Pictures.
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