Men in Sync

Will Smith, 28, and Tommy Lee Jones, 50, are the latest team of movie cop partners--though the landscape for their adventures is the dark sci-fi comedy “Men in Black.” The movie, which opens July 2, is based on a novel taken from the Lowell Cunningham comic book series. Barry Sonnenfeld (“The Addams Family,” “Get Shorty”) directed the movie and Steven Spielberg served as executive producer. Jones and Smith star as two elite agents who police alien activity on Earth for a clandestine organization known as the Men in Black. (The so-called “men in black” were supposedly the shadowy officials who arrived at the site of an alien abduction to clean up the evidence.)

The site for this conversation, appropriately enough, is a telescope dome in the Griffith Observatory.

Smith, divorced and the father of a 4-year-old boy, lives in Ventura County. Jones, twice divorced, has a 14-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter and lives in Texas between two ranches. The two actors are a study in contrasts. Jones, the consummate character actor who won an Oscar for his portrayal of the obsessed marshal in “The Fugitive,” has a large head, a thatch of hair and huge dark eyes. He listens soberly, checking his watch frequently. Smith, the rap star turned TV star (“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”) turned movie star (“Independence Day”), with his delicate facial features and close-cropped hair, smiles and laughs often. The two have a rapport that seems to come from the shared experience of numerous months locked into a filmmaking adventure together--or they’re just really good at making it look that way. After all, they’re actors.

Question: Well, this movie couldn’t be coming out at a better time. “The X-Files” is a cult hit. Thirty-nine people tragically thought they were waiting for a spaceship and killed themselves. Droves of people on the Internet believe in extraterrestrial intelligence. Your movie is obviously satirical, but where does it fit with this incredible interest?

Tommy Lee Jones: I don’t know where it fits. We just tried to make a movie that was funny and then scary then funny again then scary again. I don’t think Will and I are much into marketing analysis.

Will Smith: I took it because it was cool!

Jones: Yeah, there you go! We just thought it was cool as hell.

Q: This is your second go-round with aliens. “Men in Black” isn’t exactly “Independence Day” but why do another movie with aliens?

Smith: When Steven Spielberg calls you at home, it’s real hard to say no. But I thought about that--two alien movies back to back, but, hey, you’ve got to take the good work when it comes.

Q: Barry Sonnenfeld said in the production notes that Tommy Lee Jones was “a wonderful anchor for the film as an actor who isn’t known for comedy roles but plays them masterfully.”

Jones: That’s very sweet of Barry to say. We had a lot of fun.

Q: Well, you may not be a comic actor, but even with your dark characters, there’s usually some dry humor to them as well, don’t you think?

Jones: Yeah.

Smith (laughing): People don’t know that Tommy Lee Jones is hilarious. Not a funny guy. Not a glib joker. Hilarious. We were at the Oscars and they did this whole big piece about Shakespeare and there was this thing about how wonderful it was that people use the stories in modern times. And Tommy Lee looks over at me and says, “Holy [expletive], is Shakespeare gonna be here?”

(Guffaws all around.)

Q: What kind of relationship did the two of you forge on the set?

Jones: Kind of like being in a ball club together.

Smith: We don’t hang at the same clubs, but we managed to taste a little of one another’s worlds. Where did we go in New York? The restaurant and club?

Jones: Oh, the Players club. We went there one day. (Deadpan) We’re going to be working cattle soon. And Will’s going to come and flank calves and take care of the branding.

Smith: And I’m going to try to get Tommy to make an appearance on a rap record.

(They crack up.)

Q: How would you two compare your acting styles?

Smith: Uh, Tommy Lee is, like, actually good . . .

Jones: We wound up having the same style. That’s actually what you have to do these days in the movie business. People come to the movie business from all walks of life--some from music, some from the theater, some from sports. Some have read a lot of books, some have read none. The idea of there being an acting method is an old idea, but it’s rather academic. The main qualification you need is adaptability. And that took place very quickly. So we were doing the same thing in pretty much the same way after a day or two.

Q: What kind of technique did you use for this movie?

Jones: You find out what the director wants and you arrange for him to see it. That’s about it.

Q: Will, you were quoted summing up your acting skills at the beginning of your career like this: “I sucked badly.” When did you stop sucking?

Smith: I think about the 10th episode of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” I started to get the concept. Just about everyone on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”--even Alfonso Ribeiro at 23 years old--had about 18 years of experience in television and theater. When you work with people who are on the next level, you automatically rise.

Q: Wasn’t “Six Degrees of Separation” where you hit your stride as an actor?

Smith: “Six Degrees” was the piece of work where I learned the most about myself. That’s when I realized acting was really knowing yourself. You can’t understand another person’s intimate thoughts if you don’t know your own.

Q: Anything that Tommy Lee did that you put into your own repertoire?

Smith: The one thing I immediately picked up on was his knowledge of everyone’s job on the set--understanding what the light man needs from you, understanding what props needs, what the director is looking for--a complete understanding of the entire process.

Jones: I learned a great deal from both Barry and Will. They’re far more sophisticated than I am when it comes to humor--how it works. I can be made to be funny. But it’s impossible for me to do such a thing alone. I never cultivated those skills.

Q: You start “US Marshals,” the sequel to “The Fugitive,” June 3. Any qualms about doing a sequel?

Jones: It’s a bit daunting to undertake something like this without Harrison Ford. He was the reason we succeeded. To try to exploit the success of a movie--and to do so without the reason for that success--is very tough.

Q: You were a large part of that success too.

Jones: Those people didn’t go to that movie to see me.

Q: You won an Oscar for playing that character. Do you feel you portrayed him as perfectly as you could? Is there any new territory to explore with that character?

Jones: The guys at Warners want to make this movie, so it’s my job to be part of the team that re-creates for the audience the experience that already exists and yet renders it original somehow. That’s our job description. It’s not easy.

Q: You directed, co-wrote and starred in “Good Old Boys” for TNT.

Jones: Yeah, sweet little movie.

Q: Are you considering directing anything else?

Jones: A couple of things here and there.

Q: Will, you and Jada Pinkett just wrote a romantic comedy screenplay, which Imagine is going to produce. You’re going to act in it, but she’s not. Why?

Smith: We don’t think it’s time to work together yet.

Q: I thought maybe you had the professional power to get yourself into the film, but she didn’t quite have the same muscle.

Smith: Oh, no. All the muscle I got, my baby has.

Q: The two of you live together. Do you have any plans to get married?

Smith: We’re very happy right now. We’re completely in love. Life is just totally gorgeous. We don’t see a reason right now to change anything yet.

Q: Tommy Lee, you keep a house in Los Angeles but mostly you live in Texas.

Jones: I keep an apartment in San Antonio so I can be close to my children. But I have two ranches in Texas where I spend most of my time. One’s in central Texas and one is in west Texas.

Q: So you really have time to raise cattle and polo ponies?

Jones: Yes, I really do.

Q: It’s not like you’re just a rich guy with people doing this for you. (He stares stonily at the reporter; Smith laughs.)

Q: OK. It’s just that you must spend so much time making movies that you wouldn’t have time to spend on what must be a demanding business.

Jones: Well, those ranches are well organized. I could leave one for a week, drive around in my truck and make a list of things to do and simply give them that and say, “See how far you can get down that list before I come back.”

Q: Have you seen the comet?

Jones: Yeah.

Smith: I thought I saw it. Jada and I were arguing about whether or not it was the comet that we actually saw a couple of weeks ago.

Q: What’s happening with your music career?

Smith: I just inked a deal with Columbia Records about a week ago. I’ve got the bug again. I recorded the theme song for “Men in Black.” That’s the rap record I’m trying to get Tommy Lee Jones to appear on.

Q: Tommy Lee, you’re also in “Volcano.” You don’t seem to have any trouble finding work you like.

Jones: When you go to work, you love the one you’re with. That script may not be real good the first day of shooting, but on the 10th day and then on the 30th and then on the 50th, if you make it better, it’s going to get better. The fact is you cannot write a movie. You have to shoot it.

Actors are there to serve. We had a little saying for Barry [Sonnenfeld]: “If you can say it, you can see it.”

Q: So if Barry Sonnenfeld can tell you what he wants, you can give it to him.

Smith: But, once you meet Barry, you’ll see where that might be difficult. Barry has a really distinctive way of communicating. He doesn’t really use words: “You know, listen, I think, um, the last--when you guys came through the first time, um, you had . . . like that!”

Jones: “Now, look, remember there was the move over here that preceded that one--we now want it to postcede.”

Smith: Hahahaha! Yeah!

Jones: Right, we’re gonna postcede this bastard. . . .

Q: So do you ever see your Harvard college roommate, Al Gore?

Jones: Yes.

Q: Have you slept in the Lincoln Bedroom?

Jones: No.

Q: Have you stayed at the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory?

Jones: No. Had dinner there. Shot pool.

Smith: I did a rap with Al Gore at the inauguration. The first one.

Q: You seem to be one of the rare black actors who gets offered roles that could go to any color of actor.

Smith: I want the scripts that you’d send to any other actor in my age group. I want the scripts that you’d send to Tom Cruise or Jim Carrey.

Q: When the producers and director were casting “Men in Black,” do you think they were conscious of the fact that they were casting a black man and a white man?

Jones: No, it’s more of an older guy and a younger guy--a pretty strait-laced guy and a damn funny young man. The issue of race doesn’t come up.

Q: But was it in the back of the minds of the people who made the casting decisions?

Jones: Oh, I don’t know what’s in the back of their minds. There’s probably a lot of stuff back there.

Smith: I’m worried about the back of my own mind.