Michael Hopkins

The red carpet arrivals line for the Coen Brother’s new film “No Country For Old Men” included the great and grumpy Tommy Lee Jones. My own title for last night might be “No Arrivals Line for Old Men” because Mr. Tommy Lee Jones seems to despise doing press interviews. He is one of the biggest challenges for any interviewer. I wasn’t about to make small talk. I started with a hello sir and then asked what it was about the Coen Brothers that makes so many great actors want to work with them. Mr. Jones looked me in the eye and gave a half decent answer about their way of looking at things and how it’s different and interesting. I followed with a question about what he enjoyed most about playing his character in this film. Mr. Jones answered simply, “He’s an interesting guy.” After the room had cleared of reps and celebrities one of the newbie producers down the line asked me, “did you get a good sound bite from Tommy Lee Jones?” I laughed and shot back, “If you got him to talk at all you did your job.” Mr. Jones had turned the tables on this producer asking if by chance she had an actual question for him before he walked away. Maybe “he’s an interesting guy” is a good sound bite, as well as a perfect way to describe Mr. Jones.