Tommy Lee Jones Doesn't Know What Men In Black III Is About

Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in Men In Black
(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

For a famous curmudgeon who doesn't seem to like anyone or anything, Tommy Lee Jones is still working a lot, and particularly on two big tentpole projects that everyone wants details on: this summer's Captain America, and the forthcoming Men In Black 3. But if you thought Jones's participation in the two films meant he would have details worth spilling, oh boy were you ever wrong. In a hilariously frank interview with New York Magazine, Jones talked a lot about his HBO movie The Sunset Limited, but then revealed that he knows virtually nothing about the two big projects he's part of.

They started by asking about Men in Black 3, which Jones will still be shooting for another week with director Barry Sonnenfeld and co-star Will Smith; to his credit, he calls the shot "a hell of a lot of fun." But then they ask about plot details, and well, Jones is basically a stone wall:

Can you give me a sense of the plot of this one?No. I don’t really know what the plotline is. There are vast pieces of the script yet unwritten.Even though there’s only one week of shooting left?One week for me.Does that mean that you die early on?Well, that’s a strange concept. I don’t want to say too much about the movie because I don’t know a lot and I would like for audiences to anticipate buying a ticket.

Apparently given some license to talk smack about a blockbuster project, the interviewer then went in for the kill when asking about Captain America. And Jones played right along!

Finally, what are you doing in Captain America? I mean, literally: What are you doing in Captain America!?Yeah, I ask myself that same question every day! The character I play is the one you’ve seen in a thousand movies: the gruff, skeptical officer overseeing a team of talented, slightly sarcastic, specially talented soldiers.And I’m guessing you’re confounded by the Captain …Not confounded, exactly. Skeptical. At first. And then convinced.

In short, don't bother asking Tommy Lee Jones about his career choices, because if he's in a movie he didn't direct or that cost more than $100 million, he's probably as annoyed with it as you are. I know that probably qualifies as being a poor sport, but I admit, I kind of love him for this.

Katey Rich

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend