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Sunday, June 30, 2002

By Barbara Vancheri, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

NEW YORK -- Barry Sonnenfeld is nervous. So what else is new?

	Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are back on the job as Men in Black, those Earth-saving alien hunters who ruled the box office in the first "Men in Black" in 1997. Smith said he had a tough time getting back into character until Jones arrived on the set.

"I've never not been nervous since I was 5 years old," says the New York-born director of "Men in Black" and its sequel, "Men in Black II."

"I've had sciatica for two years," making walking a chore. "I have pain from my butt down to my legs, and it's entirely just muscles in spasm. Glad you asked? No, it's a real problem. I went to Bellevue two weeks into shooting, thinking I had a heart attack, because I was under such stress." A doctor told him to take up meditation, which he had been doing at the very time he mistook stress for cardiac arrest.

Inflaming his usual anxiety is Wednesday's opening of "MIB II," five years after the original picture teamed Tommy Lee Jones with Will Smith in one of Hollywood's most improbable -- and prosperous -- partnerships.

No one expected much of the 1997 comedy about elite cops monitoring alien activity on Earth. It ended up resetting the bar for the July 4th box office and grossing more than $587 million worldwide.

Now, the 49-year-old Sonnenfeld acknowledges, "We are so over the radar on this one. It's a place where you don't want to be. ... Yes, we're over the radar." Are they ever.

Smith, preceded by a parade of men in black, donned dark suit and shades to rock the crowd outside NBC's "Today" studios one recent morning. He and Jones stare out from placards on buses laboring through the sweltering city. And the upper floors of the Rihga Royal Hotel, a place so luxurious the toilet seats are heated to offset the chill in the marble bathrooms, have been turned into a mini-publicity machine as the stars, director and producers do interviews.

	Audio interview Listen to audio highlights from a "Men in Black II" press briefing in New York. Download an MP3 sound files, edited and optimized for the Web, in which Will Smith: Does an impression of Muhammad Ali playing Agent Jay as he talks about making the transition between filming "Ali" and "Men in Black II." (File size 255K) Describes audience reaction to a preview of Men in Black II that he snuck into with his family. (File size 362K) Analyzes why comedy breaks out when he is paired with Tommy Lee Jones. (File size 137K) Says he learned a lot about acting by reading Aristotle's book "Poetics." (File size 932K) Parenting comes before awards and celebrity in the Smith household, as the actor proved by bolting from the Oscars to care for his sick daughter just as history was being made. (File size 700K) Says legendary South African leader Nelson Mandela holds American movies in special esteem. (File size 856K) Visit the following sites to download players for Windows or Mac machines to listen to the file: Real Player Microsoft Windows Media Player WinAMP

Sonnenfeld and the others move from room to room, facing tables of reporters, but it's Smith whom everyone wants. When he arrives, it's with the confidence of an Oscar nominee, the charisma of Ali and the charm that has served him well in music, television and movies.

"Perfect as they come"

Wearing white sneakers, jeans and a beautifully embroidered and front-pleated shirt, the 33-year-old Smith brings an unmistakable energy to the room.

If he minds answering the same questions over and over, you would never know it. Lara Flynn Boyle, who portrays a villain in the movie, describes him as "about as perfect as they come. I'm not kidding you. My mom always says that to make people feel good about themselves is a gift," and he's got it.

Smith had come to the "MIB II" set directly from Ghana, where he had been making "Ali," the drama that would earn him an Academy Award nomination. "So the first couple of weeks were just a little difficult, finding Agent Jay," says Smith, segueing into an impersonation of Muhammad Ali as alien hunter, "Where's all these aliens coming from?"

"Barry's like, OK, now let's do the next one as Agent Jay," his returning character. "A little bit of a struggle with that. But the second that Tommy Lee Jones came on the set, just his presence created Agent Jay in my mind, and that relationship made me feel, OK, I got it now, this is where I need to be."

The first movie had ended with Kay's memories of being a man in black erased. We now find him working in a post office, while Jay has moved from student to teacher and become an impatient agent having trouble keeping a partner. The men end up reunited and battling an alien disguised to look like a Victoria's Secret model (Boyle) and her two-headed accomplice (Johnny Knoxville).

Smith had slipped, virtually unnoticed, into a recent preview being held for the media and whatever lucky members of the public had scored tickets. The mere presence of an "MIB II" poster in the lobby of a West 42nd Street theater had prompted unending questions from patrons: Is the film open? When will it open? Can I get in? Can I buy a ticket? Why not? Are you sure?

Pandemonium would have erupted had they known Smith planned to be inside. He slid into the auditorium about three or four minutes into the picture, to sit with his mother, sister, a couple of cousins and his son, all of whom were seeing the sequel for the first time.

"I watched it with that crowd, and when people laugh and clap on top of a laugh, there's nothing that makes you feel that good. When Michael Jackson pops up on that screen, people just lose it. You can't even hear what he's saying because people are so excited about seeing him like that."

Jackson's cameo may just produce the loudest laugh of the movie.

"He called after the first film, and he said, 'Look, I just want everybody to know I'm on record right now if there's ever a second "Men in Black," I'm in it.' Period. And then, he said he was so just moved creatively by how revolutionary the style and flavor were, that he absolutely wanted to be part of it."

Since the first picture, Smith's asking price and level of fame have shot way up. He joined one of Hollywood's most exclusive and coveted clubs by earning an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor for "Ali."

"It feels like 'Ali' has stapled me forever into Hollywood. I can make 10, 12 bad movies in a row now. I think I bought myself a bunch of flops with the Oscar nomination," he says, with a loud laugh.

He calls the period between the early-morning announcements of the nominees and the late-night naming of the winners "like frozen time. Everyone is a winner; the Oscar is one of those few awards that the nomination actually is a win."

Only Oscar contenders (and maybe Nobel Prize finalists, he adds) are in that category. And Smith was elated that Denzel Washington won as Best Actor.

"Jada and I talked probably two weeks prior to the awards show, and we both agreed Denzel needed to win," says Smith, married to actress Jada Pinkett Smith. "He needed to win -- not just for Denzel, but for black folks. Denzel needed to win."

Smith and Pinkett, however, didn't see him win. They didn't see Halle Berry win, either. Told their daughter, Willow, had developed an ear infection and 103-degree temperature, they bolted. "We actually had to leave the awards three minutes before history was made."

But the couple had no regrets about abandoning the 74th annual Academy Awards.

"We're parents first and foremost. Parent comes before being an actor or being a celebrity or winning an award, so when the situation comes up, your body and your emotions and your egos are going to tell you all kinds of crazy stuff. You have to be in a position where you don't have to listen; you're on autopilot from that point."

Smith, a Philadelphia native who cut his first record as a high school senior and teamed with friend Jeff Townes to record albums as DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, sounds as if he's been changed as a result of making "Ali," of meeting Nelson Mandela, of literally turning a new page in his life.

He recently read Aristotle's "Poetics," and it opened his eyes. "I just felt really stupid that I'd been calling myself an actor for 15 years and never studied the basics of my craft. What it did was it made me re-evaluate all the things I thought I knew" and send him in search of more reading material.

It was Mandela, a man who spent 27 years in prison, who convinced Smith that popular culture can be a powerful weapon. "I sat with Nelson Mandela, and we had just finished 'Ali,' and we had the premiere, and I'm sitting there and I'm talking to him and I'm like, 'Tell me what to do. I want to do what you do.' And he said, 'No, no, no, no.'"

Mandela told the actor that when he was in prison, he was able to watch one American film every six months. "And there was always such hope in American film. Americans are dreamers. He said Americans think the world is different than it actually is. American films are about hope and about what the world should be."

When Mandela screened "In the Heat of the Night," he knew something had been edited out, and he spent a year trying to determine what. When he learned it was a scene in which actor Sidney Poitier slaps a white man, he was inspired by such American audacity.

"And he said to keep doing exactly what I'm doing because there's a struggle somewhere that I'm helping, and I'm assisting with my work."

Smith wants to return to Africa and take his wife, who's been busy filming the second and third "Matrix" movies. "I'm going to premiere 'Men in Black II' for the Nelson Mandela foundation," and the star wants his family to spend time with the South African leader who will turn 84 next month.

And Smith may be at the top of the movie game, earning a reported $20 million for "MIB II," but he hasn't abandoned his rap roots. He just released an album, "Born to Reign," featuring the single "Black Suits Comin' (Nod Ya Head)," which plays over the end credits of the movie.

"Music is at the center of who I am. I use my music to become current. Current fashion, current slang, to get a sense of where everything is going. The films are generally two to three years behind trends, whereas music is right on the cutting edge of everything that's going to be happening."

'I love cinema'

When Smith talks about how different Agents Jay and Kay are, he could be speaking about the styles differences between himself and co-star Jones. Smith volunteers the fact that his wife introduced him to her therapist on their second date, while no one would ever expect Jones to share such personal information.

	Triple threat Will Smith - music, movies, television - entertained New Yorkers with a song from "MIB II" and other cuts from his new album on June 21. The performance was part of the NBC "Today" show's summer concert series. (Richard Drew, Associated Press)

Sometimes, you get the sense that the Harvard University grad who played a U.S. marshal in "The Fugitive" would rather engage in a hard target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, hen house, outhouse and doghouse in New York state than listen to a reporter ask what he thinks would happen if aliens really landed on Earth.

"I don't know," he shrugs. Next question.

Jones, 55, clad this day in a navy blue suit and white shirt, had joined "MIB II" two weeks into shooting. He was finishing "The Hunted" in Washington state while the sequel got under way. As soon as that film wrapped, Jones flew to New York, got off a plane late in the afternoon and went directly to Grand Central Station to get into his black suit.

Asked about Smith saying this is when the movie clicked for him, Jones says, "It's not so much a case of me personally making everything complete, it was just a great relief -- for me -- to be together with the company, and I'm sure it was uncomfortable to have a missing link."

Part of Sonnenfeld's early stress had been over a script that delayed the appearance of Jones until page 54. Rewrites advanced his entrance to 25 minutes into the picture, and Sonnenfeld wishes that could have been eight minutes earlier.

While Smith's agent gains a love interest (Rosario Dawson) in this movie, it's really the bond between the men that is at the story's heart. Jones had been happy to sign on for the sequel, calling it the right thing to do, even if he does briefly play a shorts-wearing postmaster and has to work with Frank the Pug, played by returning pooch Mushu.

"I liked that little dog. I did, yeah. I don't like dogs that don't have a use. The little house pet, the underarm dog that people carry around, I don't have much respect for that. My own dog is a hound who works as a cow dog for a living, and he's a dog with very rich character and no small amount of skill, and I respect that."

Mushu may be a small dog, but he can run across a room, hit a mark, look in any direction, stay, shake, sit or lie down. "I respect that little dog, because he's got something he can do."

Jones, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "The Fugitive," says he doesn't have trouble finding work -- or challenging roles. "I tell my daughter that only the boring are bored, and I believe that to be true. I don't have to look for stimulus, I don't have to fight for it, and I'm really interested in acting. ... I love cinema, that's what I like doing."

He met his present wife, Dawn Laurel, on the 1995 TV movie "The Good Old Boys," where she was working as a camera assistant. His 10-year-old daughter, Victoria Jones, has a cameo in this movie as a girl sitting on a sofa with her parents (director Sonnenfeld plays the dad) when the agents come into their apartment looking for a hidden cache of weapons.

Victoria earned her Screen Actors Guild card with this film, and her father says, "She was raised on a movie set, of course, and is very comfortable, knows her way around movies. She did an awfully fine job. Unfortunately, she has become typecast as a little girl."

When not acting, Jones is in the cattle and horse business in his home state of Texas. Proving he's no city slicker pretending to be a cowboy, he can provide details about wrangling on horseback, work pens, chuckwagons and how a years-long drought drove him to the heartbreaking sale of many of his herd.

When the talk turns back to acting, he is asked about the down side of his career. Sounding like former "Fugitive" co-star Harrison Ford, he responds, "I guess the first thing I would say is fame. It erodes your privacy and it sometimes is a pain in the ass."

So, will there be a "MIB III"? "I'm not thinking about it much. I don't believe anybody else is. We want to get 'Men in Black II' up and on its feet and running, but I'd love it if Sony wanted to do it again."

And Jones doesn't play favorites in terms of his performances or movies.

"The one that means the most to me is the one I'm doing, and then after that, I'd say the performance that means the most to me is the one that appeared in the movie that made the most money. I'm not very sentimental about these things, I don't have a favorite performance. I do this for a living, and when the performance is over and the movie is made, it becomes the property of the public, doesn't it?"

Maybe. With the sales pitch over, we'll know soon enough if the public is buying.