Tommy Lee Jones and Harrison Ford both have reputations as no nonsense guys, but I’m curious about their acting styles. A significant percentage of a director’s job is to manage personalities, so I’m wondering if they had similar needs as actors or if you had to navigate different methods of working in order to get those performances from them?
I didn’t have to work hard to get performances from these guys. I mean, the story was clear what the issues were, and this is the third film I had done with Tommy, so we had a relationship where I would just try to create a realistic environment and surround him with interesting characters he could play off of. And I didn’t ever say, “Say it slower” or, “Have a different tone to your voice.” If something didn’t work, it was pretty clear we would do another take, but we didn’t shoot a lot like that. And Harrison, basically, through most of the movie, is pretty much a silent actor. He’s reacting to things, so it’s his body language that’s showing this danger. And I’ve said this before, but we were out on the edge of the dam and he’s going like this [raises hands in surrender], and Tommy’s saying, “He’s the greatest silent actor we have.”