Veteran actor Tommy Lee Jones has managed to garner a reputation as a curmudgeon. The gruff demeanor of both his characters and what we see of him IRL could be pretty intimidating for a young actor.
But for Alicia Vikander, any nerves she had upon meeting Jones – her co-star in Jason Bourne – were quickly calmed.
“I got to work with a legend. I thought I was gonna get in there and be the newbie on the set and it was going to be intimidating,” she told HitFix. “But it was so lovely – it was the second day when I was working with Tommy, and he brought out his iPad. He was like, ‘Well, I have a new pony that was born on my ranch yesterday.” So I was suddenly sitting there with Tommy Lee Jones, looking through his iPad at photos of newborn ponies.”
The Men in Black actor, a Texas native, has a ranch in the Hill Country of the Lone Star State. In the new Bourne movie, he plays CIA Director Robert Dewey, and Vikander”s character is a prodigy hacker hired by the CIA.
Vikander shares most of her Jason Bourne scenes with Jones, who came to the project with all the stature of an Oscar winner with a lengthy and impressive resume. A few months after production, wrapped, though, Vikander joined the club when she won an Oscar for The Danish Girl at age 27.
Jason Bourne opens in theaters on July 29.