Texas Tornado: Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey
From the 2014 Empire article, Shut Up, World! Gary Busey is Talking
…enjoying pride of place above the TV, is a blown-up shot of Busey with his arm around Tommy Lee Jones. Taken on the set of Under Siege, it sees the actors in the costumes they donned for one unforgettably weird sequence: a metal-studded leather jacket and rocker headband for Jones, full drag for Busey.
“I’d read a book about the USS Missouri,” he explains. “When they crossed the Equator they had what is called ‘Pollywog Day’, where all the first-year sailors had to do unmentionable things, like walk on their knees to the conning tower, or blow bubbles in unfinished Jell-O in Morse code, making fun of their genitalia. And there was an executive officer who volunteered to be Queen of the Wogs. So I decided to dress as a woman. I took the idea to Steven Seagal, who was in a big bus he’d rented from a sheik, with a 15-foot fence around it. He said, ‘Whose idea was this?’ I said, 'Mine.’ He said, 'Okay.’ But the next day Warner Bros. called. They said, 'Gary, do not go psychic on us’ — or psycho, you know what I mean. 'This is not a movie about you as a woman. This is a movie about martial arts with Steven Seagal.’”
But Gary Busey didn’t get to be Gary Busey by listening to people who aren’t Gary Busey. “I had a 44DD stuffed, I had a Tina Turner wig and nothing was going to stop me,” he recalls. “I did the scene twice, once as Commander Krill, the male, and once as Nancy, the female — I named her Nancy because her favourite song was Rocky Raccoon. And after the scene Tommy Lee Jones started laughing so hard he couldn’t stand up. I didn’t ask him why, but I knew it had something to do with me.”
I played a raving lunatic who came in a diner and shot a lot of people. That’s like a good Tuesday for me.”
He butted heads with Seagal throughout the shoot. “Oh boy. He’s insecure. This guy went overboard with the control master. And Erika Eleniak — the little girl who was in it — I had her under my wing. He was looking to add in a love scene so he could really get down and dirty. She said to me, 'What do I do?’ And I said, 'How much time do you have when you’re running from us to find a table, lay down and play plant-the-sausage?’”
According to the autobiography, Buseyisms, Gary asked Tommy Lee Jones about “Nancy Krill” (Gary Busey’s drag named confirmed), and while it was a flat “no” from Steven “Casting Couch” Seagal, a confused maybe from director Andrew Davis, Tommy Lee Jones thought it was hilarious and encouraged Gary to pursue the idea. With the promise that he could get it on one take from Gary, Andrew Davis shot the scenes both ways, and thankfully they kept what’s arguably one of the best scenes in the movie.
[Tommy Lee Jones] was incredible. He called me one day and said, “I was just laughing [thinking of you] as a woman.”
I said, “OK, would you like to date?”
He said, “How could I refuse?” and hung up laughing. He is a brother.
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