Canadian actor Barry Pepper first came to public prominence as the Bible-quoting sniper in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (1998). And now, according to a Los Angeles Times piece on Tommy Lee Jones’s upcoming film The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, it looks like Pepper — who plays a “cruel, foul-mouthed border agent” in the new film — has had Bibles on the brain again:
With Pepper, Jones gave the actor a rifle and sent him up to the mountains and told him to live out there for several days before production began to prepare for the role.
“There would be a tent and a fire pit,” recalled Pepper. “There were elk and deer and mountain lions and rattlesnakes. You would sit up there on these 7,000-foot towering cliff faces or search for ancient native hunting grounds for arrowheads or just stare at the fire all night.”
At first, Pepper says, he didn’t know the method behind Jones’ madness.
“But you just go with the flow and where it took you,” he said. “I had my most profound revelations about the character up there. Tommy was never concerned with my ability to portray the devil or angel, he was only interested in the fragile moment of enlightenment the character has, that dawning of the gift of redemption that Pete offers him.”
Jones’ insight to the characters was equally unconventional — he often used literature, music and even riddles to convey what he was looking for.
“The music,” in particular, “was eclectic,” said Pepper. “It was old Southern country ballads and Spanish acoustic guitars, really simply beautiful music.”
Still, Pepper persisted in asking Jones how he could best portray the character.
“The only thing he gave me was ‘You’re spiritually vacuous,’ ” Pepper said. “He gave me the Bible and asked me to read Ecclesiastes and gave me a series of novels by Flannery O’Connor. I read a lot of her work and a lot of the Bible. I spent a lot of time in the mountains. It was as simple as that.”
Pepper discovered Jones’ approach was freeing and empowering for the actors.
“He left it in your hands and challenged you to think. He couched everything in a story or a riddle or a joke. I think he scares the [heck] out of most people, but once you get to know him, he has a wonderful sense of humor and is a really fascinating guy to work with. Beneath the grizzly surface is this real Southern gentleman.”
FWIW, I interviewed Pepper myself a few years ago for the Vancouver Courier, when he co-starred with Mel Gibson in We Were Soldiers (2002). Some time after that I heard a rumour that Pepper is a Christian — a rumour that would appear to be confirmed by an interview that my former Courier editor did with him two years later (“A self-described (but not orthodox) Christian who adheres to the teachings of the Bible, Pepper is picky about the roles he chooses and isn’t interested in material that ‘isn’t ethically or morally compatible’ with his belief system”). It’s not the sort of thing that you can easily confirm via Google, though, since “Barry Pepper” and “Christian” tend to bring up pages referring to Battlefield Earth (2000), the John Travolta movie that co-starred Pepper and was directed by Roger Christian.
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