Martha Plimpton was very excited to reunite with her former on-screen father, Tommy Lee Jones, in her new series, “The Lowdown.”
“Many people think that [Tommy Lee] Plimpton, who played Jones’ 14-year-old daughter in the 1984 movie “The River Rat,” said “he’s a mean and mean guy, but I think he’s just a teddy bear.”
The 80-year-old added that he was “very excited” to see Jones and work with him again on the second season of the Ethan Hawke FX show.
“When you meet and work with someone at that age who plays your father, a little part of you always sees him that way,” Plimpton, 55, explained.
Plimpton told us the “Men in Black” actor “didn’t quite know” him at first, until Hawke mentioned his full name on set, which caused Jones to “perk up.”
“He turned around and saw me and we had a beautiful hug…it was incredible,” she said.
“The Lowdown” follows the adventures of Oklahoma-based citizen journalist Lee Raybon (Hawke) as he exposes corruption in Tulsa.
Jones joined Season 2 in a rare TV role as Lee’s estranged father. Plimpton joins the cast as Vela Thorne, the tough sheriff who clashes with Lee.
The “Goonies” actor told Page Six that he’s “not too picky” about roles.
“Given my career, I think it’s obvious at this point,” he joked. “But it doesn’t matter how big the character is, as long as he’s necessary to the story. [the role] “It is for me.”
The Emmy-winning actress and Hawke, 55, have been longtime friends since they first appeared in Hollywood in the ’80s. They also both starred in Tom Stoppard’s “The Coast of Utopia” Broadway trilogy of plays in 2006.
“We never actually lost touch,” Plimpton told us.
“It’s great to see someone you’ve known for so long at different stages of their development in their life,” she said.
The “East of Eden” actor said Hawke was always “a smart, lovable, goofy and fun guy, a curious person, a real reader – someone interested in the intricacies of literature and poetry.”
But as Hawke got older, Plimpton said, “I think he mellowed into this extraordinarily nice person.” “There is such a thing as making a person feel comfortable; in equestrianism we call it ‘finding your seat’.”
Plimpton is currently in the middle of a hot moment in his own career; He recently appeared in the Netflix series “East of Eden” opposite Florence Pugh and in HBO’s Emmy-winning “Task” with Mark Ruffalo and Tom Pelphrey.
The actress shared the following about her upcoming role on Task, which is currently filming its second season in Philadelphia: “The entire cast and my character are brand new, except for Mark’s character and his family.
“So it’s a whole new story and it’s opened up a lot. Mahershala Ali is in it, too. Edgar Ramirez. We’re having a good time.”
“The Lowdown” airs Wednesdays at 9pm on FX and Hulu.