Jim Kelly Q. and A. Sept. 28th Alamo Lake Creek
As Recorded by Chad Holt and Shutterbug

Did he realize Enter The Dragon would be so popular at the time? :
“No. It’s one of those types of films that everything came together. I mean everything just worked. Every once in a while a film comes along like that everything just works. All the pieces were there and it just became a cult film. It’s just an exciting martial arts film.”

On fight scenes in Enter The Dragon:
“They were choreographed. Yes they were. No free styling. Well all martial arts films you usually have to choreograph the fight scenes, and in Enter the Dragon, all of them were choreographed. Bruce Lee set up most of the fight scenes.

Comparing Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan:
“Jackie Chan, the guys today, they’re a little different. Jackie Chan of course is very unique, he’s a very exciting martial artist... completely different than Bruce Lee, a completely different type of martial artist. Bruce was a little bit more... took things a little bit more serious. Jackie Chan, with his uniqueness, he’s very...he does a lot of comedy stuff which is very good, he’s good at that, he’s great at that, that’s what he does. Little bit different than Bruce. Bruce, he was very particular about what he did, and he was very serious about what he did, and the images that he projected on screen.”

Comparing Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris:
“How do I compare the two? Hmmmm. Good question. Well, let me think about that. I have to word this just right don’t I? Chuck Norris was a champion martial artist, a great competitor, he was a lightweight champion, and he was a great point karate fighter. Bruce, well, I can basically say this. I’ve been around a lot of great martial arts fighters; worked out with them, fought them in tournaments. In my opinion, Bruce Lee was the greatest martial artist that ever lived. To me, that’s my opinion. I think Bruce is the greatest martial artist ever. I don’t think anybody is in his class.”

On Kung Fu, the television series:
“That was for Bruce, you know? That was for Bruce Lee. That was just a TV series, that the guy wrote the whole thing for him, and he said Look Bruce, will you do it? To make a long story short, he said Will you do it Bruce, and Bruce was all excited, because, I mean, that was his big break. He was all excited to do that series. The guy says No problem Bruce, I’ll get it all financed and everything. Basically the story is, Hollywood wasn’t ready for an Asian hero, so they said We have to get David Caradine, and make him look a little Chinese. They weren’t quite ready for it, so they would not let Bruce have that series, and that really hurt him. That really hurt Bruce Lee. So, he tried to stick it out for a while, and stay in the states, and finally, he said Forget it, I’m going to go to Hong Kong.”

On his current acting career:
“Well, I get offered maybe like three to five roles a year, and they’re one of the stars, or the lead or whatever, but the script is so bad, the character so bad, that I just won’t do them. I want to do action films, I love to do action films, I love to do martial arts films, but I just can’t do anything. Some actors in Hollywood they will just take anything as long as you put that money in front of them. There is a lot of money to be made in Hollywood as far as films are concerned, it’s big money, but I refuse to do certain things no matter how much of it you put in front of me. So, if something comes along good, I will do it.”

R. Lee Ermey Q. and A.
Rolling Roadshow Sept. 27th. 2003 screening of Texas Chainsaw Massacre
As recorded by Jonathan McPhail and Shutterbug

On Texas:
“I never miss an opportunity to come to Texas to do a movie. I kinda enjoy it down here, it’s... I’m from Kansas. An old Kansas farm boy, I like coming down and rubbing shoulders with y’all down here y’all are good people.”

On a man in the audience desperate to be called a maggot:
“Well Les, there’s no doubt in my military mind you probably are a fucking maggot. Now get down and give me twenty-five.”

On working with Stanley Kubrick in Full Metal Jacket:
“Stanley Kubrick was a Prince among men. He and I saw eye to eye on mostly everything. I was there for nearly fourteen months with him. I was there for pre-production. I stayed for post-production afterwards. The actual filming was nine months. I was there for fourteen months. Stanley and I got along great. He was a perfectionist. I feel sorry for the actors that work with Stanley Kubrick and go on Good Morning America and tell eighteen million housewives that it took them fifty takes to come up to Stanley Kubrick’s expectations, because Stanley only wanted the very best, and he didn’t accept anything less than perfection.”

On doing his own stunts in Texas Chainsaw Massacre:
“It’s really a bitch to get run over. I had earaches for about a month after that. And he didn’t just run over me once or twice fuck, you know, they had to run over me three goddamn times. No, we had a professional stunt man come out, and he’s the one you saw going over the roof of that car, it wasn’t this fucking guy, I assure you.”

His prediction of the Texas/ Kansas State game, and if the Texans are steers or queers:
“Only steers and queers come from Texas, and you don’t much look like a steer to me, so that kinda narrows it down. And K-State, I don’t much follow college football, and the reason is really simple. There’s a mark on every damn day of my calendar. I’m either doing the movie or doing the show, you know I have a show on the History Channel called Mail Call. It just keeps me totally busy and I work almost every day of the year. Last year I think I had four days off. There are four days of the year that are sacred to me, and those are the opening four days of deer season.”

On how he got his first big break:
“I didn’t get a first break. I actually heard that they were going to start doing Vietnam War Movies in The Philippines after I retired out of the Marine Corps, and I jumped on a jumped on a space-A (sp?) at George Air Force Base in California, and went to The Philippines, and I found out who the only casting director in Manilla or the Philippine Islands was, I befriended him, and he and I are still good friends today. Every show that came to The Philippines, I was working on. Small parts, The Boys In Company C, Purple Hearts, The Siege of Fire, Base Gloria, I believe I’ve done more Vietnam War shows than anybody in show business. After doing all those shows one day the phone rang and it was Stanley Kubrick on the other end and he wanted me to come be technical advisor on his film Full Metal Jacket. I took the job as technical advisor simply so I could get my foot in the door. I knew if i could get my foot in the door, I could probably score on the role. It took me about two months with Stanley Kubrick. He fired the other actor, sent his ass back to Hollywood, and I got the role.”

On Kissing Jack Black:
“Ok, we new that had to come up. I don’t know how many of you have seen Saving Silverman, but in that film, I’m required to kiss Jack Black. Jack Black, by the way, wasn’t any more excited about it than I was. They gave me 200,000 dollars to kiss Jack Black, and I’d never kissed another man in my entire life except my father if once in a while I could get past his alcohol breath, I would give him a goodnight kiss, but it was always on the cheek. Jack and I discussed it, and we decided that it would be no tongue, and that there would be no wetness at all, and if anything started hardening up, that would be the end of the goddamn take. We actually had to do about seventeen takes, becuase Jack Black, as I said, is not a good kisser.”