Perfect Tommy actor talks past, future of 'Buckaroo Banzai'

“No matter where you go, there you are” – Buckaroo Banzai, 1984

“The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension!” is an absurdist sci-fi-comedy that was arguably ahead of its time and its studio, 20th Century Fox, didn’t know how to market it to the public.

The film follows the exploits of the title character, Buckaroo Banzai (played by a pre-“RoboCop” Peter Weller), a noted physicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot and rock musician, as he saves the world from the Red Lectroids (well-dressed, interdimensional aliens from Planet 10 that drink battery acid out of a twisty straw).

With a modified Ford F-350 pickup truck powered by a jet engine and equipped with a secret device called an “oscillation overthruster” (that suspiciously looks like the “flux capacitor” in “Back to the Future” which came out later), Banzai drives through solid matter (aka a mountain) and emerges on the other side with an alien organism attached to the undercarriage.

Lewis Smith, who was at the MASSive Comic Con last weekend at the DCU Center, played Perfect Tommy, the rhythm guitarist for Buckaroo Banzai’s band, the Hong Kong Cavaliers. He also provided a live commentary track during a screening of the movie.

“When I first read the script I had no damn idea what it was about,” Smith confessed. “It got lizards, Red Lectrodes, driving through a damn mountain. So I just threw the script against the wall. I was so frustrated.”

Despite his frustration, Smith met with the director, W.D. Richter, who asked the actor if he read the script. Smith told Richter the truth and ended up getting the role as Perfect Tommy from refusing to read the script and telling the director he didn’t get it.

Smith recalled the back-and-forth banter, saying: “'I don’t have any idea what the hell you’re doing.' And Richter said, 'You sound like Perfect Tommy to me. Will you read it?’ ‘How can I read something I don’t understand?’ And Rick goes, ‘That’s funny.’ ‘I’m not trying to be funny.'

“Richter thought he would sell me on the movie by going, ‘The best way I can tell you what this movie’s about …’ He took his hand and hit the table. '…You know, if you go fast enough, you can go through this table right now.’ I said, 'See, that’s the point. This is very frustrating when I don’t (expletive) get it.'”

Throughout the filming of “Buckaroo Banzai,” Smith and his fellow costars (which also includes Jeff Goldblum in a ridiculous red cowboy outfit for no apparent reason) would often ask the director simple questions like “What is this scene about?” or “Why is this scene in the movie?” And, oftentimes, the answer the actors would get was “I don’t know.”

“Richter would know but he wanted us to come up with own answer, which is genius on his part,” Smith said. “And, I guarantee you. Every actor thinks the movie is about something different because he wouldn’t tell any of us.”

Smith also asked the director how his character, Perfect Tommy, got his name. And the director said, “I don’t know. That is your problem. Figure it out”. As a result, Smith said the concept and creation of “Perfect Tommy” was all his, with a little help from his roommate at the time, comic legend Garry Shandling,

Despite not reading the script and not understanding it, there was another hurdle he had to overcome, the actor playing Buckaroo Banzai.

Prior to “Buckaroo Banzai,” Smith and Weller worked together on the TV movie “Kentucky Woman” the previous year and there was friction between the two actors on the set. Weller, the star of “Buckaroo Banzai," told the director that Smith was a “loose cannon” and, being the star, said he wasn’t sure if he wanted him in the movie. The two actors had a private meeting and worked out their differences, Smith said.

Smith favorite line in the film is “Don’t embarrass us,” which he says right before Buckaroo Banzai goes off into heroic, intergalactic battle with the aliens, while his favorite scene is when Perfect Tommy is banging his head against the prison bars while Buckaroo has a “love scene” with Penny Priddy, who turns out to be the twin sister of his dead wife, Peggy (played by a yet unknown Ellen Barkin).

“That says everything about the movie, making fun of the love scene,” Smith said.

His most fun scene, however, is when veteran character actor Matt Clark, who plays the Secretary of Defense, unplugs his microphone during a press conference after Perfect Tommy makes a wise-crack at Clark’s expense. The scene was totally improvised, including Lewis’ laugh, and it made the final cut.

“Matt Clark says, 'I’m sure you guys didn’t come here to hear me talk.' And I went, ‘You’re right’. He looked at me and unplugged my microphone,” Lewis recalled. “My laughing in that scene was as real as it gets.”

At the end of the “Buckaroo Banzai,” the movie promises a sequel, “Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League.” In May, another Smith (first name Kevin) announced he is adapting the film for television and will get the band back together and, quite possibly, the original cast might turn out to be the World Crime League.

“Kevin’s not redoing Buckaroo Banzai. He’s doing the continuation, which is genius. There is only one guy who can do this and that’s Kevin,” Smith (the actor) said. “It’s much like the movie. Nobody really knows anything.”

While it took a while (more than 30 years), Smith said he finally understands the movie.

“It’s about Irony,” Smith said. “Nothing is ever what it seems. That’s what the movie is about.”

Email Craig S. Semon at Craig.Semon@Telegram.com and follow Pop Culture Notebook on Twitter @TGPopCulture.