CMG HC_ D1 021011.indd - The Hollywood Reporter

Q&A
Joel and Ethan Coen
PLAGUED BY BAD
weather, writer/directors
Joel and Ethan
Coen weren’t sure
they could finish True Grit
in time for its Dec. 22 U.S.
release. Since then it’s earned
$150 million and an Oscar
Best Picture nomination. On
the eve of its first film-festival
appearance, opening the
Berlin International Film
Festival Feb. 10, the Coens
talk about their biggest hit
with The Hollywood Reporter’s
Tim Appelo.
When were you last in Berlin?
Joel: We haven’t been there
since The Big Lebowski.
We’ve known [festival
director] Dieter Kosslick
for a while and like him, so
we’re looking forward to it.
What are your Berlin
memories?
Ethan: It’s gray and cold.
Most of the other festivals
are more like you’re off conventioneering
someplace.
Joel: We were there with
John Goodman at a press
conference and had just
been subjected to the usual
paparazzi battery of exploding
flashbulbs and the first
question was, ‘What do you
think of Berlin?’ and John
said, ‘I’ve noticed a lot of
cameras.’ [laughter]
In THR on Dec. 1, I said True
Grit’s last-minute Dec.
22 release wasn’t a smart
move. In 13 days it made
more than your first 7 films
did in 13 years. I guess it was
a smart move.
Joel: They didn’t have a
choice. We barely made
it. The big surprises came
fast and furious this year.
We were not expecting
the movie to perform as
it did commercially. And,
honestly, we thought there
wasn’t going to be a slew of
Oscar nominations either.
Sources say Stalin sent
an assassin on a botched
mission to Hollywood to
kill John Wayne in 1943. If
he’d been successful, there
would have been no 1969
True Grit. Would your movie
be any different?
Joel: Oh, it wouldn’t be.
That’s the thing. Our movie is
from the Charles Portis novel.
So there’s no influence at all?
Joel: Bits around the edges.
Ethan: It’s been remarked
that Dakin Matthews [who
plays the horse trader] is
reminiscent of Strother Martin,
who played the role in
1969. I have a vague memory
of Martin in that role. It’s a
chicken or egg thing — what
comes from the book and
whatever distant memory of
the movie we have.
Can you point to anything in
True Grit and say, “Joel came
up with this, Ethan with
that?”
Joel: Well, it’s all pretty
much a mush, because what
really happens is there’s a
discrete idea A and discrete
idea B and C and so on that
gets dumped into the movie.
It’s one person says something,
then the other person,
it gets batted back and forth
and modified.
Did Wayne’s iconic performance
cast a shadow on
your True Grit?
Joel: Jeff kinda didn’t care.
The one person who might
have been put off by it. He
just kinda didn’t give a shit.
Ethan: A lot of people
might take umbrage, but
I’m not sure that was the
iconic performance of John
Wayne. To think of it as
iconic largely because of
4
the Oscar is a mistake.
Wayne got it for being John
Wayne.
Ethan: Joel had a theory
he learned about acting by
watching his horses. Like
a lot of big guys, like John
Goodman, he had incredible
physical gracefulness,
like a dancer.
Garry Wills says Kim Darby
made the Mattie role too
childish in 1969, perhaps
because she was actually a
21-year-old mother.
Ethan: That’s interesting,
the idea that she might’ve
been trying to compensate
for her age, pushing it the
other way.
She’s following Wayne’s
character, in second place.
Ethan: That was never a
problem with Hailee. She
definitely understands she’s
VITAL STATS
Nationality: American
Festival Entry: True Grit (opening
night film)
Selected Filmography: Blood
Simple (1984), Barton Fink (1991),
Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski
(1998), O Brother Where Art Thou
(2000), No Country For Old Men
(2007), A Serious Man (2009)
Ethan
and Joel
Coen
driving the truck, the truck
being the expedition. That’s
the central joke of the book:
she’s the grownup.
When I interviewed Steinfeld
she sounded a lot like Mattie
- confident.
Ethan: She does have this in
common with her character.
I asked Rusty the
wrangler if she could ride.
He said, ‘She’s gonna be
fine — she’s totally unafraid
of the horses.’”
So was Fargo, and True Grit.
Ethan: Yeah, in a very different
way.
But True Grit is the opposite
of No Country — talk about
being verbal.
Joel: Oh, totally verbal.
Ethan: One hallmark of
Portis’s books is they always
have a gasbag.
Joel: We’re drawn to
gasbags.
One last question. What are
you going to do with all that
money?
Joel: What is Paramount
gonna do with all that
money is the better
question.
Ethan: We’re glad the studio
is doing really well. THR
day1_qa.indd 1 2/9/11 12:51 PM