Interview with Joel Coen

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[This is the second part of Smriti's 2-part conversation with Joel Coen. To access the first installment, use the above navigation links.]A trend in Coen Brothers movies seems to be that these odd characters, often played by regulars in the Joel and Ethan's talent circle such as Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, Michael Badalucco, and John Goodman, support big-name stars that assume lead role in their films. "That's true, and it¿s become more common in that last five to ten years," Joel reflects. "What's sort of deceptive is that the point at which we worked with some of these actors, they weren't really stars yet. Nicolas Cage was not a big star when we did Raising Arizona. A lot of these people were also virtually unknown, too, when we worked with them first – Fran [McDormand], Holly [Hunter], John Goodman."" It's a funny thing, yeah. We do tend to work with bigger stars now." One of them being Joel's wife, Frances McDormand, who won an Academy Award for her work in Fargo. McDormand, who hadn¿t worked with her husband and brother-in-law since then, re-teams with the brothers again for The Man Who Wasn't There. "This movie is sort of an exception to that because Billy Bob [Thornton] and Fran are very well known actors, but aren't the kind of 'movie stars' in the sense that George Clooney and Brad Pitt are."Speaking of Brad Pitt, what about the highly publicized collaboration between the actor and the brothers? "That one went down the old drainerino," he says of To the White Sea, a World War II drama that was scheduled to commence principle photography this winter. "It was really a budget thing at the end of the day," he adds. Namely, the film required more money than what the studio was willing to put forth. "It wasn't anybody's fault, it was just that a certain amount of money was available to make the movie, and certain amount was necessary to actually make it properly, and it came to a point where we had to either radically reconceive how we were going to shoot the movie or move on to something else." That something else is a comedy called Intolerable Cruelty, which will reunite them with O Brother star George Clooney. As for To the White Sea, "I think it's dead."Getting an elusive figure like Joel Coen to sit down for a lengthy interview is no easy task, and part of that can be attributed to the kinds of questions he is asked. Just to be on the safe side, I asked the director to give me a list of questions that he was sick of answering. "Well, I'd be perfectly happy never to have to answer anything again about how I work with Ethan," he says, almost instantaneously. I immediately cross three or four questions off of my list. "Or whether we have arguments, or¿you know what I mean? I've been answering those questions for twenty years. I suppose it's interesting to people, but you would think that if they were that interested, they would go back and read any of the hundreds of interviews we've given over the past twenty years, and we'd never have to answer it again." So if you're looking for that kind of information, use your favorite search engine.Part of the reason fans are so interested in the process behind constructing the library of stories that the Coen Brothers have assembled is because, as filmmakers, they are considered to be at the very top of the game. Joel insists that acquiring a station like that is a gradual process, and one that he hasn¿t totally reconciled himself with. "I think we learned a lot between our first and second films," he says, referring, of course, to Blood Simple and Raising Arizona, respectively. "There's a big jump in your confidence in terms of your craft after you've made your first feature – or at least it was for us. And then after that you continue to learn new things and become more confident, but it's a slower, more incremental process."One fear for the director is complacency. "People do get lazy, and I'm sure that happens to us to a certain extent. But, you know, if the material is challenging, it forces you to challenge yourself when handling it."Complacency is one thing, but does Joel Coen ever fear mediocrity? "Oh sure!" he answers readily. "Definitely, because you want to keep it fresh and you hopefully can keep doing new stuff that's going to continue to stimulate and keep people interested." Joel claims to feel the most responsibility towards "people that have been interested in our work for awhile, because those are the last people you want to disappoint."Creative people are known for doing crazy things to keep the juices flowing, and to get themselves out of slumps. "A sort of creative Viagra as it were?" asks Joel, laughing heartily at his witticism. "No, we do it completely without chemicals."Though they may be at or near the apex of their career right now, with story ideas and energy overflowing, but Joel worries that that may not always be the case for him and his brother. "It's a funny thing because you look at the careers of other filmmakers, and you see them sort of slow down, and you realize, 'maybe this becomes harder to do as you get older.' That's sort of a cautionary thing. I hope it doesn't happen to me."All things considered, where does Joel Coen see himself in twenty years? "Well that's a good question," he says, pondering over the answer for a while. "I have no idea. Part of me hopes I'm still making movies, and part of me hopes that I'm not!" He issues another hearty laugh of the kind he's famous for amongst his acquaintances. "I don't know. I mean, it would be nice to still be making movies in twenty or thirty years. It's kind of a funny business because it's a business of young people. I've got friends that are filmmakers older than I am by twenty years, and I see how, for absolutely no logical reason – because they are so much better than most filmmakers working now – have trouble getting projects off the ground, and it's because it's a very youth-oriented business."He doesn't knock young Hollywood though, acknowledging that there are new filmmakers that he admires. "I like Spike Jonze, I really liked that Meeting John Malkovich [sic] movie, and I like Wes Anderson."Of the old timers, Joel regards Stanley Kubrick as a master, not only for his storytelling prowess, but also for his knack for treading the fringes of the mainstream without actually being a part of it. "I always admired Stanley Kubrick for the fact that he managed to beat the system somehow," he says. Similar compliments have been issued to the Coen Brothers for their ability to retain creative control over their projects, despite the fact that they are almost always funded by major studios. "I think he kind of had it all figured out."Dwelling on the state of filmmaking past, present, and future, though certainly interesting, still doesn't answer the core question that fans of Joel Coen's films are always asking – why is he creative? "I don't know that I am," he responds. "That's for other people to decide. I guess it beats throwing trash for a living."

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