The Coen brothers said idiocy was a major central theme of "Burn After Reading"; Joel said he and his brother have "a long history of writing parts for idiotic characters" and described Clooney and Pitt's characters as "dueling idiots." "Burn After Reading" is the third of four Coen brothers films with Clooney ("O Brother, Where Art Thou?", "Intolerable Cruelty" and, later, "Hail, Caesar!"), who acknowledged that he usually plays a fool in their movies: "I've done three films with them and they call it my trilogy of idiots." Joel said after the last scene was shot, "George said: 'OK, I've played my last idiot!' So I guess he won't be working with us again."