No Country for Old Men - Interview with Coen Brothers, Josh Brolin & Javier Bardem

Academy Award winners Joel and Ethan Coen are here their films include Fargo raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski their latest adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winner Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men Roger Ebert calls it a perfect film here is a look at the trailer what's the most you ever lost call it friendo also joining me the stars Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin I'm pleased to have them here to talk about this dome welcome great to see thank you welcome back um is this the first adaptation oh yeah everything else you've written so people to start with somebody when I'd start with Cormac or daddy yeah when I'd served with the book and so why did you choose this well I didn't we didn't actually choose it it was it was sent to us by Scott Rudin and galleys about a year before it was published I guess and we had read Cormac we'd rather each read a number of his novels before just for pleasure not with the idea of thinking about them as movies but this one seemed unlike I think his other novels and really well at a certain level is it's much bulkier than his other novels at least it is initially you know the first three quarters of the novel are sort of move along like a thriller and then you know it takes a turn which was just got us more interested take me through the process of this you know and in terms of how you felt about it and why you wanted to tell the story and what it offered you and working in Texas oh well that was one of the attractions actually that was one of the big attractions it's a regional story as all a Cormac stuff is and we kind of we knew the area West Texas and that was just another reason to do it but you know mostly it's what Joel's good it was just it seemed like promising his material for a movie it was just yeah it's a chase action story and you know something more than that but that Tommy Lee was your first choice yeah he's the first hire because he's just kind of the obvious guy there's the sheriff and the story is - you know by virtue of Tommy's age and his and the region again you know it's very much place timings you know from San Saba which is not quite West Texas but close enough and yeah it's just down by the border this thing's got that isn't actually it's more Central Texas but like I said close enough and yeah just got the everything you know the authority and he was just the obvious choice and then Javier was next uh-huh because he's mean enough okay yes because he's mean enough yeah look didn't he did you say to them did you say to them I don't like violence yeah I don't like to speak English much are those freaking rumors I don't drive but I don't I don't drive then they said you're a guy good he said I hate guns around right Javier was yes heavier was after Tommy Javier was the next person we approached and who does he play he even plays the character in the he plays the bad guy but whom well that's your you know what's interesting about that character in the novel is that Cormac MacCarthy keeps the reader really completely off-balance in terms of who that character is he describes him physically almost not at all he gave him this name actually it was one of the things that I first thing I asked Cormac when I met it was what his name is sugar or CH IG urh and I said well if he hadn't run in bed and he said it's a name that well I mean what he was saying basically was he tried to find a name that was intentionally untraceable sort of ethnically or nationally you know in terms of nationality or any of the rest of it the idea is that the character is in in many ways a mystery in the book and and and and the sort of task in terms of casting the character was how do you sort of make that character dynamic and real and compelling but preserved part of that mystery and then Josh oh you made a cake full I did I was doing grindhouse with robbery and Quentin Tarantino and I asked Robert oh I've been friends with for a long time I said you knows his Coen Brothers movie happening and I just found out about I had read the book a long time ago and then you know I couldn't leave because I was working so I asked Robert would he videotape me and he said why don't we just use the camera we have which was a million dollar Janice look Amaranthe valdez ever made truly the most brilliant and looking audition take the clinton directed and robert lit and shot and then i sent it to them and the response was wow who lit it and i my age until i was he liked him no ladies were no DP well what's wrong with this audition no it's fine it's just it's harder to react to a tape you know it's good to meet actors that's what he wanted all along he was no no no no even know it wasn't I couldn't at that point because I was working I will tell afterwards that they say no that I got the gumption to say okay I want to meet these guys want to tell them how I feel we well you know you has reputation thought of it even very particular about you know alright you've turned out more things yeah and only done the things that you want to do because you I've never seen a Coen Brothers movie and I wanted to and so I'd watch some of their movies and you'd never send a notice not true yeah I'm picky but when it comes to masterful filmmakers honestly like these you know then you're a lot less picky why you pick you though I mean with other films yeah well I really wanted to do two except hazard but I thought maybe when I look back on it in the end that I think might go that's all right yeah yeah oh this is one of it I am look back you can explain that to you children exactly that's going to thought do I have a good healthy fear of that so you my demo stood out now they think it's bad to do actually make what is your would your dad do for living so it matter it was a plumber said sure so well you know this move in and American Gangster and stuff like that I look back on and I feel great I worked with amazing people and collaborate with those amazing people it's a lot easier to work with people like this you know there's a lot more ego in the set with other I don't know tell me about the nature of the collaboration well with these guys it was fairly cool I mean these guys don't there's not a lot to look at they're sitting there smiling today yeah yeah there's a nervy presence in the beginning like they might there's none of that like wow you are so great what a great seed let's go do the next one because we're so happy now so why did you find it decide on him what did you need what do we need that's an interesting question we try to be easy because there be like 100 people who could play this part because it's kind of an everyman part and it's and it's I don't know we kept telling each other only need is good clean boy how come we can't find them it's that it yes it's actually unbelievably difficult because a lot of it is nonverbal a lot of it is just process you're watching a character do his thing physically I you need somebody who's going to be compelling to watch I can't another chance - Josh I never trying to help you out and I've actually gotten wrong I think it we got a head mate Alan day tell me Alex one guy in the disability ok Lee was that you know we as you said we had already cast Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem and the other two parts it's very much a movie about three men equal weight in the movie each of the Spree and and so the bar had been set very high and in terms of our own thinking in just in terms of what we knew we needed in that part we didn't want you know the audience to think when we cut away from Tommy and from Javier ok well now we're going with the adult guy for a while it was somebody who had to be able to hold their own in terms of that sort of you know compelling presence in the movie and a little lots and lots of people but it wasn't really until Josh came in in in any bread some scenes for us in a room which is a lot different than tape and and that told us what we needed to know I mean if it's it's true that after you left the room we needed we knew we were got it okay yeah doesn't tell me what sets up the movie what you do that sets up the movie well I mean he's a guy who lives in West Texas who's really a part of West Texas his West Texas he's from San Saba County which is where Tommy Lee's from which was a old pressure in itself but he's hunting antelope he's out in the middle of the desert and he runs into a drug deal gone bad Mexican drug deal gone bad finds a truckload of heroin knows there's money closeby finds the money and he'll amid 2.4 million and then decides to make a better life for himself and his wife I think but I do think that he's he's motivated by his extreme love for his wife you know he wants to make a better life for her maybe buy a house be up with young he's had and he's never had money I'm sure generationally they've never had money so the thought of being able to buy her a nice dress or something like that so I think his intentions are pure anything he'll never be caught that nobody'll ever know I don't think he I think he thinks there's going to be obstacles but from a guy for a guy who's been in Vietnam twice and gone through two tours I think he feels resourceful enough to be able to pull it off he doesn't think there's going to be something you know this mythological you know shag or you know death incarnate he does know around Oklahoma like Xavier is gonna come in at him I mean come on I would you know when he shows up you know I don't feel like I don't have a character like this do you simply go to the text and say you know I get it or do you go somewhere else well as Jo said before he was unknown especially extremely well described physically on the book so he was white wide open to any kind of interpretation and actually the only description but I remember is the blue lobby's color of the eyes which is in some ways on a polyester but we tried to find a place where the guy the person which is kind of a monument of violence itself is believable and people can go get related to him somehow boy they got related well does it work in the humor in the I am clumsy way of doing things sometimes forget is that about you guys Coen Brothers film is all about structure and process and and that you do more I'm opening this up for all of you you do more in terms of sort of literally laying out every scene so that by the time you make the movie you've done all the heavy lifting for sure that I mean you have sides you have what they're called sides every day and those are the pages that they're planning on doing and then behind the sides are their drawings or JT Anderson no John Tata Jay Todd Wow Anderson's drawings their storyboard orders so you know what shots they're going to do and they stick pretty pretty much to what that is I mean not that they're not willing to you know be spontaneous or improvise or ad-lib or you know all that but you know they always have created a very strong foundation to always resort to you know and wherever we go ahead with one light in the movies I would like to forget more than that but yeah there was one line that when I find the money I look to the Dead Guy which is absurd and then I said you know what I think that we should have something here like he's deciding okay but the day is going to change or yes I'll take the money or I see where we're going here so we tried different what ends up in the movie is mm-hmm and I can always character a provocation that was my proposition and I can always I always know where Ethan is in the theater but let's hear him go very well right but we tried different ones I think I think what's right and then we tried we came up with me he's better that's okay wise choice wasn't it favorite speech in the movie everyone but tell me more about your philosophy amazing that we said reflected in what we just talked about well it is kind of what Josh says we have a plan guy had because we're chicken you know we don't want to have to go on and you'll trust your accurate what and accuracy but just in terms of being our own ability to extemporize on the set or you know the obligation of extemporizing on the set we don't want that we want to have a plan for how we're going to shoot the scene whatever it is so we walk in with a plan which as just Josh says is always kind of subject to change but a you know it's kind of a it's a dirty blanket you know the mythology about Alfred Hitchcock well in fact he was the biggest promoter of it the idea was that idea that you know once once I actually get on the set the only thing that can happen is that something can go wrong he's already made the movie in his head and and he was he also was sort of you know very very prepared to the extent of having pre thought the movie before he started production we're not you know I'm not even sure that's true of Alfred Hitchcock in reality I don't think he could have made fifty movies without enjoying the process of being on the set and working with people it's such an extremely social and collaborative process and it well it's true that we prepare maybe to an extent greater than a lot of other directors who just part of our process it's also true that where we like the process on the set of actually seeing what happens being open to what happens when you go onto a into a new space when you're working with new people be the actors or technical people and we do have storyboards but actually we don't look at them very much while we're shooting and once they've been done we probably almost never look at the storyboards we have them in the back of our minds and we follow them to a certain extent but but but that changes a lot as we go through the production and also since they deal with the visual way before they're able to focus on actors you know and be able to listen you know that's a Everleigh that's true yeah in fact it gives them chance be more creative exactly if you've already laid out the other things you're not worried about that or it oughta be there for the actors where the actors are being more creative and to be able to go you know bring it down or tweak they do a lot of tweaking they don't do a lot of massive manipulations that you rotate piers of scene you know might not even have been no money that's possible but you don't believe it no probably I don't it's a mess ain't a chef if you lame it'll do till the mouse gets here how much do you change the book other than compress it well it is all it really is dis compression in this case of the other patient of this book in other words we didn't invent any new you know it did we didn't digress we didn't create new situations or go off on the and you never met Cormac before let him when we were shooting but that's because of your lookers yeah Ellie about the conversations we took all else was talking it I was sorry and you know one guy that didn't get afraid which I remember I just Eric Bogosian we would run every time I'd see him no I called him and I said hey you know I had I know I have a friend who is good at getting phone numbers to shady kind of character and I got core max number and I called him and I left a message he didn't call me back I left another one then I left a third and I was bored or frustrated one day and I said listen I don't know why he won't call me back I don't want you to sign my book or anything just call me back and like three days later he had come back from doing Sunset Limited one of his plays in Chicago and he said you know he was totally amicable and said I'm sorry I didn't call you back and I just got home and what do you need you know I said well you know I'd love to you know for you to come down to the Saturday I guess and so finally he brought one of his family members down to the set and really enjoyed himself because I had heard he had been to what was the other one other format all the others yeah and I the rumor was that he had spent all his time with the props man just talking about guns so we had a feeling that even if he did come down that we wouldn't be able to spend any time with him but he's a huge fan of Noah's crossing that was the first thing that he brought up and then the other thing that we talked about was his involvement in Santa Fe Institute he's the only literary portion of you know a bunch of physics physicists and scientists and that same tank right so he's more proud of that than anything yells I don't want to talk about writing no no that's in fact somebody I think told me they went to see him and that's where they met they met at December 13 and pay Institute that's where he insisted on me you know Amy will go there especially my own Elijah now the as he talked to you about the movies anybody of you talking sense have you become what they've talked understand when it leaves cousin Toby I I we think he liked it is Ethan to be he didn't yell at us he didn't see what yeah you know he seen you seem like we were actually sitting in the movies in the theater screening room with him when he saw it and he was way up front but I heard him chuckle a couple of times so I took it as a I took that in the seal of approval I don't know maybe presumptuously hey you know I talked to my boys he's just a good movie there and I waited for more none came and I was either the company you felt good to have that that's good when you talk to this laconic West Texas guys when I give you that much to you 9/11 victim of violence in this movie or violence generally for you guys is there something that you think that is it in every movie well it's a very violent I mean one of the things we said just got written one of the first things we sort of discussed with him when he sent us the book was you know it's a very there's a lot of violence in the book and it's very important as there isn't a lot of core max novels and and and and it's very important to the story and we couldn't conceive of sort of soft-pedaling that in the movie and and really doing anything resembling the book you know would have been nonsensical and we wanted to make sure that that Scott was on the same page with that of course he was I mean he wanted he wanted to make the book he didn't want to make some sort of studio Hollywood version of you know no country cold man but it's you know it's about the character confronting a very arbitrary violent brutal world and you have to see that you see it in the story as it's written and you have to see it in the in the movie in order to understand what in order to understand anything I think about what the the the characters are what they're about what they're confronting and what they're trying to make sense of everybody talks about the dog chase into the river that steam the movie every reviewer everybody that I know then you see it as having that sort of appeal we did add the dog to that - yeah so we figured Cormac wouldn't mind because he likes his dog and he like he did say he liked the dog after the movie it's that was one of the cases of taking something in the novel which was a very exciting chase scene in Lonavala set it up for us it will in the novel after Josh's character finds the money he actually goes back to the scene of the crime so to speak the place where he found the money later that night the reasons why are interesting I won't go into them but he goes back and it's the biggest mistake it's the mistake he makes that sort of the catalyst that says the rest of the plot in motion he's then confronted by confronted by some of the perpetrators and chased and it's a set piece in the novel and we know it was going to be sort of a set piece in the movie that it was an opportunity for a very sort of exciting piece of cinema you know but in doing it we did sort of we amped it up sort of another level that's just I think sort of purely appropriate in movie terms but it also was you know was it made sense to us to include this dog because so much of what Carmack's is you know is he's fascinated by animals and by dogs and they play such a sort of huge part of so many of his stories that it seemed like in addition we were bringing to the movie which was not sort of inappropriate to his Sensibility yeah he's good fan actually I hadn't read it then but I corvex first book which is great and weird for first book because it's so much Cormac it's not like he was trying to figure out who he was it was like all those others all those other books but in that little book started to get who he is yet now all those other books he kind of knows who we know he knows what he's doing so even in the first one first one has a really good dog I thought man you had a dog dr. Kovac so what happens uh Josh Josh what happens to the guy ya know what happens to the dog or what happens to the guy yeah and why this seems so when treating everybody well I just wish dear know because it's so visceral you know I mean the whole thing is this usual visual and Israel and in the fact that you can't you know it's not going to be an argument at the end of the chase so it's not going to be it's a showdown that there's no possible way you can cinematically predict you know the fact that they're running along this river and there's every obstacle but but from up from a terrain point of view and then you have this rabid you know why not mean dog yeah I know it wasn't a movie dog it was a train awful I mean he was exquisite sweet give us and it was a dog but he was he had to look he had the bezel bub look he added you know he had to sugar yeah he was the animal person circle back you said watch what I say let me do that again no it's just like who does you know I was thinking I walked away but anyway there's the yeah the door the dog got in the dog dives in and I remember when the dog was diving in they let the dog go and the trainer was sitting there in the dog's name was Scooby and it was all like just reverberating in our head Scooby Scooby it was ridiculous and then you see the dog and it's so contrasting the name to the name and then it led me through and then I jump in and it's four o'clock in the morning and I'm tired and we can only shoot from 4:30 in the morning until 5:30 and then at night between 7:00 and 8:00 or whenever the light was perfect for Roger Deakins and then they let the dog oh I jumped in and I had you know I had an injury anyway that I fell over the collar bone book so I'm jumping in and doing my best swam along it they let the dog or the JA dog probably jumped on a 50 feet he was supposed to live we figured he'd jump maybe 1517 and the dog just catapulted toward me it not only likes get the dog grabbed the gauze this is not fun it is not good this house will be not happy and you don't want to ask anymore I don't want to be in another corner Chris would home exact I'm not getting air tonight I'm going to miss my artist I'm going to miss my arms down my arms I'm life you mentioned some very I think just said about sensibilities some are writing that you guys in the way you approach them share a kind of sensibility was Cormac MacCarthy noob I wouldn't know I and you know all we know is we the book appealed to us is that you know as just a story well it's both as a story his old core my xbox do but also is something that you could make a movie I am Ella movie yeah I read somewhere also I'll be are that the disprove this was a latter-day edible like Hannibal Lecter real you think of in that way at all no no really no I mean there are great performances there of people are kind of cycle value we're going to take a look at what the night on which I saw that it would be a mistake does anybody else's yes eyeko he goes yeah we go then I will copy especially the swinging like a dude and I will bring that to their movie yeah hopefully the heavier doesn't do I mean it's not a it's weirdly not a malevolent character although it kind of scares the crap out of you it's weird I don't know what the line is that heavier walked but it's it's not exactly an evil character is just very uneasy making or is it something you'd like about it I mean you know some people say when you're playing a bad person find some redeeming quality that the audiences were like is it that so the noise or the no I don't like you but I recognize him at some level is being human for and you yeah and and and that was the again an interesting line I think that Javier had to walk in the in the his his portrayal of the character he's the one character in the book that actually departs from a certain sense of ilysm he becomes he's both sort of real in the book and an idea and and that's a very very difficult thing to do I think as an actor is to sort of preserve that it's the mystery and the fact that in in the fact that you have to be human at the same time that you have to embody something else you have to sort of embody this ideas the characters written and holds those title makers I think is tough to cut that together because if you have too many looks of this or you know it can start to become almost silly you know so you find the humanity within that he brings so much charisma to it I think that's the great thing about this guy about these bad yet his bag his sugar is that there's a charisma that you can't help but like the guy but you know you shouldn't you want to follow him which is you know so there's two returns and things going on at once that you don't get the student film you take a look at this this is you there there it is you know what Danis on this coin 1958 it's been profiting 22 years to get here and now it's here and it's either heads or tails and you have to cycle it look I need to know what I stand to win everything housing this time to win everything call it how you want said every movie you do is important because it did you how to at least not do what you don't want to do while they explain with an interview on a train because I don't know if you have a bad experience and maybe you know not to repeat that experience on over here being otherwise you want to get surrounded by people of course they do well their job but most importantly they are good people together with friends and collaborate with and there's there are people out there that they don't understand that so like you know these brothers mmm beyond they're great filmmakers they are they are great people so I don't think you can go you can visit the top you can get it really is yeah it isn't same time sure really why is that I mean it's obviously talent it's obviously sensibility it's obviously something really trying to make the connection between Cormac yeah brothers and that yes it's just people doing their own thing I don't think that they expect I mean it said it and expect their movies to be you know fully accessible there's no pandering going on there's no pandering going on with Cormac there's no pandering going on with the Cohens and they'd never say that I mean they would never they don't talk about themselves at all that's why you you know what I'm basically here to keep a movie no I usually you are you're popping up and says well you know Mabel we need somebody to tell us what they're like but it's true and there's a whole mystery that's come you know that's been created around what the Cohens are and all this kind of stuff because of the you know the ability of maybe certain yeah and their sweet guy yeah exactly a little strange but that's sweet but there's a mystery though there is a mystery that's in created because the movies are so authentic and you unique and personal when it gets to suit it's a different kind of filmmaking I thank you guys great to have you hello Graham looks like a long last night thank you okay great to see you again and for you too and welcome back we don't have any movies four or five yeah we yeah yep thank you yeah thank you

Channel: FilMagicians

Views: 1,406,924

Keywords: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Interview, Josh Brolin, No Country for Old Men, Javier Bardem, Coen Brothers, Cormac McCarthy, Charlie Rose

Id: CSCIHNXN5Ag

Length: 30min 21sec (1821 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 10 2017