"O Brother, Where Art Thou?" article in Jan. 2001 "Premiere"
Jaime Jeske
Funny Farm
by Alex Lewin
A: The new Coen brothers movie
Q: What has a burning barn, a nervous pig, and a leading man (George
Clooney) in a hair net?
Tempers never flare on a Coen brothers set. Everyone is professional.
Everyone is easygoing. Except for the pig. While shooting a scene in
which three escaped convicts (George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim
Blake Nelson) flee from a burning barn, Nelson had to hold a pig who
was, he recalls, "out of control. He was urinating wildly and squealing
and writhing. I don't think he was interested in being in a fire scene,
or in being held by somebody who's uglier than he is."
Such were the challenges of filming "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" -- the
latest from masters of peculiarity Joel and Ethan Coen ("Raising
Arizona," "Fargo," "The Big Lebowski"), who took a loose adaptation
of "The Odyssey" -- set in 1930s Mississippi -- and invested it with
quirky musical numbers and a bit of slapstick. Their wandering hero is
Ulysses Everett McGill (Clooney), who cuts loose from the chain gang
with his two thick-witted cronies and leads them on a search for buried
treasure.
The title is taken from Preston Sturges's 1941 film "Sullivan's
Travels," about a Hollywood director who wants to make a social-problem
picture called "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" The Coens' story has been
gestating for years. "It had a strange evolution," Joel says. "It
started out as sort of a 'three dopes movie' and..." -- Ethan completes
his sentence -- "... ended up as a 'three dopes movie.'"
It's a typically glib interaction between the brothers, who maintain a
calm demeanor even when dealing with fire, stunts, and a panicked
porker all in one scene. After a take, Joel's only word to Ethan
is "Yeah." Ethan, chewing a toothpick, responds, "Yeah." They print it.
All a facade, Nelson says. "They're a couple of neurotic Jews
masquerading as laid-back hippies."
Clooney admires them because, he says, "they only adhere to the rules
that they make up. They give you the storyboards for each day. It shows
you where you're going to be and how the shot's going to look. It shows
you literally how to act in that scene."
"You're never going to make a huge payday with them because they're
cheap bastards," says Turturro, who's worked on four Coen movies. "But
I'd work with them anywhere if they were even half as good as they are."
Copyright 2001 "Premiere." All rights reserved.
http://www.premieremag.com/
Note: There's a large (one and three-quarters of a page) black and
white photo of George, Tim, and John in a barn, laughing with Ethan and
Joel. The caption reads: 'From left, George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson,
John Turturro, and Ethan and Joel Coen prep for the barn-burning scene
in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"'
In the "B.C.C.: News You're Not Supposed to Know" section on page 39,
there's a tiny picture of George, with a blurb that reads: 'Replacement
Killer: When the Coen brothers initially approached George Clooney, it
was to do a cameo as an insurance agent in a movie called "Suburbicon,"
in which Kathy Bates would bash him in the head with a shovel. But the
Coens shelved that flick and, within months, asked Clooney to star as
the Ulysses character in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Instead, now he
gets to be the lead -- and be smacked upside the head with a giant
branch by John Goodman.'
On page 64, there's a sidebar called "We Wish You Hadn't Said That: The
Worst Lines of a Terrible Year," in which this quotes from "The Perfect
Storm" appear:
George Clooney: "When I get back from the Grand Banks, they won't be so
grand anymore."
Mark Wahlberg to George Clooney: "Home? I thought the sea was your
home." [They're right -- that one's awful.]
On the same page and the next, there's a piece called "Unsung Oscars,"
which features a picture of the female cast of "Coyote Ugly," who won
for "Best Hair." The caption reads: 'Best Hair: The girls of "Coyote
Ugly," who have so much of the stuff and not a strand out of place.' On
the next page, George's "Perfect Storm" character is a runner-up
for "Best Martyr Since Gandhi."
On page 23, there's a review of "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" with a
photo of Tim, John, and George peeking out from what looks like a
hayloft, and on page 86, there's a review of the "Perfect Storm" DVD,
with a photo of George clinging onto a boat in the pouring rain, but I
really don't feel like typing all of that -- sorry!
This magazine is on the shelves now, but if anyone misses it (or for
those of you who don’t live in the US), and wants a copy later, it can
be back-ordered by writing to:
"Premiere" magazine
1633 Broadway
New York, NY
10019
(I’ve never ordered a back issue of "Premiere," so I don’t know the
exact amount it costs, and I don’t see that information either in the
magazine or on the website). You could, however, try calling 1-800-544-
6748 (the number listed on the website) or 201-451-9420 (the number
given in the magazine).
Send letters to the editor to:
Letters Editor, "Premiere"
1990 South Bundy Drive
Suite 250
Los Angeles, CA
90025
Fax: 310-826-5990
Email: ed...@premieremag.com
Jaime
---
"Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that
they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly,
and one by one." -- Charles Mackay, "Extraordinary Popular
Delusions and the Madness of Crowds"
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