Ethan We’ve always actually been remarkably commercially successful. Not in terms of making huge amounts of money, which we rarely do, but in terms of not losing money and making modest amounts of money. We’re actually strangely consistent in that respect. We’ve been able to keep making movies because of that and also because, strangely, we’ve had studio patrons, starting from Barry Diller. Sometimes they’re establishment people who know they’re not going to make huge amounts of money, but they like your movies. They’re moviegoers, too.
Joel And mostly they’re making blockbusters, but when you get in a room with them, they go, “Go off and make your movie, and I’ll do it as long as I can’t get hurt too bad.” You know? They’re completely open to that still. They don’t want to get burned.
Ethan They don’t want to look stupid.
Joel Nobody wants to look stupid or lose lots of money. On the other hand, they’re not afraid of doing other stuff if they can trust you to keep it reasonable. So, yeah, they kind of let us wander off without any adult supervision and do what we want.
I loved that movie so much. I think Albert Finney is an amazing actor. Torturro was really well cast for that film. The scene where he is begging for his life in acting class is called a superlative. The most... In this case the Most desperate. He nailed it.
I found Gabriel Byrne a bit miscast, but every character around him was perfect. An excellent ensemble as usual for the Coen Bros.
I remember them telling me that he wasn't easy to work with. And Finney was a last minute replacement for Trey Wilson who died just as shooting began. Go figure that.
The actors probably didn't get what the Coen brothers were about as it was still early in their careers and not a real proven track record. This was drama with comic moments. Byrne was not easy to work with or Finney?
GB. I think they had a fine time with Finney though I don't recall. It's a great read, by the way, as a screenplay.