The ‘Coen bounce’: which actors got it, and which didn’t?

We're laughing on the inside.

How many times have we asked the question, Hailee who? Well okay, something like this question. When it was recently announced that the Coen Brothers had cast a young unknown by the name of Hailee Steinfeld in their new film, True Grit, a remake of the classic western, it got me thinking. This, I thought, is almost their thing. Nearly as often as they drag their poor characters to hell and back, snickering just off-camera, the brothers throw unknowns into their movies.

Going all the way back to the beginning (well almost, I’m not dipping into the well of Crime Wave: Broken Hearts and Noses, which was really a 50-50 collab by the young Coens and the equally young Sam Raimi), the Coen brothers gave us, and Joel Coen gave himself (Hanukkah came early that year!) the young Frances McDormand, in their fantastically muddle-headed neo noir, Blood Simple. And she’s been with us ever since. Here’s a funny, brief interview with the brothers from the mid-80’s, when they were promoting their debut movie, rocking the mullet (Joel, anyway), and looking an awful lot like two teenagers who’d taken mom’s car for a spin without asking:

While Randal “Tex” Cobb had worked before, a bit, particularly in television, the brothers gave him his meatiest role yet, in Raising Arizona, as Leonard Smalls, baby hunter, or, depending on your point-of-view, warthog from hell. Before becoming an actor, Cobb was a successful boxer, and kickboxer, leaving Texas at eighteen to train in Philly. In 1982, just four years before shooting with the Coens, Cobb took such a beating from Larry Holmes that Howard Cosell vowed never – to cover -  another – professional match – again. I guess Cosell never watched Rocky or Raging Bull. Cobb joked that Cosell’s decision would be a “gift to boxing.” When the idea of a rematch came up, Cobb said Holmes wouldn’t go for it because his “hands couldn’t take it.” Funny guy. And soulful too. Perfect for the pictures. He hasn’t stopped working since.

In Miller’s Crossing, Marcia Gay Harden, in her first real film role, portrayed the sort of easy sexy character that she’s rarely done since (one obvious exception is her turn as Ava Gardner in the Sinatra biopic). The great thing about the Coens is their ability to see in someone what it seems like others don’t notice. When it comes to Harden, it was her icy cool sex appeal and, no doubt, ability to deliver the hard-boiled period dialog of Crossing with what seemed like ease. It’s not always the easiest stuff for an actor to speak, this period snap-and-crackle, and some never manage to lift it off the page. It’s the same with the dialogue of David Mamet. Some actors, like William H. Macy, can make that shit sing. And others, like, well, all of Mamet’s wives, simply can not. They look silly and stiff, which must be how Mamet likes his wives, with his lines just flopping around in their mouths like a flounder on the line. But this dame Harden nailed every line she got, and this film gave her a bounce she’s still enjoying.

Verna: Shouldn’t you be doing your job?
Tom: Intimidating helpless women is my job.
Verna: Then go find one, and intimidate her.

For their follow-up to Crossing, the Coen brothers also plucked Tony Shalhoub from relative obscurity to play Ben Geisler, the brusque D-Guy at Capitol Pictures who becomes an unlikely mentor for the neophyte Barton Fink, a New York playwright high on the hog after a successful Off-Broadway run of his play, and definitely out of his element in sunny Los Angeles (so much so that he brings a mosquito with him – “There are no mosquitoes in Los Angeles!” Geisler barks. “Mosquitoes breed in swamps. This is a desert. What have  you got for me?”). Every single scene Shalhoub has in the movie is priceless. Right after making this movie he got the show Wings, which probably paid for his mosquito-free house in sunny LA.

In Fargo, the Coens cast oddball Swede Peter Stormare in his first real English language role. Though the man had made his film debut in Fanny & Alexander, by some nobody named Ingmar Bergman (in a small, uncredited part), he spent 14 years working on Swedish productions (not erotica) before being discovered by the brothers for Fargo. But since then he’s wasted little time, using his Coen Bounce to cash some big Hollywood checks on films like Armageddon and 8MM, and has ultimately pursued a pretty mixed bag of tricks with good stuff like Dancer in the Dark and Minority Report (in which he was the best thing) sharing the wealth with the likes of Constantine and Bad (you said it) Boys 2. He also, of course, teamed up with the Coens again, as one of four Nihilists in The Big Lebowski. Here he is in Fargo:

Which is funny, considering that’s exactly what he does in Lebowski, along with Aimee Mann and Flea (that’s “Mr. Flea” to you). The Coens always like to foreshadow a future movie in their current one (the hotel that Tom enters near the end of Miller’s Crossing? The “Barton Arms”).

By the time of No Country For Old Men, Josh Brolin had been around a hell of a long time, for the most part toiling in post-fame obscurity (worse than the obscurity that comes from never knowing fame, I’m told). It had been a long time since The Goonies and, let’s face it, “What have you done for me lately, Josh?” But the Coens had faith (as did Robert Rodriguez, who cast him in his half of the Grindhouse experiment and, prior to that, Ridley Scott, who let him loose in American Gangster), but the Bounce really came from No Country, and it was big enough to make him one of the most sought-after actors currently working. Arguably, No Country, and all its awards, did as much for Brolin as Pulp Fiction did for John Travolta. Let’s hope he manages his bounce a little better than Travolta has managed his.

Here’s an interview Brolin did with a man who seems to be channeling Suzuki St. Pierre from Ugly Betty:

Which leads us to the Coen Brothers latest completed work, A Serious Man, one of the ten films nominated for Best Picture this year (it won’t win), a funny, sly little movie that seems to be growing on people, slowly, like a wart, and the young actor, David Kang, who made his acting debut in the movie. Not since Francis McDormand have the Coens offered such a showcase to an actor with no prior credits. Before Blood Simple, which McDormand did at the age of 27, she had appeared in… nothing, zip, zilch. And prior to A Serious Man, David Kang had the same credits on his CV. Obviously his role in Man is nowhere near what McDormand was given with Simple, but still. He makes an impression. People should be takin’ a interest, in the words of Ben Geisler himself. I recently spoke with the actor about working on the film.

What was it like auditioning for the Coen Brothers?
I think that’s what’s great about them. They can cast any star they want but they like to see new faces. Auditioning for them was awesome. I met the Coen Brothers at my last audition [there had been several]. It was only about two months after they’d won all those Oscars for No Country for Old Men but they were so cool and down to earth. I came in and they shook my hand and Joel said, “I’m Joel and this is my brother Ethan,” as if I didn’t already know who they were! They laughed through my whole audition and were more than generous with their compliments.

You were on-set for 15 days, a young Asian guy surrounded by mostly Jewish actors and filmmakers in the Midwest. How was that?

[He laughs] I was indeed the only Asian there. I had a stand-in for the film named Koy and he wasn’t even Asian! He was a Native American. But I’m used to that. I don’t necessarily need Asians to feel at ease [he laughs]. Especially because everyone on set treated me so well. For my birthday my friends bought me a plane ticket to go to the wrap party in Minnesota. It was awesome except I had nowhere to stay. When I met up with the cast to get some breakfast, that came out, and Richard Kind said I could sleep in his room! We all went to the party, had a good time, and then I slept with Richard Kind… in separate beds [laughs].

The Midwest is beautiful! I was born and raised in New Jersey and I never got to travel much so it was even more amazing for me. There are so many beautiful bike trails. I rented a bike and went through the parks. I stopped by one of the ten-thousand lakes and went kayaking. Everyone was just so polite. I got lost on my way back and this gentleman got on his bike and showed me the whole way back. I definitely want to go back. And the food! I LOVED the food. I love food in general. For the meet-and-greet we went to this steak house in downtown Minneapolis. It was excellent.

The Coens seem to like it when their actors do funny things with their voices. How did Clive’s accent develop?
The accent was actually something I brought to them. I think it’s probably the reason they hired me. That, and my willingness to get a bad haircut. We actually went through yearbooks from the 60’s and we all stopped at this one picture and laughed. So Joel says, “Do you like that one?” and I said “Yes. Yes I do.” I was the Javier Bardem of this film.

Here’s a look at a few of Kang’s scenes in the movie:

But unlike Francis McDormand, Peter Stormare, and all those others, it seems that Kang has yet to experience the trademark Coen Bounce. And while his part in Man is much smaller than any of the others mentioned, Kang was funny, came up with a perfect accent, and his physical approach to the role (everything about Clive is kept very stiff, from his mouth when he speaks to his upper body when he walks) was inspired. Here’s hoping that the extra Oscar heat on A Serious Man gives him the next best thing to the Coen Bounce: the Protracted Coen Bump.