Hello Ethan. I am your brother Joel. I am the other half of the Coen Brothers, with you. Over the years, we have directed many films together, such as Fargo, No Country For Old Men, The Big Lebowski, and the others.
Usually, we are brothers who direct movies together. “The Amazing Directing Coen Brothers!” the papers would say when a film of ours would be released (except when we directed The Ladykillers).
But there is a movie out now called MacBeth. Like so many movies, we did not direct MacBeth together. But that doesn’t mean that neither of us directed MacBeth. Actually, one of us did. It was me. And it was only me that directed MacBeth. By myself. And for that, I am sorry.
I’ve thought long and hard about how I would break this news to you. “Would he remember he wasn’t on set with me when I directed Denzel Washington to be Shakespearean? Would he know that he never said ‘Cameraman, start the black and white?’ (MacBeth was filmed in glorious but stated black and white.) Would I have to break it to him that he couldn’t have told Woody Harrelson to channel his inner MacDuff, because Woody did not play MacDuff?”
You are right not to remember any one of those damn things.
So I tell you now, before this goes any further: I directed MacBeth alone. And it was so weird, doing that.
Let’s direct the next MacBeth together. Like brothers should. Like… Coen Brothers should.