Chatter from a weekend of festival interviews:
—The famously media-shy Coen Brothers show up for their roundtable interviews (for A Serious Man, opening October 2) looking like they just rolled out of bed five minutes ago. For which you gotta love them, especially compared to the hip hop star who was getting her make-up adjusted a minute before the press conference she was a part of started. (In 25 years of press conferences, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before).
—I can’t say I understood their movie much more after speaking with them, but the Coens did admit that they are hoping to get Jeff Bridges to star in their remake of True Grit. That’s right—the movie for which John Wayne won an Oscar is in development to be remade by the guys who gave us Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski. (About the cult that has grown up around that film, known to its adherents as “Dudeism,” Joel Coen simply shakes his head and says, “Nobody’s more surprised than we are.”
—Alia Shawkat, formerly of Arrested Development and here in Drew Barrymore’s roller derby/girl power movie Whip It, when it came her turn to answer an ensemble question about what the most surprisingly thing about working with Barrymore was: “She smells really good.” No one asked the logical follow-up question—“Why were you surprised by that?”
—Comment Most Likely To be Repeated Out of Context: Drew Barrymore says, “I love to get plastered with my friends on Saturday night.” The context is how much work she puts in during the rest of the week as the head of a film production company. Let’s see if that one appears on TMZ.
—It takes a lot to score the biggest laugh when Ricky Gervais is in the room, but Rob Lowe managed that feat at the press conference for The Invention of Lying. Occupying the front row was a geeky-looking fellow wearing what appeared to be a large bicycle helmet with something that looked like an iPod attached to the top of it. Apparently broadcasting a live weblog of the proceedings, he explained that he gear was “the Virgin Radio Head Cam.” To which Lowe responded, “Here’s a word of advice—don’t wear that in public and you won’t be a virgin anymore.”
—Terry Gilliam, whose The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus opens in December, is one of the nicest people I’ve ever interviewed.
