![]() “Just the thought of it was kind of intimidating,” Steinfeld recalls about the audition, where she was up against three other finalists. ![]() She won the part after reading for the Coens with Bridges, Matthews and Barry Pepper, the actor playing villain Lucky Ned Pepper. “Beyond that, the screenplay, as a reflection of the novel, is written in a very particular kind of language, so it’s almost like casting a verse player.”Ī month and a half before cameras were scheduled to roll, the Coens finally decided on their Mattie: Hailee Steinfeld, a 13-year-old from Thousand Oaks, Calif., who had only a few short films and minor TV roles to her credit and who was found in Los Angeles. ![]() “Ninety percent of the kids just get eliminated for one very obvious reason: They’re not actors in any sort of natural way,” says Joel, the elder, taller Coen. Stonehill (Dakin Matthews) and verbally wrestles him into submission. The filmmakers auditioned more than 15,000 girls via online video submissions and held open casting calls from November-December 2009 in Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas (as well as the usual major cities), looking for a girl from 12 to 17 to play the character they described as “sassy, fearless and sure of herself.” The girls were asked to read the rapid-fire scene in which Mattie negotiates with horse trader Col. Took it totally fresh like I would any other part.”Ĭasting Bridges was natural for the Coens, but it wasn’t as easy finding an actress to play Mattie Ross, the fast-talking, preternaturally self-assured 14-year-old who hires Rooster to bring her father’s killer, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), to justice. “So I took those guys up on that and didn’t refer to John Wayne or that other movie at all and just looked at the book. “As soon as I read it, I saw what they were talking about because the book is wonderful, and it reads like a Coen brothers script,” Bridges says. But the Coens - who reteamed with No Country for Old Men producer Scott Rudin on the project - assured Bridges they weren’t remaking the movie, per se, but going directly to the source by adapting the 1968 Charles Portis novel on which it was based. And this wasn’t just any Wayne movie: It was the one that earned him his only Academy Award for best actor. Hit movies are remade all the time, but Wayne is a larger-than-life screen icon who still ranks among America’s favorite movie stars, 31 years after his death. ![]() I said, ‘I’d love to make a Western.’ ”īut later, when the Coens told Bridges the Western they wanted to make was True Grit, with him as Rooster, he was dubious. “They said they wanted to make a Western. “We were just talking about what’s up, you know, and I said, ‘What are you guys interested in doing?’ ” Bridges says. The comparison with Wayne is not one Bridges is eager to make, but he admits it is “the elephant in the room.” Bridges and the Coens first discussed getting together for a follow-up to their 1998 cult classic The Big Lebowski at a party in the mid-2000s. Or, as Ethan jokes, “Our Rooster could take their Rooster.” In other words, the Dude outdid the Duke. 'Awards Chatter' Podcast - Hailee Steinfeld ('The Edge of Seventeen')
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |