The classic Javier Bardem scene took 30 minutes to shoot
When the Coen brothers released No Country for Old Men in 2007, adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel of the same name, they introduced the legendary villain of Anton Chigurh to the masses. Donning a black denim jacket, a suppressed automatic shotgun and a haircut that would make even one of the Bee Gees cringe, Chigurh nonetheless personified an ancient and unrelenting evil that struck fear into the heart of audiences and chilled the blood of even the hardest cinephile.
Played with terrifying stoicism by Javier Bardem, who deservedly won the Oscar for ‘Best Supporting Actor’, there are countless scenes in No Country for Old Men in which Chigurh instils a deep sense of dread and the threat of violence. Around halfway through the film, in a dusty and isolated gas station situated in the beige and featureless plains of Texas, a lowly clerk comes inches away from execution in what later came to be known as the infamous ‘Coin Toss’ scene, widely regarded today as one of the tensest moments in modern cinema.
Speaking recently as a guest on the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast, Bardem revealed that the classic scene took only 30 minutes to shoot. In response to praise from O’Brien, who, on top of calling the Coen Brothers’ movie one of his “all-time favourites”, goes on to specifically refer to the scene in question and the way it “ratchets up the tension through small talk”, Bardem explained the lead-up to the filming of the sequence: “It was the end of the day, for me it was the scene where I had to speak the most!” Referring to the character’s trademark silence, Bardem jokes, “Usually, all I’m doing is killing people. They [the Coen Brothers] had these five-page long scenes, so I had worked on it for months.”
Clearly, the hard work paid off, as Bardem recalls that the dialogue scene was finished shooting in half an hour. “We shot it in 30 minutes. They took me and said, ‘Okay, we will only have 30 minutes to one hour, but we’ll make it.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God’, and I tried not to rush or anything… but they were happy with the take. Because everybody was really focused on doing their job. And there was nothing else to do. Just focus, and do it exactly the way it was written.”
Whilst the Coen’s are famed for their sharp dialogue and general proficiency as wordsmiths, Bardem took a moment to also praise his fellow actor in the scene. He said: “I would say it’s one of those things where many beautiful accidents happen together, at the same time, in the same moment. Great writing, great directing, and the amazing actor playing the man in the gas station — he plays being afraid so well. I don’t do anything! He just does the heavy lifting. He plays the unpredictable fear of not knowing what will happen so well that I just have to be cool and do my job with a coin.”
