The improv-happy actor who tested the Coen brothers’ patience: “You’re killing me”
There are some actors who aren’t best known for doing as they’re told, often going off-script and making up a path that most reflects their interpretation of the character.
Some of the greatest lines of all time have been improvised by actors in the moment, with everyone from Robin Williams, Margot Robbie and Daniel Radcliffe becoming known for instinctual reactions that have added a new edge to a scene that didn’t previously exist.
But while some directors greatly encourage improvisation, there are others who work completely by the book, with Noah Baumbach being known for naturalistic yet meticulously rehearsed lines or Greta Gerwig and her carefully constructed cacophony of dialogue that even instructs actors on the specific time to come in with a line.
However, there is one director who is surprisingly a real stickler for what’s on the page, even if their famously relaxed style might not match this. This proved to be a real challenge for one comedic actor, who described his struggle at not adding his own twist to the lines.
Jonah Hill’s career trajectory has converged onto many different paths over the years, beginning with his breakout role in the teen comedy Superbad and eventually going on to work with the likes of Martin Scorsese as a formidable supporting actor. In recent years, his creative interests have strayed over to the director’s chair, with the actor moving behind the camera for his A24 feature debut Mid90s.
He is perhaps most well-known for his comedic work, playing larger-than-life and slightly abrasive personalities that made him a perfect option for the wacky world of the Coen brothers. The filmmaking duo worked with Hill on their 2016 movie Hail, Caesar!, a black comedy about a Hollywood star who mysteriously goes missing and the fixer tasked with finding him.
While Hill seems like a natural fit within this type of genre, the actor didn’t initially get along with their working style as a result of their disdain for improvisation. The actor described, “Ethan Coen walks up to me after he had told me a couple times, like, ‘You know, this is the line,’ or whatever, and I just kept botching this one line. And he came up to me, and he just put his hand on my shoulder and goes, because he’s very quiet, and he’s just like, ‘Jonah, you’re, um, you’re actually, um … You’re killing me. I’m gonna die and pass away because you didn’t say it how I wrote it. I want you to say it.’“
You can understand why directors would be frustrated if what they wrote on the page was not being translated, but when working with an actor famous for bending the words, perhaps this is something you should not only expect but also embrace.
Movies can be transformed by the additional input of all those who work on them, with each artist adding a new dimension to the film through their artistic voice. However, it seems as though this wasn’t precisely what Ethan Coen was looking for, and Hill had to change his approach slightly.
