The “secret weapon” the Coen brothers have used on every movie since 1996: “Indispensable”
There are many things required in the making of a Coen brothers movie, not least of all Joel and Ethan Coen, which goes without saying.
As their career progressed, the siblings began picking up an increasing number of frequent collaborators, and in the case of Roderick Jaynes, they weren’t against making them up, either. Whenever they released a new feature, it was guaranteed to feature at least one member of their ever-expanding repertory.
In front of the camera, take your pick from Frances McDormand, John Goodman, George Clooney, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, Stephen Root, or Josh Brolin, all of whom have been welcomed into the Coens’ inner circle and rewarded with multiple roles in their idiosyncratic onscreen adventures.
Behind it, the same can be said of legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins, composer Carter Burwell, art director Jess Gonchor, and sound editor Skip Lievsay. Clearly, if the brothers work with somebody once and like what they see, they won’t let them out of their sight for too long.
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of professionals required to bring a motion picture over the finish line, and not all of them get anywhere near the credit they deserve. One thing that every Coen flick has in common, whether it’s a classic like The Big Lebowski or a misfire like The Ladykillers, is that the characters are impeccably costumed.
For their first five films, Joel and Ethan didn’t have a regular costume designer, with Sara Medina-Pape working on Blood Simple, and Richard Hornung taking over for Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, and The Hudsucker Proxy. However, once they found Mary Zophres and hired her for Fargo, they were set for life.
“Mary has worked with us since Fargo,” Joel noted. “She’s indispensable, a secret weapon of ours.” Not so secret that she’s the exclusive property of the Coens, though, with making three films apiece with Damien Chazelle, Steven Spielberg, and Jon Favreau, in addition to working with Robert Redford, Oliver Stone, Nora Ephron, Christopher Nolan, and many more.
That said, she’s a valuable member of Team Coen. Zophres stuck with them and designed the costumes on every joint venture Joel and Ethan embarked on until they split after The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and she stuck with the former by following him to his feature-length solo directorial debut, The Tragedy of Macbeth, although she wasn’t involved in Ethan’s Drive-Away Dolls or Honey, Don’t!
If and when they reunite, which they semi-frequently hint will only be a matter of time without providing any tangible evidence that it’s more than a pipe dream, regardless of what that movie is or when and where it takes place, the smart money is on Zophres being on costume duty.
