Which actor has been in the most Coen brothers movies?
There are certain telltale signs that you are watching a Coen brothers film. One is a strange, off-kilter tone that is often simultaneously funny, scary, and quirky. Another is the inimitable dialogue, which is both lyrical and verbose while being downright silly sometimes. For me, though, one key thing to look for to identify a Joel and Ethan joint is the presence of a member – or several members – of their usual repertoire of actors.
The brothers love working with a select batch of actors repeatedly, perhaps because they know they’re capable of nailing their particular vibe—and because they won’t complain when they’re made to say every word in the script without improvising. To find out which actor has appeared in the most Coen movies, though, it’s worth going through some of the prime candidates.
Two of the first names that spring to mind are Steve Buscemi and John Goodman, who were incredible together in The Big Lebowski. Buscemi has been in five Coen films (Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo and the aforementioned Lebowski). Goodman has lent his talents to six (Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Big Lewbowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Inside Llewyn Davis).
Character actor Jon Polito has also appeared in five Coen efforts, while John Turturro, George Clooney, Stephen Root, and Bruce Campbell have turned up in four. Josh Brolin is the next most prolific with three appearances (No Country For Old Men, True Grit, and Hail, Ceasar!), although he claims to be the only actor who was made to audition for a Coen role. The brothers usually know exactly who they want without needing to see an audition, you see. So, when Brolin read for No Country, he joked, “Joel just stared at me the whole time. I don’t think he said five words.”
The actor who has appeared in the most Coen productions, though – eight, to be exact – is three-time Academy Award winner Frances McDormand. She is obviously most known in the Coen universe for her Oscar-winning lead turn as pregnant cop Marge Gunderson in Fargo, but she has also appeared in their debut film Blood Simple, as well as Raising Arizona, Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, Burn After Reading, The Man Who Wasn’t There, and Hail, Caesar!
The Coens clearly believe McDormand is one of the best actors working today, and they’re 100 per cent correct – although she does have a leg up on the competition. After all, she is Joel’s wife!
Who is the Coen brothers’ most frequent collaborator?
To maintain their one-of-a-kind mastery of the unique brand of films they make, the Coen brothers have a number of frequent collaborators beyond just their casts. For instance, Roger Deakins has been their cinematographer for most of the films since Barton Fink, while Jess Gonchor has been their art director since No Country For Old Men. Carter Burwell’s haunting scores have been an integral part of the Coen oeuvre over the years, and he has scored every one of their movies except Inside Llewyn Davis.
The most frequent collaborator of the brothers is sound editor Skip Lievsay. He has worked on every single one of their films, and has formed an extremely close partnership with Burwell over the years. They are responsible for building the sonic landscape of the movies, and have a keen understanding of how to achieve what the Coens imagine in their heads.
For example, Burwell and Lievsay often find that silence works better than sound and music, with Lievsay telling the Tribeca Film Festival, “A lot of times when you’re going to emphasise that it’s really, really quiet, then you add something that is not very loud that you can clearly hear. That makes you think, ‘Wow, I can hear the trees creaking. Geez, it must be really quiet.”
