Writer-director Ethan Coen has a reputation for not wanting actors to change the dialogue in his films.
But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t open to collaborating with the stars in his latest movie with wife and co-writer Tricia Cooke. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at a New York screening of Honey Dont! earlier this month, Aubrey Plaza, Margaret Qualley and Charlie Day all detailed how they helped shape their distinctive characters in the neo-noir dark comedy detective movie.
Plaza, who plays Qualley’s character’s love interest MG Falcone, praised Coen and Cooke for being “very collaborative” and said that though she’d heard of Coen not wanting to alter lines, “He did a little bit on this one, which I thought was cool because he wanted to be open to all ideas.”
Once Plaza was cast, her character changed in a “subtle” way, she recalled.
“I think once Margaret and I started rehearsing and got into a rhythm there were just certain power dynamics that we wanted to address and make sure to dial them in — make sure the nuance and tiny changes along the way all made sense,” she said. “And I think Margaret and I are really open and willing to play around.”
Qualley, meanwhile, said she was eager to work with Coen and Cooke again after starring in the first film in their self-proclaimed lesbian B-movie trilogy, Drive-Away Dolls, because of her experience working with them on their “fun set.”
“I love learning from them and collaborating with them,” she said. And on this project, Qualley, who plays the film’s eponymous small-town private investigator, Honey O’Donahue, and studied classic noir films and books, indicated she played around with altering her voice to make it sound more like honey.
“I tried to sound a little bit like Lauren Bacall or Humphrey Bogart,” Qualley said. “I read Lauren Bacall’s autobiography and she talked about lowering her voice. And she said that she would climb a mountain and just scream until she lost her voice. I didn’t exactly do that but I tried it.”
Coen, it seems, has been influenced by both Qualley and Plaza, with the filmmaker saying meeting Qualley on Drive-Away Dolls was key for this film.
“She was so right for this,” he said. “The obvious way that [Drive-Away Dolls] informed this one and the big way that it informed this one is Margaret.”
And Plaza recalls Coen saying, when she wrapped Honey Don’t!, that he wrote the off-Broadway play she’s set to star in with her in mind.
“When I wrapped Honey Don’t, Ethan came into my trailer and said, ‘I wrote this play and I think I wrote it for you and I didn’t even realize it. Would you do it?’ I said, ‘I’ll do anything you ask me to do, basically.’ I loved working with him. So I’d like to continue that creative collaboration,” she said.
And Day, who was eager to learn from Coen and Cooke, maintained that he “didn’t change a comma” but appreciated the “loose” vibe on set.
“They really know what they want so it’s just a matter of feeling that as long as I deliver what was scripted, we’ll be in good shape,” he said. “But it’s a loose set; it’s very happy-go-lucky and a lot of good energy.”
Coen and Cooke previously said they weren’t sure if there would indeed be a third film in their genre trilogy, and they remained noncommittal at the Honey Don’t! screening.
“I don’t know. There may well be. Actually, we’re working on a couple of things, the third one being one of them. You work on movies and see what happens next,” he said.
Cooke joked that she has an easy way to complete the trilogy.
“We’ll just call whatever movie comes next the third one,” she said.
Focus Features’ Honey Don’t!, also starring Chris Evans and Billy Eichner, is now in theaters.
Hilary Lewis
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