"Oh, you all already know each other. When the Coen brothers arrived at the pioneer village, they could see the actors seated around the bar, bustling together, talking merrily and happily in an atmosphere that looked like a normal night in a folk bar.

Thanks to the strong appeal of the Coen brothers, the cast of "Drunken Country Folk" is indeed eye-catching, in addition to the three core stars of Lanley Hall, Justin Timberlake, and Carey Mulligan, there are also many noteworthy names in the supporting cast.

John Goodman, known as Hollywood's most popular "Goodman" golden supporting actor, will play Roland-Turner, a wealthy squire who loves jazz and despises ballads, and gives him a ride on Levyan's road trip to Chicago.

Garnett Hedland will play Roland's driver Johnny, who became famous with the TV series "Midnight Light on the Weekend", and later starred in "Troy", "On the Road", "Tron: Chronicle" and other works, which can be regarded as a representative of the new generation of tough guys.

F-Murray-Abraham, who plays the owner of a small Chicago record label and owns a bar, becomes the last hope for Levyan's career, which he has killed with his own hands. This veteran actor won the Oscar as early as 1985 with "The Biography of Mozart", and his career has come to a standstill in recent years, and he is still rolling in the field of TV dramas.

There is also Adam Driver (Adam-driver), a rookie actor who just entered the industry in 2010 and 2011, with a very special appearance and a very high degree of recognition, this time he will play a folk singer, and in order to make a living, he collaborated with Jim and Levine on a commercial song.

Adam's career trajectory is very interesting, and he has passed by in movies such as "Hoover", "Lincoln", and "Frances Ha", but he became popular with the American drama "Declining Sisters", and later starred in the villain of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and became popular, and won the love of the audience with his unique personal temperament in the works of "Patterson" and "League of Thieves".

You can feel that the Coen brothers put a lot of effort into the casting stage, and every actor for each role was carefully selected.

At this moment, all the actors gathered together, not only because this was an important day for the first time when the crew of "Drunken Country Ballads" was assembled, but also because it was an important day for the entire crew to officially read the script and understand the characters for the first time.

In fact, except for Lan Li, the roles of the other actors are relatively short.

John Goodman, who has a busy schedule, only took three days to shoot all the scenes, and Abraham, who didn't have many scenes, only had one day, even if he didn't attend today's script reading. However, on the first day the crew gathered, they still gave the Coen brothers enough face and all attended.

Joel Cohen took a step forward, looked around the actor, and couldn't help but rub his hands excitedly, "Ha, now it seems that everyone already knows each other." Hey, Lan Li, you showed up too. ”

"Isn't that the most important thing?" John Goodman, who was sitting next to him, leaned back in his chair lazily and complained with a cold face, but the clever soft tone had a chill humor of his own, as if to imply that the whole crew was waiting for Lan Li to appear.

Then, everyone couldn't help but raise the corners of their mouths.

Lan Li could feel that all eyes fell on him, and he didn't rush to explain, just smiled and said, "I thought money was." A witty and clever tease instantly turned the raised smile into a cheerful chuckle.

Ethan Cohen clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention, "Now that the whole crew is in place, we should start preparing for filming." I asked about the weather forecasts in New York and Chicago, and for the next three weeks, there was a steady stream of snow forecasts, so that's our shooting cycle. ”

As he spoke, Ethan's gaze projected towards Lan Li, and he said with an apologetic expression, "Because we need you to walk through the wind and rain all the time, sorry, this is not a studio to complete the shooting." But now it's too late to regret it, and we've set an amount you can't default. ”

In the midst of laughter, Lan Li spread out his hands and said calmly, "In the last work, I was trapped in the steam sauna for more than ten hours a day, scorching like the sun, and I think it's time to experience the biting cold working environment all the time." ”

In an instant, everyone in the entire pioneer village burst into laughter.

Immediately afterwards, the crew officially engaged in the work of reading the script.

Generally speaking, before a crew reads the script, the main actors and the main crew will briefly introduce themselves and determine their respective positions, especially the roles played by the actors, so that they can have a preliminary understanding of each other; some directors will go further and hope to exchange views on the script and the role with the actors, so as to ensure that the actors are on the right path.

But the Coen brothers are different.

All these links were omitted, and they arrived at the pioneer village in less than two minutes, and without even warming up, they directly began to read the script, showing a vigorous and resolute style of doing things, but also revealing the roughness and savagery of an independent crew, like a primitive plant, growing wantonly.

There is a need for familiarity and cooperation between actors and actors.

To put it simply, Lan Li reads a line, he needs to know who he is talking to, and then overlap the actor's personal image with the character little by little, and adjust the rhythm and intonation of his lines and other details; more directly, he may need to look directly into the eyes of the actor and read the lines in the way of communication dialogue.

But now, after the Coen brothers skipped the relevant link, the reading of the script became stumbling and stumbling, as if it were a playful fight. Sometimes, someone grabs the line, sometimes, someone doesn't match the line, and sometimes, they look in one direction and the line comes from the other direction.

The whole scene was a bit chaotic.

However, Lan Li could feel it, and the Coen brothers enjoyed the chaos.

This reminds people of the basic lessons when they first started to learn acting. Faced with a group of people, in the face of strangers, in the face of the air, they come forward to perform regardless of the jerky and embarrassing performances, which often make people curl up their hands and feet, but the presentation of breaking the barriers of strangeness can often achieve unexpected results.

Some are familiar, some are unfamiliar.

Gradually, Lan Li also tasted the difference in details.

John and Abraham, who don't have many scenes, sit firmly on the Diaoyutai and have little room to play, but they are always unhurried; in the relatively limited performance space, Carey and Adam have shown good acting spirituality, whether they are excellent or not, need to be further tested in the actual shooting, but at least they have a strong personal style, and the characters are brightened in an instant.

Justin is still Justin, it can basically be said that he is performing in his true colors, the acting content is not too obvious, and the style of "Saturday Night Live" is not much different, and the feeling of the whole line is more "manic", especially in the chaos is further amplified, while Garnett's performance is more stuffy, and after the lack of control of facial expressions, the context of the performance disappears into the lines.

Everyone said that the Coen brothers were not good at manipulating/coaching actors.

Although Francis McDormand of "Ice Storm" and Javier Bardem of "No Country for Old Men" have both won Oscars, their excellence comes from their own understanding and interpretation of the role, rather than the director's capture of the details of the performance, so the Coen brothers always prefer to use actors with solid acting skills and temperament that fit the role.

In this way, they can focus more on the use of cameras, storytelling, and style.

Now it seems that the Coen brothers have their own understanding of actors, performances, and styles, and they can find the most suitable actors according to their own work style, and dig out the unique temperament of the actors, which is naturally integrated with the story to ensure the integrity of the work.

If the actor can find a fit between the performance and the style, then he can shine, but if not, the actor will be completely submerged in the director's style, becoming a perfect part of the work.

Among the directors that Lan Li has cooperated with so far, Paul Greengrass, Tony Kaye, and Alfonso Cuarón can all be regarded as artistic creators with distinctive styles.

However, Paul's "Edge of Tomorrow" is originally a popcorn work, and the exploration of acting skills is not profound, while Tony and Alfonso both focus the camera on the actors, trust the actors wholeheartedly, amplify the performances, and let the performances go, and their styles are, in a sense, directors who pay more attention to the actors' performances.

Like the Coen brothers, it should be the first time.

Involuntarily, Lan Li thought in his mind, was the Oscar Isaac of the previous life, under the lens of the Coen brothers, considered brilliant, or drowned? This is an interesting topic, and he can't help but compare "Drunken Country Ballad" with several other Oscar-Isaac works such as "Mechanical Queen" and "The Year of Violence".

"Lan Li?" There was a shout in his ears, Lan Li's eyes raised, and then he noticed that all the actors' eyes were focused on him, and he showed a smile apologetically and politely, indicating that he was a little distracted just now, but did not apologize further, and that calm appearance made everyone slightly stunned.

Then, everyone reacted differently.

Joel Cohen didn't care, repeating his words, "Is there a problem? We were just discussing how the music in the movie should be rearranged to better match the style of the whole story, you have heard the mastering before, what do you think now?" Or is it what you were thinking about just now?"