By Erin Free
Did you ever think that you’d get to work with The Coen Brothers? “I didn’t, and I was finally able to send them a note and admit that I was such a huge fan before they asked me to do the movie. To have my first film be with them was a dream come true. I never would have in my wildest dreams thought that this could happen.”
You, of course, worked on the “No Dames” scene, which is great. How much of it was scripted, and how much of it was pure creation? “When I read the script, there were a few musical moments, and for this one in particular, there was just a short paragraph saying, ‘We cut to a shot of Burt Gurney on a battleship, dancing with a mop.’ It was just a little paragraph explaining that, and then we met and we talked about it. We talked about things that we could on a battleship, and then about a month later, they called back and said, ‘Because of time, we’re going to change it to the inside of a bar, and we want tap dancing.’ So there was a whole other list of things to do, and they didn’t have a song title at the time. I didn’t even know if it was going to be existing music, or something new, so it was really just a germ of an idea. Then we all just collaborated on it. It was an incredible process.”
Were there any particular films, or performers, that you looked to as an influence? “Because it was Channing, it was always going to be more of a Gene Kelly type style. We ran with that, which was great for me, because he is incredibly athletic. He is very musical, and he came with a lot of skills already. That made my job a lot easier. One thing that he didn’t know how to do was tap. On the page, it didn’t say anything about tap dancing, so when Channing agreed to do it, he didn’t know that he would have to do tap dancing! The Coens were inspired by a piece that they saw with Donald O’Connor tap dancing. Channing literally learned how to tap dance; it was ten years of tap training in about three months. I’ve never seen anyone work harder. He was relentless in his wanting to make it great, and we wanted to create something in one really long take, so we couldn’t stop and start, and cut it together.”
The “No Dames” scene has really been tagged as a highlight of the film…that must be incredibly satisfying. “Yes, I’m truly humbled. The response to the number has been overwhelming to me. It was a true gift to be able to have this be what it ended up being, and I’m thrilled that people responded to it that way. Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly worked relentlessly to perfect themselves, so they could do an entire number in one shot, and that’s the kind of ethic that I admire. I feel like I’ve been able to contribute something that goes into that canon, or something that at least has been acknowledged as something that was good. It’s been a great experience.”
Hail, Caesar! is available now on Digital, and will be available on DVD and Blu-ray on July 14.
