Joel Coen

Birthday: 29 November 1954, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Birth Name: Joel Daniel Coen

Height: 183 cm

Joel Coen was born on November 29, 1954 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA as Joel Daniel Coen. He is a producer and writer, known for No Country for Old Men (2007), The Big Lebowski (1998) and Fargo (1996). He has been married to Frances McDormand since April 1, 1984. They have one child.

[upon winning the Oscar for Best Director for No Country for Old Men (2007)] In the late '60s, when ...Show more »

[upon winning the Oscar for Best Director for No Country for Old Men (2007)] In the late '60s, when [brother Ethan Coen] was 11 or 12, he got a suit and a briefcase and we went to the Minneapolis International Airport with a Super 8 camera and made a movie about shuttle diplomacy called "Henry Kissinger, Man on the Go". And, honestly, what we do now doesn't feel much different from what we were doing then. Show less «

I hate when people cry in movies. It's particularly disconcerting when you're sitting at a really aw...Show more »

I hate when people cry in movies. It's particularly disconcerting when you're sitting at a really awful movie and you hear people all around you sobbing and blowing their noses. Show less «

[on filmmaking] I can almost set my watch by how I'm going to feel at different stages of the proces...Show more »

[on filmmaking] I can almost set my watch by how I'm going to feel at different stages of the process. It's always identical, whether the movie ends up working or not. I think when you watch the dailies, the film that you shoot every day, you're very excited by it and very optimistic about how it's going to work. And when you see it the first time you put the film together, the roughest cut, is when you want to go home and open up your veins and get in a warm tub and just go away. And then it gradually, maybe, works its way back, somewhere toward that spot you were at before. Show less «

We've never considered our stuff either homage or spoof. Those are things other people call it, and ...Show more »

We've never considered our stuff either homage or spoof. Those are things other people call it, and it's always puzzled me that they do. Show less «

My most important professional accomplishment? I think that it's that I'm so scintillating and engag...Show more »

My most important professional accomplishment? I think that it's that I'm so scintillating and engaging in an interview. Show less «

Frequently we are writing characters and we are thinking, "Wouldn't it be interesting to see such an...Show more »

Frequently we are writing characters and we are thinking, "Wouldn't it be interesting to see such and such play this kind of a person?", and the character starts to grow out of that as you are writing it. It's a combination of things that you are making up and what you know about the actor. Show less «

Someone asked us once how we adapt novels, and Ethan [Coen] said, "Joel holds the book open by the s...Show more »

Someone asked us once how we adapt novels, and Ethan [Coen] said, "Joel holds the book open by the spine, while I retype it into the computer...Don't change it [the book] if it's not broken! Show less «

There's no doubt that our Jewish heritage affects how we see things.

[Ethan Coen] once described the way we worked together as: one of us types into the computer while t...Show more »

[Ethan Coen] once described the way we worked together as: one of us types into the computer while the other holds the spine of the book open flat. That's why there needs to be two of us - otherwise he's gotta type one-handed. That's how you "collaborate" with someone else. Show less «

I like Hollywood just the way it is, actually. I don't think I'd change anything. I like that it's o...Show more »

I like Hollywood just the way it is, actually. I don't think I'd change anything. I like that it's out here 3,000 miles from where I live. Show less «

[on his and his brother Ethan's choice of characters in their films] What's interesting to us are th...Show more »

[on his and his brother Ethan's choice of characters in their films] What's interesting to us are the people you know that are very good at what they do but aren't necessarily successful. Show less «

[Ethan Coen] had a nightmare of one day finding me on the set of something like The Incredible Hulk ...Show more »

[Ethan Coen] had a nightmare of one day finding me on the set of something like The Incredible Hulk (2008), wearing a gold chain and saying, "I've got to eat, don't I?" Show less «

It's a funny thing; people sometimes accuse us of condescending to our characters somehow -- that to...Show more »

It's a funny thing; people sometimes accuse us of condescending to our characters somehow -- that to me is kind of inexplicable. Show less «

The bigger stars we've worked with have been without the movie-star vanities or meshugaas that you r...Show more »

The bigger stars we've worked with have been without the movie-star vanities or meshugaas that you read about and dread. [George Clooney], for example, was the opposite. He has no entourage. He's a big movie star, but a nice guy. Show less «

Joel Coen

Joel Coen's FILMOGRAPHY

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