Catherine Zeta-Jones – Intolerable cruelty: “George has this relationship with the Coen brothers, and I envy him”

The star admitted to being a little jealous of his playing partner, George Clooney, who plays a much more fun role than his in this comedy.

In 2003, Intolerable cruelty had especially marked the spirits for the performance of George Clooney. A few months after putting it on the cover of First for his film Confessions of a Dangerous Manthe editorial team wrote about the American comedian how he was “absolutely stunning” in front of the brothers’ camera Coen.

He then found the duo after the acclaimed O Brother (in 2000), and has since trusted them again to Burn After Reading (2008) and Ave, Caesar (2016). Not to mention that the actor’s own achievement, Welcome to Suburbiconhad been co-written with them and Grant Heslov.

However, at the time of the release of this comedy, it was Catherine Zeta-Jones who was interviewed in First. And she admitted to Stéphanie Lamome that she was a little jealous of their complicity on this project. Not to mention that next to George “Clowney”who plays a very amusing role in Intolerable crueltyshe played a much less sympathetic character.

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“Of course, I too would like to find a director with whom I communicate telepathically, she exclaimed, when asked about the complicity between the three men. I would love to be the Robert De Niro to Martin Scorsese, obviously. George has this relationship with the Coen brothers, and I envy him. Together they have their own delusions, they are insane, you have to see them to believe it!”

More mockingly, she then told a funny anecdote: “George has a special thing with dogs, a weird penchant that he shares with Joel and Ethan and that belongs only to them! There were three dogs on set, and I can tell you it was them the real stars of the film, not me! They threw fits of laughter as soon as one of them put a paw on the set. They could spend hours dressing them up any way they wanted, it was their hobby favorite time! Worrying, right?”

Quite seriously, Catherine Zeta-Jones also admitted to being at a turning point in her career, just after her Oscar for best supporting actress received for the musical Chicago, and really want to play less harsh characters. Excerpts.

“When the Coen brothers, of whom I am a fan, asked me to play the role of Marylin, I felt great pride. I had just finished Chicago when Joel called me. I didn’t know what to do anymore, I wondered what else I could want after such a film, convinced that the rest of my career was going to be a vast waste, a waste of time. Until this call…”

(…)

“It’s true that my characters are often on the side of evil! Chicago, I played a woman who lied on the stand, like Marylin! I must not exactly represent the quintessence of the friendly neighbor next door in the eyes of the directors. It’s a lack of imagination on their part.

(…)

That said, Marylin has a hard heart, but she’s not an irredeemable bitch, she’s not really aware of the chaos she leaves behind. She is lovable despite everything; otherwise she wouldn’t have so many husbands. Men don’t fall in love with stone-hearted women with slutty faces, I’m telling you…

(…)

It’s true that I would like to go a little further in comedy, to have more crazy roles. I’m tired of always acting like a strict girl. Not that I want to get on the table and clown around telling jokes… Although, if it’s written in the script, I can arrange it, but I don’t have that in my skin, unlike George, who has an incredible sense of timing. I’m not a big fan of scat humor either. It doesn’t make me laugh, it makes me vomit. But playing nunuches that slide on banana peels, that would please me. And, why not, go for the cartoon side that George exploits in the film? My training as a dancer could help me with that.”

Right after this project, Catherine Zeta-Jones actually got a role “softer” at Steven Spielberg, in The terminalbut she subsequently played women again “a little harsh” (as Morticia Addams in the series Wednesdayrecently), or even downright evil, like her incarnation of the drug trafficker Griselda Blanco in the TV movie The Queen of Cartelsin 2018.

Finally, the actress explained in First having felt that the chemistry would work with his playing partner, detailing having briefly crossed paths with him at the premiere of Traffic before they were both chosen for Intolerable cruelty.

“I instinctively felt that between George and I, it could work, but it was not a foregone conclusion. Two very good actors can together not create any spark on the screen and their addition results in something rubbish. But I had a presentiment. (…) (before our first scene, that of the restaurant, editor’s note), we had never rehearsed together. It was a real dance, physical and mental, between George and me, a choreography where we had to find the tempo. From the first rushes, we knew.”

Revealing that she really wanted to return to him, she made this wish come true only a year later thanks to Steven Soderbergh, who invited her to the casting ofOcean’s Twelve. Fun detail: the very first exchange that the two actors filmed together in Intolerable cruelty was filmed in a restaurant already used as a setOcean’s Eleven, but the time for a dialogue between George Clooney and Julia Roberts. Exactly at the same table!