Hail, Caesar! is Joel and Ethan Coen’s homage to the old Hollywood studio system. It takes place in 1950s Hollywood and centers on a studio executive and “fixer” by the name of Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), who, on any given day, has to put numerous fires and keep the studio’s big stars out of the gossip columns.
But on one particularly bad day, the studio’s big star, the buffoonish Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) goes missing, which is a big deal since he is starring in the studio’s grandest film to date – a sword and sandal epic about a Roman tribune who encounters the power of Jesus Christ. So it’s up to the multitasking Eddie to figure out how to get him back (and it has something do with Trumbo-like writers, all hardcore Communists).
The film also stars Channing Tatum, as Burt Gurney, a Gene Kelley/Donald O’Connor type star who has one helluva a musical number; Scarlett Johansson as DeeAnna Moran, an Esther Williams-type star whose really not all that “sweet”; newcomer Alden Ehrenreich (Beautiful Creatures) as Hobie Doyle, a young Western star ill-fitted to do much else; Tilda Swinton as twin sister gossip columnists (yes, like THOSE gossip columnists of the 1950s); Ralph Fiennes as director Laurence Laurentz who wants to do serious films; and Jonah Hill, as Joseph Silverman, an accountant who’ll do anything for the job, including going to jail or adopting a big star’s baby.
At a recent press conference, some of the boys – specifically Clooney, Brolin, Ehrenreich, Hill and Tatum – chatted with us about working with the very laid back and cool Coen brothers. Continue reading ‘How to Interview: ‘Hail, Caesar’ Cast on the Coen Brothers’
