When the Coen Brothers Nearly Joined Ocean’s Eleven
Steven Soderbergh once considered casting the Coen brothers in Ocean’s Eleven, a move that would have marked their first real acting roles. Here’s how close it came to happening.
Directors occasionally pop up in front of the camera, whether for a fleeting cameo or a more substantial part, but Joel and Ethan Coen have never shown much appetite for such antics. Their collective on-screen history is limited to blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearances in Sam Raimi’s ‘Crimewave’ and ‘Darkman’—one as a reporter at an execution, the other behind the wheel of Raimi’s beloved Oldsmobile. If they’d fancied following Hitchcock’s tradition of lurking in the background, they’d have done so by now. As for the Tarantino or Shyamalan route—peppering their own films with awkward performances—well, that’s never been their style.
Yet, in a twist few would have predicted, the Coens were once in the frame for actual speaking roles in a major Hollywood caper. The idea surfaced during the casting of Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven, a film that prided itself on assembling a glittering ensemble. With so many stars already on board, why not throw a pair of acclaimed filmmakers into the mix? Casting them as brothers would hardly have been a stretch, either.
Missed Opportunities and Unlikely Pairings
Originally, the roles of Turk and Virgil Malloy were earmarked for Luke and Owen Wilson. However, their commitments to Wes Anderson’s ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ meant they had to bow out. The parts eventually went to Casey Affleck and Scott Caan, who, it must be said, bear little resemblance to one another. But before that decision was made, word got out in September 2000—just months before filming began—that Warner Bros had their sights set on Joel and Ethan Coen for the roles. It would have been a rather odd coup for the production.
Soderbergh himself doesn’t recall whether the idea was ever seriously on the table, but he suspects George Clooney, who had recently worked with the Coens, might have been involved.
“It doesn’t sound like a terrible idea,”
he mused.
“And I’m sure George had a hand in that, because he had just worked with them.”
What Might Have Been
Reflecting on the possibility, Soderbergh added,
“If it didn’t get shot fairly quickly by one of us, they would have shot it down pretty quickly, I’m sure. Hey, it’s not the worst casting idea I’ve ever heard, I’ll say that.”
He seemed open to the notion, though he doubted the Coens would have relished the prospect of lingering on set for endless takes. Their scenes, he reckoned, would have needed to be wrapped up in short order, or the brothers would have lost interest altogether.
In the end, things played out differently. Even if Joel and Ethan had stepped into the Malloy roles, it’s hard to picture them sticking around for the sequels. Still, the thought of the Coen brothers trading their director’s chairs for a spot in Soderbergh’s slick heist is one of those Hollywood what-ifs that’s hard not to ponder.