Del Pentecost: All About Ethan
Watching Ethan Coen's laid-back response to his multiple Oscar wins for No Country for Old Men inspired us to ask the age-old show-biz question: "What is this guy really like?" Luckily, we could ask Del Pentecost, a cast member in Almost an Evening, Coen's trio of one-act plays, which just transferred from the Atlantic Theater Company's Stage 2 to a commercial off-Broadway run at the Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street. Pentecost played Junior in O Brother Where Art Thou?, the 2000 film adaptation of The Odyssey written and directed by Ethan and his brother Joel Coen, then went on to regular roles in TV's Starved and Kingdom Hospital. John Adams addicts may have spotted him as General Henry Knox in the HBO miniseries. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, the Texas-born actor shared inside information on the mysterious Mr. Coen.
So, about 10 years ago, Ethan Coen and his brother Joel cast me as Junior in their film O Brother Where Art Thou? Currently, I am doing Ethan's play Almost an Evening with the Atlantic Theater Company. Broadway.com asked me to write a "First Person" feature on working with Ethan in "different mediums" and his "sensibility and style."
But before I can write about any of that, I just have to ask, "What the fuck happened during that 10-year break?" Since I didn't really hear from him, I had to find out if perhaps Ethan had taken that decade off.
I went to my computer and did a little Google product plug search on Ethan Coen, and do you know what I found? This guy has been really busy these past 10 years! It's like he doesn't stop working. What, didn't he realize that I might find this out? Don't you think he would have tried to break it to me gently or something? No phone call. No letter. Nothing.
I heard that Ethan wrote the three one-act plays that make up Almost an Evening because he didn't want to get bored during the writers' strike. And, furthermore, if the strike had dragged on into March, he would embark on ad copy for TV commercials, radio spots and finally, by June, personal voicemail greetings!
But I take some solace in seeing that in No Country for Old Men did anyone actually see this? they had a "DEL Rio Hotel Clerk" and a WenDELl listed in the credits, and in his upcoming Burn After Reading there is a character that is outright named DEL! So it just kind of proves that he was thinking of me on some level although the guy they cast as Del is tall, dark and handsome.
Seriously, to be able to work for Ethan Coen one time was a great pleasure. To get to do it again now is extremely gratifying.
If you watched the Academy Awards telecast, you get a pretty good idea of Ethan. After winning for Best Adapted Screenplay, he said, in front of millions of people, "We, uh …Thank you very much." Then after winning for Best Director, along with his brother, he said, "I don't have a lot to add to what I said earlier. Thank you."
Since the play began, audience members have asked me what Ethan is like. And I told Ethan that I was answering that question with, "He's a really big asshole. Always late to rehearsal and quite possibly on drugs." The fact that Ethan thought this was funny speaks for itself.
He is a man of few words, but all of his words have meaning. So when he talks to you, you feel the need to open your ears, because he may not talk again for a while.
In rehearsal, there was one line that didn't feel right coming out of my mouth. For some reason, I wanted to add the word "fella" into a sentence. In my mind, it helped clarify who I was referring to. Ethan let me say it the way I thought it sounded better, and he paused for about 15 seconds, kind of closing his eyes, looking off to the side of me, and then said, "No."
I know he took in what I was asking and he really played it out in his head. It didn't sound right to him, and he didn't think I needed it to help identify who I was speaking of. He was right.
This shows that he is very precise with what he has written so that most of the "heavy-lifting" is done for you. You need to trust that he has thought about it and heard it in his head for quite some time. When the actor gets to the text, it is already edited. That's not to say he doesn't change things, but they seem to be minor.
This seems to be the same way he shoots a movie. A lot of directors will come to set and seem "prepared," but as the day goes on, it gets away from them. Ethan and Joel have all the shots in their head. They will shoot something and if they have what they want, they will go on to the next setup. They won't shoot something again and again.
Ethan doesn't say something if it doesn't need to be said. So when he does speak and, really, he does on occasion, it is meant to be heard.
I think a voicemail message written by him would be pretty cool though. It would possibly go something like this:
Phone is picked up.
Heavy breathing in the background.
Dog barking. Snarling.
"Shut up." "Shut the hell up."
Gunshot.
Silence.
Dog continues to bark.
Phone beeps to leave message.