Joel Coen reveals why he made ‘Macbeth’ without his brother

Source: Photo Courtesy of Apple

“The Tragedy of Macbeth” is set to debut on Apple TV+ this Friday and, ahead of its premiere, director Joel Coen sat down with the LA Times for an interview.

In the interview, Coen revealed that his brother Ethan, who is usually his directing partner, was not interested in making a film like “Macbeth,” so he knew he needed to do this one by himself.

So when Ethan told his brother at the close of their last film, 2018’s “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” that “‘I think I’m going to change it out and do some other things for awhile,'” Joel reevaluated. “I knew I’d be directing the next one by myself,” he says. “If I was working with Ethan I wouldn’t have done ‘Macbeth,’ it would not be interesting to him.”

“It’s fantastic, there’s nothing like it, when people ask if I have directing advice I tell them, ‘find a partner,'” Coen says, lighting up. “It’s an enormous advantage in every way. You have someone you can turn to when things go pear-shaped and, in crass terms, you can gang up on people. I missed him a lot.”

Coen also talked about bringing the film to Apple TV+. The director said that streaming is a new medium that supports creators like himself to be able to make films that many studios would not take the risk with.

“When Ethan and I started, studios were able to take advantage of revenue from ancillary markets like VHS as a financial balance to risk-taking,” Coen says. “It made studios more willing to do movies out of the mainstream.”

“It’s important that everyone who wants to see one of my films in a theater should be able to. But I’ve never been one of the purists because one of the reasons I’ve had a career is home markets, people watching on TV. It’s responsible for me being able to make movies for 40 years.”

If you haven’t seen the trailer for the film, you can check it out below:

“The Tragedy of Macbeth” will premiere on Apple TV+ on Friday, January 14. If you’d like to watch the film in the best quality possible, check out our list of the Best TVs for Apple TV 2022.