‘Country’ men discuss Oscar-nominated film

updated 6:13 p.m. ET Jan. 23, 2008

NEW YORK - The men of “No Country for Old Men” are having a smoke.

Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin each light up while, all dressed in dark suits, they gather in a back room at Manhattan restaurant Cipriani’s for the National Board of Review Awards.

While Jones fiddles with the matches, Brolin rolls his eyes and alludes to Jones’ Ivy League education: “Harvard,” he says in disbelief.

The NBR Awards, which named the film the year’s best picture, are just one of many to honor the Coen brothers’ movie, adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s novel. On Tuesday, “No Country” was nominated for eight Oscars, including best picture and best supporting actor for Bardem. Jones was also nominated for best actor for his performance in “In the Valley of Elah.”

“No Country” has grossed more than any previous Coen film, an unlikely financial success for a violent, somber allegory of a movie.

Each character is symbolic. Bardem’s Anton Chigurh is a prophet of destruction with the hair of Prince Valiant. Brolin’s Llewlyn Moss is greed; he attempts to take a found suitcase of money for himself. And Jones’ Sheriff Ed Tom Bell is justice; a wise, old man trying to make sense of a new violence.

Similarly, in person, they appear archetypes of masculinity. Among the trio, Brolin is the wry jokester; Bardem is the affable, sensitive one; and Jones is the dour, sarcastic elder statesman.

AP: Though Joel Coen has said this is a film about three men, you’re never seen together on screen. In fact, any two of you hardly appear together.

Jones: Not once.

Brolin: Or once, but without any dialogue.

Jones: But we’re a terrific ensemble, as you can see. (all laugh)

AP: Did you have that sense that you were an ensemble when making it, even if you didn’t have dialogue together?

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Jones: Albuquerque is a really hard place to work. It’s very noisy. There are crows there, planes, trucks, people working on their cars. It’s just a noisy place to shoot. It’s a little quieter in West Texas. That’s about all we dealt with, is trying to do the best we could and work around the noise of Albuquerque and the topographical features of West Texas. I suppose that made us an ensemble, but it’s not as if we walked around a drawing room exchanging witticisms.

AP: It’s ironic that it was noisy while making it, considering the film is exceptionally quiet, with barely any music at all. When did you know that there would essentially be no music?

Brolin: Not until we saw it. We had no idea.

Jones: There was no music? (all laugh)

Brolin: There’s a bit. There’s ambiance. And it’s kind of good; I don’t know of any movie that’s done that — kind of accentuated the ambiance of the wind, the footsteps, the rustling. So it kind of has a natural soundtrack, but a soundtrack nonetheless.

AP: Is that nerve-racking to hear that there isn’t music? Maybe you’re more naked on screen that way?

Brolin: Well, we didn’t know beforehand. I think if we had been told that there was going to be nothing on the screen but your breathing, at a certain point we probably would have imploded.

Bardem: I was really hoping for them to cover my whole voice, my terrible English, with some tension, some music. But they didn’t.

Brolin: Heavy metal or something.

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