Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Coen Brothers and Evil - Racial Ambiguity in True Grit

Left:Hailee Steinfeld, the Jewish/Filipino/African-American/
European-American actress in True Grit
Right: Kelly MacDonald, the ChineseScottish actress in No Country for Old Men

The Coen brothers use ambiguous racial characteristics both in No Country for Old Men, and in True Grit is . In No Country for Old Men, the lead female is played by someone who is clearly a white/Asian mix. I write in the blog entry "Authenticity in Movies":
The second [instance of inauthenticity] one, which disturbed me more than the first, was Llewelyn Moss' wife, Carla Jean, who looked like a Chinese, most likely mixed Caucasian/Chinese, to me. I would have expected a southern red-neck type wife, or even a Mexican (or 1/2 Mexican.) Someone who looked like she came from there.
When I saw photos of the young girl in True Grit who hires Jeff Bridge's character, my first thought was that she was mixed black/Chinese. Maybe Filipino. It was her nose that suggested this mix to me. The Wikipedia entry on her says about her background:
[Hailee - what kind of name is that?] Steinfeld's father is Jewish and her mother is of Filipino, African-American and European-American descent.
I get the feeling that the Coen bros. like to mix it up. None of their lead male actors has any racial ambiguity, which leads me to wonder if much of their racial cross-overs are sexually tinged.