In honor of True Grit's home media release today, Movieline phoned Pepper last week to reminisce about the filming of the Coen brothers' western, those teeth, the beauty of Alpaca chaps and his favorite moment on-set with Jeff Bridges.
Congratulations on your success with True Grit. You don't see that many Westerns these days that do well with both critics and audiences.
I was so pleased that it has done so well. Westerns are always so difficult to predict whether or not they will reach an audience but I think that the success of this one is a testament to the brothers' fidelity to the rhythms and richness of the original storyline and the language of the Charles Portis novel. It is a fantastic novel. I highly recommend it. I think [True Grit] is going to do very well on DVD, too. There's a lot of people who didn't get to see it in the theater who will really enjoy it.
Why do you think it appealed to such a broad audience?
What's cool about the film is that die hard fans won't be disappointed but the Coens created this as a family film so it really reaches a wide audience.
You were paid so many compliments for your portrayal of "Lucky" Ned Pepper. Did any review of your performance stick with you in particular?
I honestly don't follow it. I don't really read the press, but I think in the early stages of production, the viral chatter was kind of negative about the retelling of this classic John Wayne film, and audiences and fans of the original didn't realize that the Coens were going back to the original source material -- the Charles Portis novel, which was so highly deserving of a faithful re-rendering -- that when the film did finally come out, and it finally put that chatter to rest, it was a great moment. It really vindicated the Coens' vision and their passion for the story. The fact that it did so well in the box office was just a real testament to their extraordinary ability as filmmakers. That is what I was most pleased about. Westerns are very difficult to predict whether they'll reach an audience or not.
Robert Duvall played Ned Pepper in the original film. Did you get any feedback from him?
I did. I spoke to him after the film came out because I hadn't seen the original Henry Hathaway film. I'm actually glad that I hadn't seen it in hindsight because I was able to formulate my own version of the character. Then someone told me that he played the first "Lucky" Ned so I watched the original film. But I called Bob after our film came out in theaters just to let him know what an honor it was to reprise a role that he had originated and he was very kind, saying that we all did a fine job. Then we were able to talk about his experience on the Henry Hathaway set which was a great conversation.
I read that the True Grit chapter of your life began when your wife taped your audition for the Coen brothers?
[Laughs] That's right, yeah. Well, I read the screenplay and thought that it was so extraordinary that I didn't want to miss out on the opportunity of being involved. The Coens, I guess based on my filmography, didn't really envision me as the character. So I thought, "I can't let this opportunity pass me by so I better put a character on film for them."
Were you in costume for your audition tape?
Well, I didn't have the woolly chaps. That was something I didn't have in my costume trunk. After I had been offered the role, I had the opportunity to work with an amazing costume designer named Mary Zophres who had hand built these amazing Alpaca woolly chaps that were just really incredible. Woolly chaps hadn't been seen onscreen since Buster Keaton so we were all a little bit nervous about how that would come off.
I think the Coens are just so dedicated to a faithful rendering of the original book that they really wanted those details to be as precise as possible. It was cool to wear that for sure.
Do you still have those mangled Ned Pepper teeth?
Yes. [Laughs] But who else would want them?
Your character spends a lot of time on the back of the horse. Did you do your own stunts?
Well, I did one stunt that the Coen brothers really didn't want me to do. They had brought in the stunt men to do this horse stunt in the first scene in which they introduce Lucky Ned and his gang, my horse is shot out from underneath me. Rooster shoots my horse and I fall to the ground and one of my gang members rides by me, I grab onto the saddle as he gallops by and I hoist myself onto the back of the horse. Well, they had designed the entire stunt with a stunt man and didn't invite me to try it myself which I was a little put off by. So I just did it on camera without telling them on camera that I was going to do that. Fortunately, that was the shot that ended up on film. It was a lot of fun but sometimes the producer is very nervous that you're going to get hurt or they don't think that you are capable so they don't think to even ask you.
My favorite scene in the film is the final shootout when "Lucky" Ned yells "I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man" across the plain at Rooster. What do you remember about filming that shootout scene with Jeff Bridges?
I remember being so amazed at watching Jeff gallop up with his pistols in each fist and the reins in his teeth. I was just so impressed that he was as involved in the recreation of that scene as he was. Normally a lot of that work falls to stuntmen but that was one of the most memorable moments for me from the making of True Grit -- watching him gallop up on me as I'm firing my rifle and charging towards each other on the horses. To see him be so involved in each of those sequences that we shot over the course of several days was really impressive. He just handled the horse so beautifully and the pistols like an old pro. He had done several Westerns before so he was very comfortable on horseback and with firearms. It was a joy to work with him.
