career, has certainly created a visually striking movie. but it's his actors who bring it to life, his wife frances mcdormand as lady macbeth and denzel washington as macbeth, two leads at the forefront of a large ensemble of well—rehearsed american, british and irish actors. we got a chance to rehearse it like a play, well, we actually started working, fran and i and joel, i don't know, a year out, we started reading and sitting down and rehearsing it, but then the company rehearsed for about a month before we started shooting. as the director of the new york film festival told me, audiences will find joel coen�*s macbeth faithful to sha kespeare�*s original work. they'll see a film that very much connects with and hews closely to the language and the wording of the tragedy of macbeth, but it's refreshed in a certain way, refreshed with some of the people that are acting on screen, working behind the camera.