Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke's 'Drive Away Dolls' Exists Because of their Open Marriage

By Dustin Rowles | Film | February 1, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | Film | February 1, 2024 |

Ethan Coen — one half of the Coen Brothers — and Tricia Cooke (an editor on many of the Coen Bros.’ films) have been married since 1990. They have two children together. In the aughts, Coen and Cooke — who is queer — wanted to find a way to spend more time together and decided to write the movie Drive Away Dykes. They didn’t have as much time together as many married couples do because they are in an open marriage, as they explain to Moviemaker.

We have a very non-traditional marriage and relationship where there’s a bigger unit,” says Cooke. “I have a partner and Ethan has another partner.”

She adds: “It’s not easy sometimes and it can be very difficult for even our friends and family to understand. You navigate it one day at a time. We’ve been in this kind of dynamic for over 20 years, and we still take it one day at a time.”

“It’s funny because our whole relationship is like, “What, me worry?” says Coen, quoting Mad Magazine poster boy Alfred E. Newman. “And that’s also the movie.”

The movie is called Drive Away Dolls in 2024 because some people find the term dyke offensive, but it also took another 15 or 20 years before a studio would agree to make a lesbian film with a budget as high as this film. Ethan Coen had also been on a filmmaking sabbatical, so this is his first effort without his brother Joel (save for a Jerry Lee Lewis documentary). Working on it also gave Cooke and Ethan Coen another opportunity to spend time together during the pandemic.

The film, by the way, stars Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, and Matt Damon, who plays an “evil senator with a dildo problem.” In the aughts, however, Selma Blair, Holly Hunter, Christina Applegate, and Chloë Sevigny were attached. It opens in theaters on February 23rd. If enough people go see it, maybe the next lesbian film will get a proper budget, as well.

Source: Moviemaker (and I recommend the entire article; it’s great).