Bardem on finding his character: "It was kind of weird to try to find a place to play this man, not only playing a dark color or black color, but something to relate to. But as you can tell, I couldn't do it."

Brolin: (in disbelief) "That you could relate to! The humanness of Chigurh! That everybody identifies with!"

Bardem: "I failed, because nobody cares about Chigurh, I think Chigurh's a good guy, Chigurh's a good kid..."

Brolin: "You have to love your character, right?"

Bardem: "But people seem to not like him. I don't know why. What did I do wrong?"

Okay. But how did he, um, develop the character? What guidance did the Coen's give him?

Ethan and Joel Coen at the Cannes press conference for No Country for Old Men Photo by Matt Carr

Bardem: "The Coens, the first day, grabbed me, they said, 'Can we talk to you for a second?' They said, 'We don't know what you want, we don't know what you think of the character, we don't care, this has to be like this this this, that's all we have to say,' and they left."

Brolin: "They said, 'Sign this contract...'"

Bardem: "Yes. 'Sign this policy.' And I said…(puts up hand) and they said, "No no no. You are not allowed to say anything. Basically you are a Spaniard.'"

Brolin: "'You're lucky you're even doing this movie.'"

Bardem: "'Get back there, sign here, cut your hair, kill people, and go back to Spain.'"

Brolin: "So when we have rehearsal for the first time. And I walked in, he was alone, he was crying..."

At this point, maybe conscience kicked in, as they decided to start addressing the actual reality of working with the Coens. And even then…

Bardem: "No, actually it's almost like we're too free!"

Brolin: "First, you have to understand, they give no compliments. There's zero compliments. There's truly, no joke, we didn't get one compliment the whole frickin' time. But after a while you start to understand the body language of who they are a little better. It's not an affectation, it's who they are personally. So the greatest compliment I got, and I think Javier, too, was when Ethan went like this. (Mimes a series of lateral hand gestures.) And that translated as, I found out later, 'We got what we need, that was fine, do you wanna do one more for yourself?'

Kelly Macdonald, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin at the Cannes premiere of No Country for Old Men Photo by Matt Carr

"I shouldn't tell this but I'm gonna tell it anyway. Woody Harrelson came in and he and I have this scene in a hospital. Javier has a scene with him, I have a scene with him. We're doing this scene in the hospital and he's got this little speech. And he can't remember this speech for the life of him. And he's just like stuttering through it. And finally he gets through the speech, and both of the Coens get up and go, 'Oh my God, that was great!' And big hugs, and I look at Javier and I go '‘What the fuck?' Because for the first two weeks, we're in the trailer and I look at Javier and he says 'I think they're gonna fire me.'"

Bardem: "So that's how free we are. They don't say too much. But they are always there for you. Because me, I'm a pain in the ass, I'm obsessive, I need to answer every question that comes to my mind, and they are always there to let you know what you want to know. They'll give you options, but they are not aggressive like other directors telling you that this is how it has to be."

Brolin: "No. They're very trusting and I think the majority of their work goes into casting, and I think they really frustrate themselves in the casting process in order to get the people that they envision, at least from their perspective. Then they can concentrate on the structure of the story rather than trying to finagle performances."

Okay, so that was something. But neither of them could resist getting back into goof mode to wrap things up. Asked if he felt that he might become one of the Coen's repertory company of actors, Brolin deadpanned, "No way, man, I'm never gonna work for them again." In point of fact, he has already worked for them again, in a droll short the Coen's did for Cannes' 30-film Chacun son Cinéma project. So there.