Burn After Reading

About the Cast

GEORGE CLOONEY (Harry Pfarrer)

George Clooney has won renown as a motion picture and television actor, producer, executive producer, writer and director.

In 2006, he was honored with three Academy Award nominations – Best Director and Best Original Screenplay (with Grant Heslov), for Good Night, and Good Luck; and Best Supporting Actor, for his performance in Syriana.He won the latter Oscar; it was the first time in the awards’ history that an individual had received acting and directing nominations for two different films in the same year.

Prior to Burn After Reading, Mr. Clooney previously starred for Joel and Ethan Coen in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, for which he won a Golden Globe Award, and Intolerable Cruelty; previously starred with Brad Pitt in Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve, and Ocean’s Thirteen; and previously acted opposite Tilda Swinton in her Academy Award-winning performance in Tony Gilroy’s Michael Clayton. The latter film earned Mr. Clooney Oscar, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and BAFTA Award nominations, among other honors.

He is partnered with Grant Heslov in in the film and television production company Smokehouse Pictures. The two previously worked together at Section Eight, in which Mr. Clooney was partnered with Steven Soderbergh. Section Eight produced such films as Good Night, and Good Luck; Syriana; Ocean’s Eleven and Ocean’s Twelve; John Maybury’s The Jacket;Steven Soderbergh’s Full Frontal; Anthony and Joe Russo’s Welcome to Collinwood; Christopher Nolan’s Insomnia; and, for Focus Features, Todd Haynes’ Far from Heaven.

In Section Eight’s television division, Mr. Clooney was an executive producer on, and directed five of the episodes of, Unscripted, which aired in 2005. He also was an executive producer on, and cameraman for, the 2003 series K Street. Both shows fused reality and fiction.

He made his feature directorial debut in 2002 with the Section Eight production of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, for which he won the Special Achievement in Film Award from the National Board of Review. He followed it up in 2005 with Good Night, and Good Luck, in which he also co-starred. He was recognized for his work on the latter by nearly every major film critics’ organization. He was honored with the Paul Selvin Award from the Writers Guild of America and the the Freedom Award from the Broadcast Film Critics Association. In addition to the two Academy Award nominations, he was nominated for two Golden Globe

Awards, three BAFTA Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, an Independent Spirit Award, two Critics’ Choice Awards, a WGA Award, and a Directors Guild of America Award, among others.

Also in 2005, Mr. Clooney co-starred in and co-produced Syriana. The film garnered him accolades all over the world including a Golden Globe Award in addition to the Oscar win. He was also nominated for Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA, and Critics’ Choice Awards, among other honors.

He has also earned critical acclaim starring in such films as Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight and David O. Russell’s Three Kings. Among his other films are Steven Soderbergh’s Solaris and The Good German; Mimi Leder’s The Peacemaker;Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin;Michael Hoffman’s One Fine Day; and Robert Rodriguez’ From Dusk Till Dawn.

Mr. Clooney has starred in several television series but is best known to TV audiences for his five years on the hit NBC drama ER. His portrayal of Dr. Douglas Ross earned him Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, People’s Choice, and Emmy Award nominations.

He was executive producer and co-star of the live television broadcast of Fail Safe, developed through his Maysville Pictures, which won two Emmy Awards and was directed by Stephen Frears. Fail Safe, based on the novel of the same name, also received Golden Globe and DGA Award nominations.

Mr. Clooney recently directed Smokehouse’s Leatherheads, in which he starred opposite Renée Zellweger and John Krasinksi.

FRANCES McDORMAND (Linda Litzke)

Frances McDormand has established a worldwide cinema audience with roles in a variety of films, including her Academy Award-winning portrayal of Marge Gunderson in the acclaimed Coen Brothers film Fargo. Other films include Bharat Nalluri’s Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (also for Focus Features); Nicole Holofcener’s Friends with Money (Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress); Niki Caro’s North Country (Academy Award, Golden Globe, and SAG Award nominations); Lisa Cholodenko’s Laurel Canyon; Nancy Meyers’ Something’s Gotta Give; Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous (Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Academy Award nominations, as well as several critics’ awards); Curtis Hanson’s Wonder Boys; Michael Caton-Jones’ City by the Sea, opposite Robert De Niro; Daisy Von Scherler Mayer’s Madeline; Gregory Hoblit's Primal Fear; John Sayles’ Lone Star;Alan Taylor's Palookaville;Mick Jackson’s Chattahoochee, opposite Gary Oldman;Sam Raimi's Darkman, opposite Liam Neeson;Ken Loach’s Hidden Agenda, opposite Brian Cox;Robert Altman’s Short Cuts (Venice International Film Festival Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Ensemble Cast); John Boorman’s Beyond Rangoon;Bruce Beresford’s Paradise Road; and Alan Parker’s Mississippi Burning (Academy Award nomination).

With the Coen Brothers, she has made three other films; Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, and The Man Who Wasn’t There.

She returned to the Broadway stage this spring in Clifford Odets’ The Country Girl, directed by Mike Nichols and starring opposite Morgan Freeman.

JOHN MALKOVICH (Osborne Cox)

John Malkovich has twice been nominated for the Academy Award, for his performances in Robert Benton’s Places in the Heart (opposite Oscar winner Sally Field) and Wolfgang Petersen’s In the Line of Fire.

Among his many other screen credits are Roland Joffé’s The Killing Fields; Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun;Gary Sinise’s Miles from Home and Of Mice and Men; Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons; Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Sheltering Sky; Nicolas Roeg’s telefilm Heart of Darkness; Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady; E. Elias Merhige’s Shadow of the Vampire; Liliana Cavani’s Ripley’s Game; Brian W. Cook’s Colour Me Kubrick; Sean McGinly’s The Great Buck Howard; Clint Eastwood’s upcoming Changeling; and Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich, for which Mr. Malkovich was cited as Best Supporting Actor by the New York Film Critics Circle.

He has enjoyed long-term cinematic collaborations with writer/directors Raoul Ruiz (on Time Regained, Savage Souls, Klimt, and the forthcoming Love and Virtue) and Manoel de Oliveira (on The Convent, I’m Going Home, and A Talking Picture).

Born and raised in Illinois, Mr. Malkovich attended Illinois State University, eventually majoring in theater. With his friend Gary Sinise, he helped co-found Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1976. He won an Obie Award when Steppenwolf presented Sam Shepard’s True West in New York; appeared with Dustin Hoffman in the 1984 Broadway revival of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, later winning an Emmy Award for Volker Schlöndorff’s telefilm version of the production; and starred on Broadway in Lanford Wilson’s Burn This.

Mr. Malkovich directed and produced the feature The Dancer Upstairs, starring Javier Bardem. His other films as producer, through his company Mr. Mudd, include Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World, for which Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi earned Golden Globe Award nominations; Laurence Dunmore’s The Libertine, starring Johnny Depp; and Jason Reitman’s smash Juno, which won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Picture and the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (Diablo Cody), among other honors.

About the Director

JOEL COEN (Director/Writer/Producer)

Joel Coen was honored by the Cannes International Film Festival in 2001, as Best Director for The Man Who Wasn’t There, and in 1991, as Best Director for Barton Fink. He was honored as Best Director by the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review, and the BAFTA Awards for 1996’s Fargo; and also won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Fargo, which he co-wrote with his brother Ethan.

The screenplay for O Brother, Where Art Thou?,also co-written with Ethan, was nominated for a BAFTA Award and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Other films that he has directed and co-written are Intolerable Cruelty; The Big Lebowski; The Hudsucker Proxy; Miller’s Crossing; Raising Arizona;and Blood Simple.

He co-directed and co-wrote the 2004 comedy The Ladykillers with Ethan. Joel and Ethan Coen’s most recent film is their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men.Among their honors for the latter were the Directors Guild of America, BAFTA, and Academy Awards; the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay; Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay from the New York Film Critics Circle; and Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay from the Oscars and the National Board of Review. The film’s cast was voted the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, and Javier Bardem won the Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, among other accolades.

ETHAN COEN (Director/Writer/Producer)

Ethan Coen has produced and co-written such critically acclaimed films as Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, which won the Palme d’Or [Best Picture], Best Director, and Best Actor (John Turturro) Awards at the 1991 Cannes International Film Festival; and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which was nominated for two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards (winning one).

One of 1996’s most honored films, Fargo, which he produced and co-wrote, received seven Academy Award nominations and won two, including Best Original Screenplay for Ethan and his brother Joel. Among the other films that he has co-written and produced are Blood Simple; Raising Arizona; The Hudsucker Proxy; The Big Lebowski; The Man Who Wasn’t There;and Intolerable Cruelty.

He co-directed and co-wrote the 2004 comedy The Ladykillers with Joel. Joel and Ethan Coen’s most recent film is their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men. Among their honors for the latter were the Directors Guild of America, BAFTA, and Academy and Awards; the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay; Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay from the New York Film Critics Circle; Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay from the Oscars and the National Board of Review; The film’s cast was voted the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, and Javier Bardem won the Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, among other accolades.

Almost an Evening,comprising three short plays by Ethan Coen, was staged earlier this year off-Broadway by Neil Pepe at the Atlantic Theater Company’s Stage 2 and then at the Bleecker Street Theater; in spring 2009, the same director and company will stage his three new short plays under the title Offices.

Joel Coen was honored by the Cannes International Film Festival in 2001, as Best Director for The Man Who Wasn’t There, and in 1991, as Best Director for Barton Fink. He was honored as Best Director by the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review, and the BAFTA Awards for 1996’s Fargo; and also won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Fargo, which he co-wrote with his brother Ethan.