Actress Carrie Coon was the only castmember on The Post not to battle nerves ahead of filming the political thriller, according to her co-star and real-life husband, Tracy Letts.
The Steven Spielberg movie, about the publication of the leaked Pentagon Papers documents, regarding the involvement of the United States government during the Vietnam War, features Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks in the lead roles, alongside Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, and Bradley Whitford, among others.
The combination of the all-star cast working with legendary filmmaker Spielberg and the pressure of accurately chronicling the true story of the historical cover-up weighed heavily on Letts and the majority of his colleagues.
“Everybody was nervous,” Letts tells Vulture. “Steven was nervous, Meryl was nervous, Tom was nervous. I stress them, because I don’t want to make it sound like everybody else was nervous, though we were all very nervous too.
“We talked frequently about how nervous we were. We would talk in the make-up trailer about, ‘Wow, I’m really nervous about this work today.’ There was something about that urgency (needing to tell such an important story), as well as some of the powerful players who were part of this thing. Not because of their power, just because of their reputations. That was, you know, I think had everybody just wanting to do their best possible work.”
However, The Leftovers actress Coon wasn’t remotely intimidated by the scope of the project.
“I will say there was one person who was not nervous, and that was my wife, Carrie Coon,” Letts continues. “She just has ice water in her veins. She’s like an assassin. She’s the one person who was not nervous, and I think everybody found that a little disconcerting. It’s like, ‘Wow, look at this woman who is the only person here who’s not nervous.'”
Her confidence and her presence on set ended up helping to ease Letts‘ early morning anxieties, and he relished the opportunity to work with Coon onscreen for the first time.
“Because I was nervous, it was great to see her in the make-up trailer in the morning,” he says. “It was great to be able to go to work and see my wife. Not to mention, then we go home at night and we get to talk about the day, talk about the work, talk about the other people. It was great fun.
“Getting to have lunch with her – what a pleasure. Normally, you say goodbye at the beginning of the day, you go off to work, and you don’t see each other again until sometimes very late that night, or sometimes if we’re away shooting, not for weeks at a time, so it was a great pleasure for us.”
