Dan Levy's Parents Knew He Was Gay Long before He Told Them — Facts about the Emmy-Wng Actor

In the Coens' screenplay the dience disvers the character of Llewyn at a crossroads his life and reer, adrift the New York folk scene of 1961. When they began to wre, the brothers took as a startg pot the openg image of a folk sger gettg beaten up a back alley of a Village folk club; the qutn they then asked themselv was, "How did this character get here—what were the events that led to this?" Acrdg to the Coens, when they s down to wre they only have the most general ia of where the story is gog. "We never, cludg on this movie, do an outle or figure out what's gog to happen, how the screenplay's gog to unfold," Ethan says. "We jt start wrg wh the first scene and we see where go." "In this se, though, we did know how we wanted to end," Joel says. When we meet him, Llewyn is stgglg to make as a sgle act after the suici of his sgg partner, Mike Timl. He is eager, almost sperate for succs, so he n earn a ltle b of money; on the other hand he wants to rema te to himself. Circular Story The screenplay begs and ends wh Llewyn endurg a beatg outsi the Gaslight Café; the fal pag of the script Llewyn fds himself walkg to a prediment that bears a myster remblance to the one he walks to the script's openg pag. "One thg we wanted om the begng was to have a circular stcture to the story," says Joel. "It was always the ia, even before the whole story was thought through, that was gog to wd up the place where started. And we knew that was always gog to take place wh a prsed perd of time, a ty slice of time—roughly a week maybe." "Another thg that was always on our mds, as we wrote, was when—exactly when, at the end of the movie—we were gog to let the dience know that the story was g, so to speak, back to the prent," Ethan says. "When will the dience get the ia that the story is kd of pletg a circle?" The brothers expla that they refully nstcted the closg scene at the Gaslight: "It isn't until the scene at the very end, when you go back to Llewyn performg Hang Me' at the Gaslight—jt as he did the openg—that we put certa thgs to tell the dience that they're watchg the intil moment they saw earlier," Joel pots out. "Llewyn uld sg the same song any number of different nights—'s part of his repertoire. So we had to very specifilly thk about how to illtrate that this was not jt Llewyn sgg the same song twice, but that this was the same actual performance om the begng of the movie," Ethan says. Joel says: "The shot of Llewyn g off stage, after his number isn't vered by the mera the same way as is the begng, but the scene repeats the same dialogue, so you realize you're watchg the same event, om a different angle." This shot also expands on the moment. Llewyn performs a chos of 'Fare Well' ('Dk's Song') after 'Hang Me.' At that pot the performance is over and he walks off stage. The story has now e full circle. Characters Peter, Pl and Mary The characters who populate Llewyn's story are an amalgam of imprsns the Coens have of certa historil characters and fictnal creatns of their own imagatn. Jean and Jim Berkey, for stance, particular as they perform wh their iend Troy Nelson at the Gaslight Café, rell some ways the folk tr Peter, Pl and Mary. "In fact, the script we gave them a Peter, Pl and Mary song to sg—'500 Mil'," Joel says. Ethan says, "There was a real act lled Jim and Jean but all we sentially took om them—om their act—was their nam. I have no ia who they were as people. Jim and Jean, as they are the movie, they are our ventn. We thought of Jim and Jean as the more clean-cut versn of the folk scene." Roland Turner: John Goodman "Wh the character of Roland Turner we were thkg about the New Orleans, old-school, jazz guys, and Dr. John," Ethan says. "Roland is a pose, on the surface, of var figur." As played by John Goodman, he is an amalgam of the screen persona of Orson Well and Burl Iv. Many viewers perceive him to be a gay, or sexually ambiguo mician due to his relatnships wh his pann (who driv the r to Chigo). Llewyn Davis: Amerin Origal Llewyn is an origal, wholly fictnal character. Insi Llewyn Davis—the tle a reference to Van Ronk's 1963 album, 'Insi Dave Van Ronk'—isn't fact about Van Ronk. Like Van Ronk, Llewyn has a workg class background, but otherwise he rembl Van Ronk only that he shar his repertoire of songs—mic that acrdg to the Coens riv more om what they scribe as the Sts-Irish-Anglo tradn as opposed to the Southern tradn of the blu. Llewyn tak a physil beatg or two the story, but he tak a psychic beatg as well. His ntent relatnship wh Jean Berkey, his bt iend's wife, weighs on Llewyn through the movie. Jean sleeps wh Llewyn, only to go on the attack, tellg him he's got no ambn, isn't gettg anywhere—and everythg he touch falls apart. When he lands a gig rerdg a song he thks is ane about the newly elected Print Kennedy, he somehow manag to lose out when the song be a h. The rerd Llewyn ma on his own isn't sellg, and so he sets his hop on beg signed by Bud Grossman, a mic producer and manager out of Chigo. A goln opportuny to dn for the legendary Grossman sudnly looms when a bizarre twosome—jazz mician Roland Turner and his pann Johnny Five—appears; they are drivg cross untry and need an extra hand for gas money. Llewyn is . Llewyn's trip to Chigo is roughly spired by an cint Van Ronk's life, which Van Ronk suffers through a particularly embarrassg dn for the well-known folk managerAl Grossman (the mol for the script's Bud Grossman). Ethan says, "The trip to Chigo is not a big al Van Ronk's remiscenc, but we felt the movie was so much about New York that the road trip would be a eful tour—we thought of as a kd of foil that might set off New York an tertg way." Llewyn's loss of his Masters Mat and Pilots license is another tail the Coens borrowed om Van Ronk's life, though Van Ronk shipped out twice wh the merchant mar, he never returned to sea after losg his seaman's papers, but otherwise Llewyn's odyssey through New York—and the misfortun that befall him—are the ventns of the Coens.