Joel Coen’s new adaptation of the Shakespearen tragedy Macbeth, was put on hold due to the ongoing pandemic. The A24 backed film stars Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand in the lead roles.

Italian stage director Damiano Michieletto, spoke to Joel Coen and Frances McDormand as part of a fundraising effort on Instagram recently. In the 30-minute interview, Coen revealed their title for the film (The Tragedy of Macbeth), why they wanted to tell this story.

Read a few highlights from the interview below:

Coen said, “I had chosen the subject because I had been asked by Frances a number of years ago to direct the stage production of Macbeth. I’m really not a stage director, so I [didn’t do it]. But when I saw her in a production that she did, it made me start thinking about the play and it made me want to work with her on the play because I was so impressed with what she was doing with the part of Lady Macbeth, so I thought that would be an interesting thing to work together on and to do as a movie. So when I started thinking about it in terms of a movie, it became more accessible to me, intellectually, and that’s when it started.”

McDormand shared her views on the title. “I think a very important thing about Joel’s adaptation is that we are not calling it Macbeth. We’re calling it The Tragedy of Macbeth, which I think is an important distinction. In Joel’s adaptation, we are exploring the age of the characters and our adaptation the Macbeths are older. Both Denzel [Washington] and I are older than what is often cast as the Macbeths. We’re postmenopausal, we’re past childbearing age. So that puts a pressure on their ambition to have the crown. I think the most important distinction is that it is their last chance for glory.”