20 facts you might not know about 'True Grit' (2010)

True Grit was written in 1968 by novelist Charles Portis. It was quickly turned into a film. The first adaptation of True Grit was released in 1969. That film is also notable because it is the movie John Wayne won an Oscar for.

Joel and Ethan Coen decided they wanted to adapt True Grit. Winning Best Picture for No Country for Old Men a couple of years earlier bought them a lot of goodwill. They were not interested in remaking the 1969 movie but in doing a fresh adaption of Portis’ novel. Ethan Coen said the book was funnier and was told through the perception of Mattie Ross, the 14-year-old girl seeking revenge for her father. This is what the Coens hoped to reflect.

Scott Rudin was a longtime producer for Coen Brothers films, and he began talking up True Grit as sort of normal. Rudin said that the Coens were making a “formal, reverent” Western, adding that it was “very much of a piece with their other films, but it is the least ironic in many regards.”

A faithful adaptation or not, the Coens didn’t do a to-the-letter retelling of Portis’ book. The scene where Maddie stays at the undertaker’s among the corpses to save money over staying at a boardinghouse? They invented that scene themselves.

By focusing more on Mattie than the 1969 film did, which was a vehicle for Wayne as Rooster Cogburn, the casting of that role proved vital. “We were aware if the kid doesn't work, there's no movie,” said Ethan to The New York Times . Open casting calls were held in Texas, with over 15,000 kids applying. In the end, Hailee Steinfeld won the role. It was her first feature film. Given the career Steinfeld has had, the Coens were clearly onto something.

Shooting with a 13-year-old co-lead can cause some complications vis-à-vis labor laws. For example, shooting after midnight with Steinfeld was not allowed, and the Coens needed to do a lot of night shoots. To work around Steinfeld’s availability, it is an adult double standing in for the teen actor in any night scene where you see Steinfeld from behind.

Though Bridges was stepping into an iconic Wayne role, do recall the Coens’ intent to be faithful to the book. According to the actor, the first bit of direction the Coens gave him was to completely forget about the Wayne performance and do his own thing.

Wayne famously played Rooster Cogburn, and Bridges' turn is pretty indelible. Ah, but in between those two films, another actor stepped into the role. In 1978, there was a made-for-TV movie called True Grit: A Further Adventure. The actor Warren Oates stepped into the part for that project.

Bridges was 60 when he played Rooster Cogburn, and Wayne was 62. In the book, though, Rooster is roughly 40. Of course, Cogburn was also a hard-living Civil War veteran. It’s quite likely a 40-year-old Rooster aged like a 60-year-old Bridges.

Brolin, who plays the villainous Chaney, is third-billed in the film. You have to wait a while to see him, though. The actor does not make his first appearance until 78 minutes into the 110-minute movie.

Damon’s LaBoeuf splits his tongue quite severely, impacting how he talks. Damon wrapped a hair tie around his tongue to get the speaking style he wanted. The results speak for themselves…so to speak.

Damon’s LaBoeuf and Pepper’s “Lucky” Ned Pepper are on the opposite sides in True Grit. Both have played a notable character from literature, though. In one of Damon’s breakthrough roles, he played the sociopathic social climber Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley. In 2005, in admittedly a lesser-known film, Pepper portrayed Ripley in Ripley Underground.

Does Mattie’s lawyer, J. Noble Daggett, sound familiar? That wouldn’t be surprising. He’s voiced by J.K. Simmons, who had appeared in a couple of earlier Coen films and is likely best known for playing J. Jonah Jameson.

Fort Smith, Arkansas, from over a century ago, was not replicated with special effects. Instead, the Coen Brothers turned to the town of Granger, Texas. Its wide streets were perfect for what the Coens needed to recreate Fort Smith. While some fake buildings were added and some modern amenities covered up, no special effects were used to turn Granger into Fort Smith.

LaBoeuf, the Texas Ranger played by Matt Damon, runs down a list of aliases used by the criminal Tom Chaney. One of them is J. Todd Anderson. That is the name of a storyboard artist that has worked on several of the Coens’ films.

Wayne’s Rooster wore an eye patch on his left eye, while Bridges’ Rooster wore it over his right eye. Meanwhile, Chaney has a powder mark on his left cheek in the 2010 film, while in the 1969 film, it was on his right cheek. Unsurprisingly, the Coen Brothers’ choices are the ones accurate to the novel.

The Coens are critical darlings but don’t necessarily make crowd pleasers and box-office dynamos. True Grit changed that. It was released Christmas weekend, and it doubled its projected box office. By the end of its second weekend, it had made $87.1 million domestically. At this point, it was already the highest-grossing Coen Brothers film. When all was said and done, it had made $171.2 million domestically and $252.3 million worldwide, doubling the brother’s previous best-performing film.

Why was True Grit so successful compared to other Coen Brothers' efforts? Both the brothers and Paramount’s Vice Chairman Rob Moore believe it’s because the film is PG-13 and a relatively tame one. Typically, the Coens make R-rated films, the kind with bodies in wood chippers and over 100 uses of the “f-word.”

It wasn’t just audiences who dug True Grit. Joel and Ethan didn’t sell out to make that cash. The film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, with Bridges getting nominated for playing Rooster Cogburn. Steinfeld was nominated for Supporting Actress, and the film was up for Best Picture. However, True Grit didn’t win a single Oscar.

Bridges was nominated for playing Rooster Cogburn, the role that Wayne won for. It’s rare for actors to win Oscars for the same character, and it didn’t happen here. However, had things played out differently, it might have. Bridges won his first Oscar in 2010 for his 2009 film Crazy Heart. This was seen, at the time, as a career achievement award. Many critics felt Bridges’ turn as Cogburn was the better performance, and if not for the win for Crazy Heart, there is a good chance Bridges would have won the Oscar for True Grit.