The second installment inEthan CoenandTricia Cooke’s lesbian B-movie trilogy,Honey Don’t!, premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, embracing the film’s neo-western landscape and compelling performances from its ensemble cast.
Serving as a spiritual successor toDrive-Away Dolls,Honey Don’t!follows a small-town private investigator, Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley), who delves into a series of strange deaths that somehow tie back to a mysterious church. Coen once again stepped behind the camera to direct the film, while bothhe and Cooke penned the script. In addition to Qualley, the movie starsAubrey Plaza,Chris Evans,Kristen Connolly, andCharlie Day, alongside plenty of others to bring the stylized murder mystery to life.
At Cannes, Collider’sSteve Weintraubcaught up with Coen and Cooke to discussHoney Don’t!, where the pair talk about how the new film compares to the first installment,Drive-Away Dolls, and how Evans reacted to his role in the new film as Reverend Drew. Before the interview closes, the pair also provides an update and tease about the trilogy’s third installment,Go, Beavers!.
Ethan Coen Drops His Favorite Movie Theaters
“Maybe it’s like vinyl. It’ll come back.”
COLLIDER: What is your favorite Stanley Kubrick movie?
ETHAN COEN:Dr. StrangeloveI’ve seen maybe 184 times. Maybe it’s 183.
TRICIA COOKE:Paths of Gloryis my favorite of his movies because it’s political and very funny.
COEN: Political and written by Jim Thompson, weirdly.
For me, it constantly changes. Usually, my answer is all of them.
COEN: Oh my god, I also recently, a year ago, sawLolitaagain. It’s fantastic. It’s not the book, but it’s so great.
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The whole interview could be about that, but congrats on the movie and being part of Cannes. I’m obsessed with getting more people to see movies in movie theaters, so do you have a favorite movie theater?
COEN: Oh, that’s interesting. Favorite movie theater? What’s the one on Lex and 23rd? It’s not even a movie theater anymore; it’s a music venue. It’s a pit, where your feet stick to the floor and you don’t really want to sit in the seats, and it’s too boomy and too echoey, and it’s kind of dank, but I like watching movies there. It’s a good place to see an exploitation movie.
COOKE: I love movie theaters. The movie theater that I think I saw the most influential films in my life is Theatre 80 St. Marks, which is a horrible theater. [Laughs]
COEN: That’s a weird theater.
COOKE: It was a weird projection. Nothing ever looked very good, but they just had great films. Film form, I mean, it’s not a great movie theater, but they show great movies.
COEN: Theatre 80 St. Marks projected the movies frombehindthe screen, so they had to flip the film, and the emulsion was kind of the wrong way, so it was always a little out of focus.
COOKE: Yeah, but what a great experience. And The Paris. I love The Paris because it’s kind of classic New York. I sawThe Unbearable Lightness of Beingonce when I was there. I went in during the day, and it was sunny, and I came out, and it was nighttime, and it was snowing. It was just so magical to be right at the park with those beautiful old street lights. It was just the perfect location.
COEN: I sawDawn of the Dead, the first sequel toThe Night of the Living Dead, in Times Square when it came out, and the audience was screaming. My god, it was fantastic. I can’t even remember the theater, but they were all pits. That was a great place to see, again, an exploitation movie.
COOKE: I did see a lot of movies on 34th Street, like thebigAMCs, specifically for that reason — because the crowds are there, and the crowds really heighten the experience.
COEN: Maybe it’s like vinyl. It’ll come back.
You know something? People are going to movie theaters, but they’re going more for these big event movies now and not smaller things. It’s just changed.
Chris Evans Was “Game for Anything” in ‘Honey Don’t!’
The writer-director explains how the follow-up compares (or doesn’t, rather) toDrive-Away Dolls.
I want to jump into the movie. I laughed a lot, and I really enjoyed it, but I have to talk about Chris Evans. In the movie, he’s either preaching or having sex. What was that like to pitch Chris on? Did you say, “Read the script,” or did you say, “Just to let you know, you’re going to be preaching or having sex in every scene?”
COEN: No. It’s just, “Read the script.” And he just went, “Okay, I can do this.” [Laughs] He’s just totally funny. He’s game for anything. He did it with relish, as you saw.
100%. A lot of peopleare going to be curious. How doesHoney Don’t!compare to theDrive-Away Dolls? Is it radically different? What do you want to tell people about it?
COOKE: They’re genre movies, so they’re very different genres. The only thing that connects them is that they’re lesbian movies. Well, and Margaret [Qualley], I guess. I think thatwe just want to make genre movies that are entertaining and feature queer characters. This doesn’t compare to the last one because it’s just a totally different film.
Ethan Coen Gives an Update on ‘Go, Beavers!’
“It’sWalkaboutandDeliverance, except it’s all women.”
When we spoke forDrive-Away Dolls, Ethan, you told me, “The problem with writing two is then you’re obligated to do a third because no one does two. You’ve got to do a trilogy.” So, I have to, of course, ask what the status ofGo, Beavers!is?
COEN: It’s in development. That’s what we say when we’ve talked about it a little bit, but haven’t written much. “It’s in development.”
COOKE: We’ve written about a third.
COEN: It is a genre. It’s “man and god,” except it’s a lesbian movie, so it’s “woman and god.” Man and nature. It’sWalkaboutandDeliverance, except it’s all women.
I’m trying to put this all together. Do you envision making it in the next year or two or three years?
COEN: Not ayear. Hopefully, yeah. We’ve talked about a lot of movies. I’ve written scripts with Joel, and me and Trish have talked about it, and actually started other scripts. We don’t know what we’re doing next is the short answer to your question.
Honey Don’t!opens in theaters on August 22.
Honey Don’t!
Honey Don’t! is set in Bakersfield, California, and revolves around a private investigator, a cult leader, and a mysterious woman.
