'honey Don't!' Is The Steamy Lesbian Noir You Didn't Know You Needed

In nan acheronian drama “Honey Don’t!” backstage detective Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley) investigates a suspicious decease that leads her to a narcissistic reverend (Chris Evans) and his mysterious church.

The film, which debuts Aug. 22 and stars Margaret Qualley successful nan lead role, is nan 2nd installment of joined mates Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s lesbian-centric trilogy. Last year’s “Drive-Away Dolls,” a raunchy road-trip comedy starring Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan and Beanie Feldstein, was nan first.

Early successful her career, Cooke edited galore of nan films her hubby directed pinch his brother, Joel (the renowned duo often simply referred to arsenic nan “Coen Brothers”), including “The Big Lebowski” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” But for this movie she joined her spouse successful nan writers’ room. In summation to their films, their unsocial narration has besides made headlines: Cooke is simply a lesbian, Coen is straight, they stock 2 children and person been successful a platonic national for much than 30 years.

Writer Tricia Cooke, character Margaret Qualley and writer/director Ethan Coen connected nan group of "Honey Don't!"Karen Kuehn / Courtesy Focus Features

Cooke said that successful “Honey Don’t!” which her hubby directed, it was her ngo to make lesbian protagonists visible wrong nan noir genre.

“Ethan and I are some large noir fans. It was a genre that made consciousness to america — in, like, a classical B-movie genre” she told NBC News. But, she added, “I couldn’t deliberation of immoderate noir genre movies that were lesbian aliases queer-themed.”

Cooke was besides inspired by nan butch-femme move and wanted to “switch nan gender norms” successful “Honey Don’t!”

“Instead of it being for illustration nan masculine antheral detective, it would beryllium awesome if nan very feminine characteristic was nan detective, and nan much butch characteristic was nan femme fatale,” she said of her first thought process.

Honey’s wardrobe is mostly feminine, though edgier manner icons — for illustration Lauren Bacall and Katharine Hepburn — served arsenic inspiration for her wardrobe, Cooke said. Though nan location of nan story, a landlocked Southern California city, did coming immoderate sartorial limitations.

“Honey’s a detective successful Bakersfield, truthful she couldn’t look that good. She couldn’t look that styled because we wanted her to consciousness realistic,” Cooke added.

Aubrey Plaza stars arsenic MG Falcone and Margaret Qualley arsenic Honey O’Donahue successful "Honey Don't!"Courtesy Focus Features

The main characteristic besides uses her feminine wiles, charisma and flowery dresses to disarm her opponents and drawback them disconnected defender to her benefit, truthful she tin deed them difficult pinch her crisp investigative skills. Her charm proves successful successful getting accusation from those ranging from a slimy megachurch reverend (Evans) to a deadpan bull pinch whom she shares a steamy romance (Aubrey Plaza).

Cooke revealed that Plaza’s character, MG Falcone, was initially intended to beryllium much masculine but was reworked to amended fresh Plaza’s casting. Honey, Cooke added, was inspired by a friend of hers who erstwhile managed a activity shop.

Similarly to “Drive-Away Dolls,” “Honey Don’t!” embraces women’s sexuality. Honey and MG stock a vibrant chemistry, or, arsenic Cooke refers to it, “a classical femme-butch attraction.”

“We decidedly wanted it to consciousness sexy. We wanted location to beryllium a batch of activity successful nan movie. Everyone has it,” she said.

While “everyone has it,” nan reside is different crossed nan narrative. Cooke said nan reverend’s activity scenes were meant to beryllium a spot ridiculous, while nan scenes betwixt Honey and MG were intended to beryllium sexy, pinch nan first of their steamy scenes inspired by “Basic Instinct.”

“We wanted them to consciousness intersexual hostility from nan beginning, for illustration it was a large spark successful some of their lives,” Cooke said. “We conscionable tried to constitute things that felt like, ‘OK, this makes sense. They’re really into each other.’”

Chris Evans arsenic nan Rev. Drew Devlin successful "Honey Don't!"Courtesy Focus Features

As for nan film’s location, Cooke, who was raised successful Southern California, said she and Coen wanted to deviate from nan typically grim environments of noir films and usage nan backdrop of sun-drenched Bakersfield.

“We thought visually it would beryllium interesting. Also, there’s a spot of a bleakness — not to nan city, but conscionable nan scenery location — that felt correct for that type of story,” she said.

But while nan film’s opening was really changeable successful Bakersfield, astir of nan movie was changeable successful Albuquerque, New Mexico, wherever nan Coen Brothers changeable “True Grit” and “No Country for Old Men.” Cooke noted that immoderate of Albuquerque’s inheritance terrain, specified arsenic its mountains, had to beryllium edited out.

With “Honey Don’t” astir to deed theaters, Cooke and Coen are now moving connected nan last installment of their sapphic trilogy: “Go Beavers.” Cooke said nan book is successful its early stages and is astir “a unit squad who gets together for their reunion, and they commencement dying disconnected 1 by one.” However, Cooke noted, she’s not a instrumentality of scary and is hoping to steer nan communicative successful a different direction, 1 that is specifically inspired by nan 1971 Australian outback endurance movie “Walkabout.”

“That movie is whoa, psychedelic. What is life?” Cooke said. “It has a small much depth, truthful we’re reasoning astir taking it successful that direction.”