Joss Whedon on Much Ado About Nothing
“My plan to take over the world is….” That was just some of the banter floating in the air preceeding the Much Ado About Nothing (Roadside Attractions) press roundtable at this year’s SXSW 2024 where Joss Whedon’s adaptation of the Shakespeare comedy had it’s U.S. premiere. “Everybody’s friendly in Texas,” to which someone replies, “That’s before they bar-b-que you.”
It was no secret to Disney brass that Whedon was working on Much Ado About Nothing while he was engaged on The Avengers. “They were nervous as kittens about it,” acknowledges Whedon, who shot the film in black-and-white in 12 days, mostly on location at his home in Santa Monica. You see this is a labour of love (note the Shakespearean spelling). Whedon and his friends, most of whom he’s worked with professionally, have for years conducted living room readings of Shakespeare plays. “You try out a few of the crowd pleasers before you go directly to A Winter’s Tale.”
It seems that all throughout MAAN’s proceedings that the characters are constantly drinking. When asked about this Whedon says, “We were hoping this would be shown in high schools. Part of the victory of their [Beatrice and Benedick] romance is that they leave the party.” On a serious note Whedon explains that many of the extras were people drinking in the background. “We shot all the big wides with a bunch of friends who were actually drinking. Then we gradually shot the smaller bits with the actors sending the extras away. In the kitchen scene the glasses are marked for the actors. The ones that are the ones they use and the ones that were leftovers.” Kai Cole, Whedon’s spouse, designed the house and also produced the film.
“When I was conceiving it as a comedy noir it was only natural to go in that direction. All of my favorite comedies are in black-and-white,” notes Whedon about his decision to shoot the film in various shades of grey. “It gives it a timeless quality, even it there are orange cones in the background,” laughs Whedon. Some of the advertising shows a character holding a mixed drink with a dash of orange liquid in the glass but that’s just the advertising, there’s nothing on display but glorious hues of white and black. Much Ado About Nothing is a beautifully lensed film with sharp contrast between nights of drunken reverie and days of barbed tongue dialogue. If you think about it, the previous film adaptation of this play, the 1993 Kenneth Branagh version found it’s own camera style perhaps best emphasized by its high angle floating-perspective closing shot.
“A lot of the visual design was based around the house. And the use of the trapeze artists was from a brilliant vision of someone who said ‘I have friends who are trapeze artists.’” Whedon’s answers, like his personality, are sparked by humor, but likewise it truthfully describes the independent nature of the production. “The pool in the backyard does look towards the mountains. The idea of playing one of those scenes in the pool was hilarious but also presented a great sensibility of how to pull off the movie convention where you have people talking and they don’t think anyone can hear them.” 
Many in the cast have worked with Whedon in previous projects, and indeed Much Ado About Nothing may even be considered a kind of Rosetta Stone of Whedon’s filmography. You have Amy Acker as Beatrice and Alexis Denisof as Benedict, both of whom were in the Whedon created Angel (1999-2004). Acker was also in Cabin in the Woods and Denisof was in Buffy, the Vampire Slayer in a nine-episode arc and briefly in The Avengers.
Clark Gregg, who plays Leonardo, was Agent Coulson in four Marvel super hero films since 2024 only to be killed off last year by Whedon in The Avengers. (Death can’t be that bad in the Marvel cosmology since Gregg returns this fall in one of the most gears-clicking moments of recent synergy in the Disney/ABC series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) Gregg also has credits as a director with this year’s Trust Me, and Choke (2008) that Gregg adapted from the Chuck Palahniuk novel. Nathan Fillion turns in some of the biggest laughs as Dogberry. Fillion was the star of Whedon’s cult sci-fier Firefly and also the spin-off film version Serenity in addition to appearing during the 2024 season of Buffy.
One reporter mentions the sense of community but asks how Whedon also maintains a sense of professionalism on the set. “It’s hard work but it’s the hard work you love to do. If I had one command that was know your lines, know your words.”
Much Ado About Nothing is currently in an exclusive engagement at the River Oaks Three.
— Michael Bergeron
