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MARFA – Marfa National Bank President Chip Love and a few Marfan trucks recently made their big-screen debut in No Country for Old Men, which opened in theaters this month.

The movie, based on a Cormac McCarthy novel, tells the story of an antelope hunter who finds some dead bodies, a bunch of heroin and a few million dollars near the Rio Grande. A violent pursuit ensues, and much of it is set against familiar Presidio County scenery.

Directors Joel and Ethan Coen rolled into town early last summer to film exterior scenes at the Fowlkes Ranch, Liz Lambert’s bunkhouse, and other sites along FM 2810 near the Love Ranch. Galleri Urbane owner Jason Willaford helped the Coens scout out the locations, and he and wife Ree are thanked in the movie credits, followed by the City of Marfa.

Besides the Marfa landscape, several local trucks, cars, and the bank president appear in the movie.

Pizza Foundation proprietress Saarin Keck’s truck was cast as the “hero truck,” driven by actor Tommy Lee Jones. When her truck was returned later than expected, 1970s license plates had been left on and the cab was cluttered with Sudoku puzzles and other movie-set relics. Keck said she wouldn’t loan out her truck to a movie crew again.

The Pizza Foundation also received daily calls from the movie crew asking for help.

“Maybe because we were in the center of town, we’d always get these calls from prop people and stuff asking where to find church pews, 30 wooden chairs, or number 10 cans,” Keck said.

Love was recruited to play “Man in Ford,” who is pulled from his truck and shot by actor Javier Bardem’s super-creepy-killer character.

When the Coens asked Love to be in the movie, he had never acted before but told the Coens his grandmother had been in Giant when it was filmed in Marfa.

To prepare for his role, Love and his daughter were flown out to Los Angeles for a weekend. He was fitted for a 1970s-rancher costume and then taken to a trailer where—amid rubber dead bodies and rubber dead bulldogs—a rubber model of his head was made.

“All that part was pretty surreal, being in a storage unit in some obscure Los Angeles neighborhood, rubber dead people all around, complete with watches and hair and bloody bullet holes on their shirts,” he said. “And there I was in the middle of it with my head wrapped up.”

The prosthesis was needed for the bloody scene in which Love’s character is shot in the head. When it came time to film the scene though, the rubber head would snap back and get blood on Love’s costume, which would then have to be changed. The directors decided it would be easier to add the blood digitally and the prosthesis wasn’t used.

“I said gosh that’s a shame to spend all that money and not use it,” he said.

Love even had a stunt double for the scene. At first Love thought the double was a cool-looking guy. But after the double returned from the makeup trailer, Love thought he looked like a nerd.

“He looked a lot better before they made him look like me,” he said.

 

There were other surprises for Love on the movie set. He was amazed at how many people were working on the set, how tightly everything was scheduled, how many hours it took to film the short scene, and how many angles the camera crew had to capture.

“There were so many people standing around and so many people in the sun. I wanted to do well for those guys because I could see all their payroll standing around,” he said. “You just did over and over where it got so repetitive you really had no idea what they were going to end up using.”

That repetition helped him feel less nervous about acting, as did the fact that he was basically playing himself. He also wasn’t aware of Bardem’s star status.

“He was very kind and generous, very much a gentleman,” Love said of Bardem. “After we did the first take he said, in his Spanish accent, congratulations on your first scene in a movie.”

Bardem seemed so nice, Love was shocked to see how sinister Bardem’s character is in the movie trailers.

“It didn’t seem like he was creepy that day. I thought he was a guy like me,” he said. “That’s where the genius of acting comes in. I’m just blown away how good he was. It’s clear why he’s the professional.”

While Love enjoyed his first acting experience, he expects it will be his last. “I’ve decided acting’s best left to the professionals,” he said.

But keep your eyes peeled for Love’s bloodied noggin in future movies. His prosthetic head is now tucked away with other rubber body parts in a Hollywood storage unit, awaiting its return to the big screen.

“It’s liable to be in something,” he said. “I’m going to be looking closely.”

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