Trivia / The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

• Acting for Two: A bit in the Japanese dub:
  • Takaya Hashi voices both Curly Joe in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and the Impresario in Meal Ticket.
  • Chafurin voices both the bank employee in Near Algodones and the Irishman in The Mortal Remains.
• Cast the Expert: Musicians Willie Watson and Tom Waits both play characters who sing.
• The Cast Showoff: Tim Blake Nelson shows off his singing voice in three songs. Jonjo O'Neill and Brendan Gleeson also show off respectable voices when singing a cappella.
• Creator's Oddball: So far, this is the only anthology film and only film released straight to streaming for the Coen brothers. It is also the first to be shot digitally.
• Cross-Regional Voice Acting: A minor example of this happens in the Latin American Spanish dub, as the entire dub was done in Argentina, but the Impresario is voiced by the Mexican-born voice actor Salvador Delgado, causing his accent to stand out compared to the rest of the cast.
• Fake Nationality: The Frenchman in "The Mortal Remains" is played by German-Canadian Saul Rubinek.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Tim Blake Nelson, who usually (even in The Coen Brothers' previous work) plays good-hearted simpletons or foolish comic supporting characters, portrays another "humorous clown" character, only this one's cartoonish good cheer is portrayed as disturbingly inhuman psychopathy due to the wanton violence he inflicts on those around him.
  • Liam Neeson, known for playing grizzled and badass heroes and wise mentor figures, plays a slimy, disreputable, and talentless huckster who's willing to commit murder just to chase the next passing trend.
  • Conversely, Tom Waits, whose music and previous roles are usually all about seedy and disreputable creeps and weirdoes, plays an almost entirely sympathetic character, one of the only ones in the whole film.

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