Conversations with Josh Brolin

hey there everybody my name is Gregory Elwood I am the editor emeritus and co-founder of HitFix comm and I am so excited today to be talking to one of the greatest actors actually of our time I don't know if he'll take that sort of humbly or not but he should um please welcome a four-time SAG Award nominee and also an Oscar nominee for um milk mr. Josh Brolin guys look so cozy these are very nice couch are really nice couches very envious so we're gonna talk about a little bit about your career we're gonna talk about some of your more prominent roles that you've done in the past and we're gonna sort of put and do I want to interrupt for a second I wrote something recently you know like as an actor you always hope that you know you hear things written in this and that and you realize that they have an editor and they have to write certain things but he wrote something recently that was one of the nicest things I've ever seen and it it confused me I was on it was sent to me and I read it and I go who wrote this my god you know so I thank you very much for that and I owe you for the rest of my life kissing as far as I will go but hey that's okay and what I wrote about is the film that we're gonna talk about at the end which is you guys saw two clips from which is Josh the performance in inherent vice where it is clearly one of the best performances for career in a good amazing movie by Paul Thomas Anderson which has anyone seen it here yet anybody had a chance but when you when you see it it's just a fantastic film and and for anyone who's lived in LA for a long time it's it's quite in in LA story in many ways but want to start off talking about your early career a little bit and you know many of your fans know that you know they know you that your first film is like The Goonies and but I'm curious I've read that that in many ways you you were sort of sheltered your whole life you'll be 80 years old you will be cheering for the good is literally like that's not a joke that's literal but I'd read that that you were actually your dad was a well-known after and but that many ways your shelter sort of from his career is that true or did you sort of there's a there's a there's a there's a funny sensitivity I'm going through right now and it and it has to do with that you know there's one it there's the you know becoming an actor obviously you all know that it's tough enough you know and and you're going through all the you know rejection and this and people will never understand that by the way other than other actors and that's why we all hang out together and it's that's why we're the bubble that we are which is so weird and sounds pretentious and all that kind of stuff but you can't help it because nobody will ever understand and then you you know you you have an actor dad on top of it who was a TV guy and then I remember when he wasn't working when he what did work and and then he had a show that he hit but he wasn't being paid crap back then because not until Peter Falk finally said I'm sorry I'm sick I can't come to work and then that broke that door open then him he went from 11,000 to 175,000 a week or whatever it was thank God for Peter Falk but you know you'll always have that and you think it's gonna go away eventually it's like well your dad is an actor so therefore course you became an actor or how did he help you become an actor and you don't you don't realize and not not even to defend it but you don't realize that there's people like I came in to a casting lady and she said oh yeah you you're your dad's James Brolin isn't he said yes yeah then she goes and you want to be an actor and I said oh yeah I do very much yes you know and she said okay well act and I was like do you have you know I got a couple monologues that I can do and she goes thanks for coming in and she wouldn't see me for 10 years and I was like that's that mentality of and it's more widespread than youth would think of we're not going to do so the whole actor thing in itself is just a weird thing it's just like you're successful you're not successful it's just judgement judgement judgement so for me being here today just to start it off and not on like a more toné but I get it man I get it and it is a special thing ultimately that you get to do but it's tough it's a really bizarre riddle a lot of rejection and all that if you you were getting rejected because you know you'll be your father or did you feel your last name not because of my father you know but because the perception of nepotism and nepotism is actually quite the opposite because you have to prove yourself that you that much more because there are those people that have okay let's see you know let's see if you deserve it or not and I think for me it was incentive for me I I liked that I liked the incentive to go forward so the more rejection that I got you know I think which is not very much but I was on probably 300 interviews before the goonies and I got was told you know you should probably find a new profession you should probably you know you're green you're all this kind of stuff and it wasn't and then I got the goonies man like your first thing you're supposed to get like you know happy days or something and then there's that whole thing where you think that's how movies are made you know and then I did fresh and sure yeah you know so it's a different deal but you know you never know just the trajectory yeah but what was the spark was it something you did in high school was it no yeah it was an improv class I loved improv or I liked it because of that you know the idea which was very different than anything that I knew I didn't spend a lot of time on the set I was up on a ranch and all that well you know with my mom mostly and and you know I would you know I had like a like an you know it was like underwater basket-weaving or acting and I took the acting thing and and then I got up on stage and she was like create a character and doesn't matter what age or what you know Korea a voice around the character and she was just talking about character stuff and she said they get up and we're gonna ask you questions and you answer as the character and I've you know people were laughing and that was that was that was it you know so unlike my dad who had gotten into acting in a really indirect way because he wanted to and somebody said you should act because that would be the better way into directing for me it was I had no interest in it whatsoever none because I think my father did it and and and then I took that improv class and it was forget it it was done see you have these three hundred interviews you get Goonies it's this it's this big hit did you realize that that did you think that oh this is it this is gonna jumpstart my career I'm gonna have big movie after big movie or big movie or did you feel like nope I know enough from seeing what my dad went through that this is gonna be a struggle no cuz I didn't see what he went through cuz I saw nothing and then I saw the doctor dude you know and it was big and but he was away so I didn't see it I didn't see the reaction he come up to the country we lived out in the middle of nowhere so I didn't see the reaction so I did Goonies and and then I there was this massive poster on in in Burbank and that was just like I I think I literally got out of my car because it was really weird you know and then I got thrashed and purely because of that poster I didn't get it because I was purely because you have value have a small movie being done and therefore if you have somebody who's on a poster then you can get it financed and which you can tell in the act well well that's that was my my follow-up to our one sort of stop ration is I'd heard that you almost decided to quit after that is that is that true no I did I saw I saw the movie I was so bad dude I mean I'm better now now I have enough space from it that I can go you know all your kid and you know you had no voice control and when you say Krissy it's really high you know Krissy know you know and you're like oh my god and then you have that moment where you go I'm gonna you know like that decision that crossroads of like I'm gonna do something else because I know I can do something else I always had a kind of a an intuitive feeling that I could make money somehow but then I went then I went to New York and I became the idea of becoming an actor which I realized was that was the fallacy also but you did work and you did stage work while you're in New York we did stage work up in Rochester I believe I mean it was that was that your your your learning experience is that where you feel like you really sort of learned the foundation of being an actor yeah yes and no yes and no I was very very lucky I actually got a job on a on a series called young writers it was a Western series and I worked with a an amazing human being the most amazing human being I know anthony zerbe and he's the most inspired human being I've ever met in my life and I've you know been around a lot of pretty great people and Howard Zinn and all these amazing people but Anthony zerbies the greatest you know person I know and he's an amazing actor too a great Shakespearean actor a great actor period he was in like Omega Man he was in Cool Hand Luke he's an amazing guy but anyway when I was doing that a lot of guys from that show would go into a movie during hiatus and I was jealous of that because I thought that's what you probably should be doing to kind of build that resume and hopefully get that one part that's gonna work and zerbe I don't know why I saw something in me and said why don't you come to me to Rochester New York I just did a play there I think we can get two slots and we'll both kind of put it together we'll do one slot of a classic play and then we'll do three new plays and rotating rep and like let's do that and I did two plays every year for I think four years maybe five years but four years and yeah so I did two plays and I did it so I did a lot of acting up there you know and yeah was that a confidence did you feel like you gained at least more confidence but doing all that I was put in a position of somebody saw the fact that I was possibly better at character than I was at other stuff you know I didn't understand the whole leading man mentality or what that was all right it wasn't I didn't have a lot of comfort in my own personality to go oh I can rely on that so I like the whole then I just naturally but it just was because it was and like this hole which I understand now this hole lon chaney interest of like oh you know prosthetics and character and this and that and I get it and I'm freed in that and I understand you know I feel liberated within that probably just to cover it up or I could blame it on something else but but Rochester was also another great thing about Rochester was I failed miserably like I remember I was my first professional play I was playing for giving Typhoid Mary is playing an Irish priest and I had a 8 page monologue and I went out opening night and there were 750 people and I came out by myself with Barry Hawk wold with us you know really ambient light on her and there was a spotlight on me and I got up with her probably a really bad Irish accent and a cassock on and I was like well Mary you know she's you know you know she's feeding people that are on food in decision and I'm going through this thing and I do like I take off my glasses to break the chain of thought and I clean off the glasses and I put out in the glasses and I look up and man it was gone I mean it was gone and then you see the eyebrows like the one thing you can see you can't see anybody's face but you see eyebrows go and you know you're done and now confidence you have enough confidence if you've done enough two plays or whatever you know to kind of improvise and kind of bring it around but I had remembered first readings of first scripts that I had read of the play like a year and a half before that weren't no longer in the play but I just for some reason they were popping into my head totally random you know Mary wrote a trace because when she was far and you know and but no I went back and I and and and and I left the stage because they went manual the people the the stage managers goes he's off he's way off go totally man he won't go anyway a night so I spoke whatever I could and then I left and the lights stayed on for about four seconds and then went my god and I went backstage in the stage so that just confirmed the fact that I had completely miserably screwed up the whole thing and then Zerby came back and he said the perfect thing because nobody knows man I got he goes nobody knows you're right or two well that's amazing and go back out there and I did so it's stuff like that so I've failed in every possible way you can so don't put those experiences only I mean it's a cliche but they helped you grow they helped you gain confidence to go back out and do it again right I know for sure for sure well you're just you'll either quit or you don't you either quit that's the whole point of telling the story it's not like the mimimi game right it's you know it's that's the whole thing and my kids have gotten it because you know I mean all I know is persistence and they know that too you know you don't see that a lot in youth today as persistence you know they get sidetracked a lot and this is not working I don't know what I want to do and I don't want to which is understandable I think that's part of youth but I also believe that rejection is a very sensitive thing but you know there is something about just banging away with the knowledge that it may never happen and that's okay you know banging away is the point so when would you say in your career you know if we look at from from a bird's eye view we'd see Goonies we'd see young writers we see flirting with disaster and then you know maybe American Gangster things start happening so around then in your own mind you see moments like fighting fighting fighting got this yes like more more fuel to keep fighting and to keep getting parts and and and to keep furthering the career do you see that when you look back over your own career do I see myself putting myself in that position where or the moments were you you you got something that made you that yep may do you think yes keep going keep fighting yeah but there was no that the fight was always there was never a moment of like oh this might be it there might be that I got that a lot from other people dude it's right around the corner for you I was like it's been 20 15 years man it's true it's true by the way I've done 83 interviews today so I'm really chatty so because I'm like stoned and talking we um we actually a question from someone in the audience and it's I think it sort of pertains to this is they're sort of curious how was your acting changed over the course of your career in terms of your technique what you do I think the technique was put on early on I think it was put on you know who was trying techniques which is okay it's like a painter trying you know copying another painter you know and it's like you know Josh you ready you know hanging out in the corner and sucking my thumb or whatever that I was doing which is fine for some people I mean a perfect example you haven't seen it yet but you know what Keane is a wonderful actor an incredibly gracious actor and and I love him dearly as a person and professionally and I had a ball working with him but he's a guy I didn't you know I spent very little time with Joaquin you know and that's great I totally understand that I have no judgement of it I don't really respond to it it just is what it is and with me I've found through the years by having as much space from what I'm do it like I do a lot of prep I do a ton of prep I all my work mostly I would say 80% of my work is in prep and I put myself through all the worst situations possible I do my lines I almost always know all the entire script before I show up for the first days on set knowing that the lines can change but it's okay because I can't figure out for me can't figure out a character unless I know everything unless it's right there right and then I start to play with it and and all that but but I need objectivity because I get bored doing it the same thing for too long I'm just that's my personality so you know I may be acting I may be in character but a totally different character that I've created in order to be the opposite of what I'm doing so when I finally do what I'm doing it's totally fresh to me and and that's important for me you know Sean Penn is a good example both about it is a similar thing with him where you know like I'm doing Hail Caesar now and I'm a walk around talking in that voice sometimes which is because I'm afraid I'll lose the voice because it's hard on my throat but um you know Sean and I both pace a lot I pace a lot and he paces a lot so you have that mark and then Sean's mark and then we're doing milk and we're doing on your face again and then and then like they'll go ready okay rolling and speed and and I'll come up and maybe I'll say like Paul your breath stinks action and he goes like this he's looking at me like and then it's so part of it is like bagging on each other and seeing if we can break the other person but it also lends and I understand it sounds goofy and like there's no respect for it it lends to the amount of focus there's a lot of selfish things going on that seem collaborative but it's all lending to the focus because to me the only thing that matters is when you're actually doing it that you're a thousand percent there's a thousand percent conviction and the minutes is over I want to release myself from it and go away and then when I do it so that's it so yeah so there's not a lot of stuff going on anymore I just think since you brought up mr. Penn let's jump to milk for a second because I had some questions about that and actually about the two of you and sort of as actors and working with the director like Gus Van Zandt we spoke a couple weeks ago and you were talking about how Paul Thomas Anderson that to you he he makes a sense of family on the set as compared to some other directors and one of the things I was watching some clips from from milk the actually the one you guys saw on here and in that film it feels like so much of the tone comes from the performance of the actors it comes from Sean's performance and in many in the ensemble what you guys are doing and I'm curious is that something on that film in particular that Gus sort of gave it over to the act no David sort of gave it over to the actors in a way like sort of what the tone of the film would be or did you feel like he had it's very steady hand in determining what it would be I don't know if that question makes a lot of sense no it does it makes sense but it's how you're getting that steady hand you know if you have a steady do you have your pulse on the actors or it's the wrong word but but in manipulating them to do what you want them to do or you allowing them to dictate the tone of the film it's basically what I'm saying right and Gus you know I just went to a QA a couple weeks ago I saw Gus but you almost can't see even if you're looking for him you know and he's just like hey judgin I'm like Oh Gus what's up man he's like oh you know I'm just editing right now and I go you know he's so soft-spoken and he what he's always that way but look at the film's he's making you're like you can't be that guy entirely so there's something about that that works for him and there's something obviously extremely productive about him I can't see it but not that he's lazy but but I can't I don't see the aggression in him that you would normally you know I guess pertained to a director who's you know productive so he's - a is he is manipulating it somehow and and in in guiding it in a way where he'll come up and say you know why don't we you know he'll give you notes and all that kind of stuff but it's not it's not like Paul when Paul is jumping up and down and doing backflips and then be like let's do it again you're like that was some kind of direction you don't know but well I guess that's sort of pertaining to you and Shawn in that film you know you've got two characters who are on polar opposites and what their goals are in terms of you know Dan white and Harvey Milk as members of the San Francisco County Board of Supervisors live we've got all right and um but there's there's this tension and in the scenes that you guys are in together it seems like I don't know if you guys did a lot of rehearsal beforehand or how you talked about it but there there is this chemistry that's going and I'm just curious sort of where it came from whether it was the more you the two of you that as opposed to thus guiding it for what you remember no no I remember the chemistry and Shawn and I knew each other before a bit so and and it was Shawn Matt was supposed to do that part Damon and then Matt had to pull out because some kind of scheduling conflict and then and then Shawn and I had just spent some time in Toronto during the whole no country thing and that time that we spend I don't know obviously I was fresh on his mind or something and he said what about Josh and Gus like that idea but from a chemical point of view chemistry point of view that yeah you know we had that and we have that but you know that doesn't necessarily help all the time it can get in the way you know while Keane and I have that we haven't spent any time together but there was an innate kind of ease about the respect for the work and then once we went into it there was something that was already happening so it was nothing that we needed to establish on a base level we just went right to a different place and then went you know I don't wherever we went I mean we went so extreme that it was crazy but so yeah there was a similarity there and I think I'm answering your question but but yeah I mean there's some actors I think you know to contrast it there's some actors I've worked with where there's nothing happening and then you'll create like a fight or something just to have something going on you know and then that doesn't help and then you realize it's gonna be a bad movie have you worked with actors who are friends of yours who you have great time offset you're just like you get onto its too much too much like buddy buddy too much chemistry no that only helps no I haven't worked with a lot of actors that are my friends I know a lot of actors but I don't I haven't worked with a lot of actors that you know there you know there's a is that you know everybody knows that you don't move in it's a family you're extremely close I mean I named my kid after a prop kid that was my best friend and I never saw him again you know and I named my kid after his kid you know so that's what happens you know it's just what happens and you may not see somebody for 10 years and when you see them again and it's not phony I know there's that phony thing but then there's the real thing of seeing somebody and you've had an incredibly intimate experience so it's real when you see them again and and slightly awkward but but real nonetheless well you were talking earlier about how you spend so much time in prep and researching a role and I'm just curious are you know there's some actors who seem to relish doing rehearsals beforehand they love it if there's three weeks before and then I've spoke another actress over the years for like no I just want to get to set I want to save it for then do it there which camp do you fall in I like what Duvall says and he says everything is rehearsal and I like that I don't want to I don't want to put any I heard somebody who was on the set with me who talked to Joel and Ethan I'm doing this movie with Joel and Ethan Hail Caesar right now and they because they would never tell me that they go josh is really doing a great job they would never tell me that but the with that you don't know I don't know and oh they said oh that's the point is they're doing a great job with this pressure which I don't like that word because you know it's like you know you delete in a film and my Studios you know in the film and the millions of dollars and I don't want to think of all that stuff that's not my you know it is a pressure but at the same time I just want to go and treat it as if you're in a black box theater you know that's what I did before this movie I rented out a black box theater and I had people come down and I rehearse with them and and because it it not because no it's the black box theater makes me feel like I'm starting over again but it's just about being in that theater setting and it's like let's just do this let's not do all the and let's just do this let's just do the work let's just do the lines because that's what's great about working and I know I'm you know jumping ahead or whatever but working with Joel and Ethan is because it's just about the work I mean it's literally just about the work I mean you finish the scene I just did it used to make jokes about it but then I'm reminded now I'll finish the scene and I did a five and a half page all me dialogue scene with the religious community it's really funny scene I think but they looked at me and they went and they walked off and I was like like anything like awesome or no nothing man and that means we got it you're here to do something that we need for our film and that just did it and is that your experience with the Cohens is it totally three films now you know and it's still early in the game maybe more but yeah that's my experience all joking aside that's my experience and I've actually grown to love that experience loved it like not just appreciate it like thrive on it but now and you know I just worked with somebody who gave me massive compliments and I had the worst time I've ever had oh my god I love you were amazing you're amazing uh-oh but going back to the Cohens before you had worked with them I don't know if many people know this you had gotten in a motorcycle accident am I correct two weeks before shooting was supposed to start and you broke your collarbone and you still went to set and did not tell them that you were injured is that correct so that's not correct and I'll become a legend now now at two days after I got I was doing this thing with Brittany Murphy called the dead girl and and I was on my way I was at a wardrobe fitting was two days after I got no country I was in a wardrobe fitting with Mary's ovaries and I was on a motorcycle and they I asked them because I had to get award to a wardrobe fitting for the dead girl so I was going up Highland and I was in the third Lane and there was traffic and a lady coming this way was making a left-hand turn and she just hoped that there was nobody in that Lane she just guessed and I was right there and I've ridden motorcycles my whole life I used to race motorcycles I did those things so I never had a problem with and I was always a very defensive driver and you realize it doesn't matter and there's a skid mark about that long and I was in the air forever because I hit hard and I missed I just got into an angle where I missed the top of the car so I was flying over the you know the trunk the boot and I was flying I just kept flying and I was thinking of my kids and then I was thinking god man I really wanted to work with the Cohens and then I was trying to get my back around cuz I had a I had leathers on and I had a one of those back you know the plastic things right and I was trying to get my back around and it wasn't I had a lot of time to do it but it wasn't the trajectory wasn't really helping me and I landed and I heard the loudest snap I've ever heard and I thought was convinced it was my neck and I rolled out of it and I stood up right away and I felt that rush of blood and I sat there and I froze and I was like what is it what is it and I moved like this and then I looked down at my bike and I was in traffic so I tried to pick up my bike and this arm was just kind of like hanging so then I realized oh and then I moved not to get to I know it's not I think it's girl I moved and I felt the bone and then there was a guy on the corner I started to go into shock and somebody help me with my bike and then I went to talk to the lady I was like and I wasn't mad I was just like you know this is not my fault and there was a big dude who came up to me and he said he said hey man I said what and he said you need to apologize to this woman oh and I started going into shock when I was looking at him it was like it started to get like I had somebody had slipped acid in my drink or something I was like what do you mean you know and anyway so I called long story short I called the I went to the doctor and they told me I would do it differently now because now I know enough about those kinds of injuries where I would have it played it and the whole thing about having played it once they cut then there's the possibility for infection and all this kind of stuff and you don't want that because then that would obviously be bad so they said just let it heal on its own it will fuse on its own so I talked to the doctor my agent called Ethan Ethan I talked to Ethan and I said you know it's nothing it's nothing and he said I want to talk to the dog I'm talking to him I was like so I called the doctor and I won't say what the doctor's name it because he you know it was just wrong and I just said listen let's go through this before you talk to him with my most intimidating voice you know so what are you gonna say you know and he was like well I'll tell him you know you'll be healed in months and I was like okay first of all months completely out of the vocabulary no months days cool weeks hours awesome and and he did he actually he did it and in the and truly the only reason I was able to do it is because Llewelyn early on gets shot in the right shoulder and it was my right collarbone so any kind of weird movement would make sense because and that was the only reason no matter who lied were you in a lot of physical pain though during that you the whole shoot the whole shoot do you think that helped your performance no well I'll let you answer that my question was when you watch the movie now can you see in certain scenes oh wow that was a date like we shot that and I remember you remember the pain more than remember shooting the scene no no no no no not so much that but I do remember you know when I'm sure when Llewelyn shooting the Antelope he's supposed to be standing up and I actually there was a guy there Keith Walters one of my good friends now it was he knew a sniper and I called the sniper I talked to him on the phone I said how would you hold your gun and he said well like what are you wearing and this and that and he said take off your boot put it on the rock and then just rest your gun on the rock and then I'll put your hand around the butt of the gun so that's how I did it that's when that's how it's in the movie I'm it which looks better anyway than me standing up and the only thing I can tell is when I reach down and pick up the bullet that I used to shoot the Antelope that Llewelyn used to shoot the Antelope I picked it up and put it in my pocket but you can see my elbow never leaves my usually pick it up like that and put in your pocket like that what I put in my pocket you can actually see it if you live for before we get to inherent vice which I do want to spend a good time talking about but um want to talk about W really quickly because there was a actually question from someone in the audience a difficult role a movie that came out you know right before at the almost at the end of his term and my first question for you was you know I'd heard that you were hesitant to take it what finally convinced you besides Oliver Stone's pestering to to take the role I don't you know know is a funny thing and it seems to me that good directors you they know that know isn't necessarily know you know or know maybe fear or maybe ignorance or something and Oliver is really smart he's just one of the smartest guys I know and I really like him a lot I am very loyal to him so yeah he wouldn't leave me oh and he really pastored me I I used to have a night with guys it was one girl it started out with Paul Haggis and it was a reporter from New York that wanted to interview him and a bunch of his friends so we had a bunch of guys in the reporter from New York the woman and we liked that things so much that we ended up doing it with a bunch of different women like Charlize was one and madeleine stowe was one and we'd have a bunch of guys come in and then one girl and it was always the girl who totally took over the dinner and and it was always fun but anyway there was one time where I had said no to Oliver and I talked to him and and I had said no immediately and then he showed up at that dinner it wasn't invited but he showed up at that dinner and Paul got out of his seat so we faced me so he had something going with Paul which I didn't like but and then he sat down and then he was pestering me the whole time and I don't understand and what is it about it that you don't want to do and what are you afraid of and this and I was like man what do you see in me that you see in W and I had a real strong reaction to W at the time and I was like it was creating a complex and I didn't like it I didn't want to see him I just didn't want to see him I was like leave me alone you know I love your movies but leave me alone and so he kept he kept pestering in a in a really smart way you know and he'd send me a script and say read this read this version does this make you feel more comfortable and that so it was fear that's all it was it wasn't really how I felt about w it was just a big part and I was like I don't know it's yeah once you finally took the role John Odom would like to know how did you prepare for it we know John Odom a terrifyingly I did a lot of reading I read 13 books I think on him I watched his videos it becomes different he's no longer becomes the guy who I knew he's just a guy who I have to play now so I got to know his personal life a lot which happened you know so I was talking all over a lot when I was reading those books I'd write down a lot of notes it's an all over a lot of emails that I tend I have a tendency to do that with directors send a lot of emails and and then he he stood he got more into he created a script that was a real basher that when I was doing milk III said I wasn't going to do that because you could watch CNN and basically get it in five minutes you know so I said I'm more interested about how this guy became president twice what is it about this guy because there is I don't care about the whole ballot thing enough people voted for this guy that there's something about him that resonates within people to want to vote for him what is it that they're lacking now sociologically that one stood like it's true man and so that was the study and that was interesting to me and it made me it impassioned me to want to do it and then I just I just sat in a room by myself being W for like four months four and a half months constantly I didn't leave I didn't leave my house once to go out the whole time I was doing W so I did four and a half months before Nana now maybe three three and a half months and then I I was at my house with my assistant and at work and I never did anything else and I was always calling around there was one word like I have something that I do on set now because it's a different voice but that I will always say America to get into it which I got made fun of a lot and I would walk around because I was you know is that sphere to again and I would built AMERICA AMERICA AMERICA AMERICA AMERICA and Elizabeth Banks Amerika Amerika Amerika Amerika but fear and I did it with Tommy Lee same thing fear um well let's talk about in here advice the quick probably movie where you only had to read one book I'm guessing one book and how did Paul come to you with the role he called me I knew him a little bit through the award circuit during no country because he had there will be blood and I really liked him he was a little unapproachable to me not because of him but because he was around Daniel and that was just like you know hey Paul I was the guy getting in a little bit of trouble too so I was kind of you know I was the child in the group you know a man and we go we you know and and I really had massive respect for him and I love his movies I absolutely love his movies you know Magnolia when the Frog started coming down I just got it I loved that there was another guy out there that thought like I thought you know and and I really mean that and it wasn't like you know I have a peer it was just like somebody oh I'm not a total freak you know and so he called me and he said I may have some work for you and I had emailed him fairly recently in the last year a few times because I was getting more into directing I was producing and and I said can I just ask you out just to have some coffee and just talk about filmmaking just as a fan and just as somebody who wants to know more and and then he called me back I thought for coffee and he was like I think I may have some work for you and I was it cool but then you know that fear you know I was leaving to vacation I said I'm leaving can I see you when I get back and he said I actually want to see right now send you our tomorrow morning as it possible come down to you and he sent me the script I read the script you guys don't see what I'm talking about totally meaningless never read the script had no idea what I read he came down the next day but I knew enough to ask him questions and then his passion was just sold me immediately and just for those of you who have not read the book because anyone read the book by the chance okay so uh Josh plays a detective Bigfoot I went to France the her name last name wrong bjornsen göransson he's an LAPD detective who makes Larry doc Sportello played by Joaquin Phoenix life somewhat difficult and you guys have some great scenes together in the film what you guys saw and some of the the clips there and I'm curious we talked about this before but you were telling me that you in in many ways Paul didn't even land on who Bigfoot was until you shot the first scene maybe a little bit no no no no no no it's a very dense book and you guys haven't read the book nobody has I had neither I lied once and said that I read gravity's rainbow for an interview and I was like why did I say that I want to be smarter than I am but you know I would be like what is this to you man and you go I don't know it I can be anything you know he'd say like that so I'd be like what does that mean and then when we were figuring it he had kind of I don't know if this isn't he hasn't said anything so maybe it's not but you know he had kind of D saturated the part because it's such a colorful era and the characters as you know are so colorful that with bless you that that Bigfoot you know is he's the antagonist of course but he kind of D saturated him he was like let's take him out of that color and he's a pretty colorful character in a different way in the book but when I got together with him we when I got back from my you know trip or whatever we got together and we started talking about it and he knew the book for Batum I could talk about any scene and he'd go oh go to page you know 134 it's halfway down on the right side and I'd be like wow man and so he was extremely intimate with the book which was really nice and and then I said what about the scene like why is it I think I remember from the book there's just more there selfishly and then he would go yeah let's go and then we started recolor izing it because I said there's no reason because he's different he's not these guys so it's not competing against these people he's in the 50s don't you think he's more in the 50s he said I know it he's in the 60s or the 70s to think so didn't we start going back and forth like that then we enjoyed saturated or colorizing it so much that we kind of saturated it more and then by the time we got on the set we would what we would call Tom and Jerry like I'd look at him and I got you and Tom and Jerry and go yeah go ahead and then it would be way over the top it would be like okay you know me and Joaquin fighting or you know him trying to climb out of a car at 45 miles an hour and just anything goes Tom and Jerry was anything goes that's not what you say you see the tamed version well there's a couple scenes in here I'm not sure that I would still say there Tom pretty unattained they're on they're on time but they're not Tom Adira one of the things that's really interesting about him as a character - is he is also an actor Bigfoot is and he's trying to be or an actor at least and he he appears on in one great moment that the people see and people see in the movie on an episode of adam-12 which was a cop series and I'm just curious I know these thug the audience in the movie yet but do you think he really wants to be a cop or is he just wants to be a star and things like being a cop is his way to somehow yeah we lacked know yeah he wants to be a star not a not an actor star he won't just wants to be US star you know I love ready of any kind of any kind yeah he just wants to be noticed for the great man that he is you know you guys don't get it but you will you know it's the only thing how hard is that this conversation you haven't seen it but at the same time it's hard to have the conversation even if they have seen it and you'll understand that when you see it he's a guy to me who desperately wants to have an impact and he's more interested on the impact than he is on the subject that would have the impact of him being a facilitator of an impactful event he wants to be I know people like that I mean I know people like that they're like you know and they're scary to me they're scary because they're more so there's people who they think they should be here when they're here and they don't understand why they're not here and there's this bitter thing but how Bigfoot deals with it I mean you want to speak so speak don't say no I don't mean interrupt you but you're what you're saying is it the reason why when you first see the movie I think Joaquin is so intimidated by him he does you know obviously Bigfoot we all think he's really smart when we first meet him but as the scenes go on but there's that first scene and it's that I'm I'm he's basically saying I'm the like we meet him oh yeah scares Joaquin's character and as the movie goes along doc quickly realizes that maybe someone is a little crazier than he is but but he is also but but I don't think he's because he knows and before that he's scared I'm figuring this out with you I am because he's scared but he is intimidating and he can be brutal yeah but at the same time there's this weird marriage going on between the two of them that yeah as dysfunctional is such an overused word it's like every you know but it would but anyway it's dysfunctional and yet they need each other they absolutely need each other yet he doesn't have the capacity beyond a certain ceiling I don't know if he has the intelligence I wish that he did but he doesn't you know it's one of the reasons why it's such a great performance being such a great character because it's you could once you see the movie you can talk about him forever he's just incredibly fascinating character and two moments in this movie that I think you'll hear about for a long long time there's two scenes in particular that I think actually are going to become internet memes at some point one involves a I believe it's a chocolate banana am i correct and I'm just here use your imagination but I'm curious was that in the script yes well let your imagination go well with them and then the last one is there wasn't that no it's not that but but the other thing is there's this incredible scene at the end of the film we've been through a lot Doc's been through this tremendous arc as well we're basically Bigfoot breaks down in in many ways you know I mean that's how it appears at least to me when he comes and visits doc for the latter he's lost it yeah yeah and you do something there where you eat something in chomp on some stuff that there was a visceral reaction from the audience when I when I saw it good and and now I'm just curious how many times did you actually do that a lot a lot I mean the banana thing like there was one day that banana thing I know that you're thinking the one because there's several scenes that had bananas but the one thing the one we're walking reacts to it yeah yeah that one that like that day would that wasn't that was at the beginning of a scene that actually only only that moment was used of the entire scene and and I eat two bananas in that scene and we ate 44 bananas that day that was just one day you know so you know it sounds like a great idea when you're like what if I do that but if I eat the entire banana on this one they're like okay go for it and then it's six o'clock and you're just like oh you know and going back to the total conviction thing like every time you ate it man it was like the first time and it looks awesome and good job and you know I'm glad it wasn't a Cohen's movie where I was like you know did you get the banana thing well actually that's my follow-up then if is Paul just a direct mean many actors would be like really we did this 30 times or 40 times do what about Paul makes you be like okay this is cool let's keep doing it let's keep doing the scene again and again again you know I would love to work with Fincher to see if that would be a problem do you know what I mean yeah honestly I would I would I would because I know when you know do you got it I don't know what does that even mean do you have it because you don't really know until later but then you can overdo it and isn't the third take fine and I understand what Clint Eastwood does but I kind of understand what what Fincher does too you know and I just want to do it I just wanted it's not what I want to continue doing it because I'm enjoying it you know I'm one of the not that I differentiate myself from any other actor but I've heard from actors you know the thing I love about acting is between acting and cut all the other stuff I could just not you know I just don't want to deal with you know and all that and I go that's freaking torture for me acting and cut is the worst part of the whole thing to me it's like the prep and learning about it and getting into it and finding those those shifts and all that acting and cut you don't know if any of it's working you're just having to use it's like golfing you learn you learn you learn you learn you learn and if you don't let it go you're not going to hit the ball correctly so that act of letting everything go and knowing that you have to do 1,500 things in a scene that you've talked about throughout the day don't forget to pick up the fork during that line don't forget to do that have everything be organic and also if you have any other ideas during the scene go for it and you're just like it is a stress there's nothing you can't take away from somebody that it is a stress then you get used to that stress then you start to thrive off that stress and I don't mean torture in a negative way but it's it's it's difficult you're finding the niches and you don't know it's working and it what's wonderful about working with Paul is he'll tell you and I go what do you think and it goes well it's kind of a turd and I go okay cool where do you think we should go you guys what do you think can I go what if we cut out the middle three pages and I'll try to ad-lib between page 2 and page 6 or 5 and why don't we try that and look at walking walking is like whatever you want to do I don't care just to mix it up and then you may go back to the scene in a fresh way because you've mixed it up in a way that makes you have a different perspective on it did any of that actually make it into the film any of those moments that you those sort of improv moments that you guys are sort of playing around a lot of them a lot of them behavioral improvisation not dialogue improvisation some of the dialogue did some of the ad-libs be dead but you can that's it start to improvise Pynchon yeah it's pretty dense it's like improvising Joyce well the move you're working on now well your Hail Caesar with the Cohens huge ensemble cast is that a movie where you talk about the Cohens being sort of not always giving the feedback see like something like Paul would but you feel like you can have a more fun because it's all these great actors coming in they trust you all many of them have been in their films before so that they is there a freer hand in many ways the the first of all I do have fun and they do give feedback okay Paul there's just not a lot of compliments going on it's just that it's a there's a lack of compliments but I but I I see them now they just come out in that way like when even got up for no country and got the best best Oscar for Oscar for Best Picture when he looked around I was at you hear one laugh if you watch it on film the one I'm the only guy laughing because I'm the only guy understands because when he looked around and he was terrified you know and he was looking around he was trying to think of what to say which what do you say to that anyway so it's the most honest moment I've ever seen in the Oscars and then he finally lean Thanks what was this speech this year Thanks and that's what you get from them but yeah working with these I mean to go down you know there's George Clooney there's Scarlett Johansson there's ray Fiennes there's Alison Pill there's Jonah Hill Channing Tatum Tilda Swinton and there's more people and basically like I just did a scene with George the other day that was I got to slap around it was fun and and it was fun we were both nervous and and and we've known each other for a while but but so it's gratifying totally because you're doing different scenes with different people but it's also nerve-wracking because you don't find like with Joaquin and I and like after the first day it was like oh we know what this is and we know where we can go it's that every new person you know I totally make sense I have one last question that want to take actually from the audience from Heidi who wanted to know what has been your most challenging role in Y and how did you tackle it my most they're all challenging I mean I don't know probably thrashing because of the skateboarding was really hard no I mean men and black was maybe the toughest because you don't see a lot of comedians doing Tommy and there's a reason for that like there's a lot of ways to make fun of Tommy but you don't see anybody doing it and it's a cadence that's really tough to get much tougher than w that that drove me insane I went down to Mexico and I literally went a little insane and I almost call Barry I think I did at one point and said I this is a mistake I can't I don't think I can do this I would go work I would start with sounds so dramatic but it's not you know syllables and then I'd get a word and then I'd do that word over and over and over and then I'd maybe get half a sentence and then I'd go the next morning and I wouldn't be able to do it again because the K you know so I watched men in black and I'm not kidding at least 35 40 times and just and that's all I did because I started to get so scared that I wasn't going to get it and then and then once it happened it happened and then I was able to because it's not just learning it that's why I don't really work with a voice coach I do sometimes but it's not a technical thing for me or it is but I have to feel it there has to be a cellular thing that happens where then it just clicks so then it's not like how do I say this word I already know how to say every word but I have to work for that shift and so then when I when I did it I did the first scene with with will and then Barry who's insane came from around the camera and he was like crying really crying hard like harder than he should have been crying tears of laughter no just a lot of tears and he was like it wasn't it like I wanted to I'm not sure if it was laughter or sadness or what but it was it was a weird weepy kind of in between and then we'll started laughing hysterically and then I was sitting there not knowing what the was going on like if it was a successful thing because I just did my first scene and he was like Europe and we did it we did it now it was like we have a whole movie to go and then I realized that that was a thing like he cried probably four or five hundred times after that but well that's a true story man it's absolutely true sir last but not least did you did you get the seal of approval from Tommy himself I didn't oh I didn't I've seen Tommy after that how are you doing you know whatever you know no no no he never said anything you know what the best compliment I got though and you know is you know once in a while especially after the Cohens and compliments always nice but his assistant thought that he had he had dubbed his voice that was that was a great the greatest compliment I got well there we go by the way that was a great way to finish that we just finished with you Tommy thing every but anyway guys please thank mr. Josh Brolin thank you guys

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 31,278

Rating: 4.9014087 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, Labor Day (Film), Acting, Foundation, Actors, No Country For Old Men (Award-Winning Work), The Goonies (Film), Josh Brolin (Celebrity), Wall Street (Film), SAG-AFTRA, True Grit (Award-Winning Work), W. (Film), Film (Media Genre), Screen Actors Guild Foundation, Q&A, Interview, Career, Retrospective

Id: aKlw9h8t2qk

Length: 57min 17sec (3437 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 08 2014