Josh Brolin Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

I'm on the ground and the cameras are on me they're off camera and I looked at Ruffalo and I forgot my line and I go What's My Line like he would know it's a different character it's a different actor can you kind of characters with Josh Brin see one take one okay The Goonies my dad's not home Mr Perkins is your mommy here no sir actually she's out at the market buying Pampers for all us kids I went down to live with my dad and I had this idea of like maybe I should try this acting thing out bec

ause I had done a theater class in my high school and I never got it and I never wanted to do it because my dad did it and I saw the financial fluctuations that he went through and I thought why would anybody want to do this this is just dumb so I took a a class and we improvised in that class and I got up there and it was like some middle-aged guy from the east coast and I don't know where it came from it just popped in my head and I said I guess I'll try this anyway there were there was a lot

of laughter and I remember how it felt it was like that thing that you hear where something just clicks and you're like oh I want to do this like this is super scary super uncertain and I like that so when I went to go out and look for agents I hadn't done anything so I like made up theaters I went on like 300 auditions before that and then I think the 301st or 312th or whatever was Aon audition I was asked back six times before they said yes we can't go we can't even all that go that's a future

no Mikey we stay here and we got no futa come on come back for it later all that rich come on the pirate ship don't ruin my child heart or anything How cool was that set it's amazing they didn't let us see it for the longest time five months something like that but super super super cool I'm saying that in all honesty there was nothing not cool about it and Ramsay she was really old at the time so she would get close to the plank and she would get really you know and she she's supposed to be to

ugh Robert Davi Joey Pantano us pocketing de Bloons and all this stuff I wish I knew where those were I [Music] don't you know you take the plastic gems that are supposed to be real gems you throw in in the air you know you're yay it was a really innocent time and a really fun time and I thought that's how movies were done and they weren't you know I remember coming up to Spielberg at some point cuz I was reading stanislavski and even though he didn't direct it he was there pretty much every day

and I said hey like don't you think these tunnels are like my mother's womb and that like that I'm scratching to get out of the womb and that I need to be born again but it's a different person whatever I said and he he looked at me and he goes just act and I was like I know but and he wasn't being like rude he was just like don't over complicate it just get in there look around listen to people and just do your deal I'm serious Brandon that's not funny he takes one step outside and you are in

deep absolutely the deepest de Ma I don't like that language but that's exactly what you're going to be in I mean it was great though you were like the big brother all all these amazing kids and these kids had worked they can't wait until tomorrow when they for close on all the whatever you call it Ki Kuan you done Indiana Jones and then you have this thing that like he quit acting you know he was doing stunt coordinating you can go oh that person had their time and they're done and then 20 year

s later dang they have a time again it's a different time it's a totally different setup I mean so emotional and so available and you go like how like why now is he's lived this life there was so much that he brought to it very happy and proud of him when people haven't seen The Goonies I I I think that something might be like wrong with their DNA or something you know what I'm saying it's the fact that it's become like part of the fabric it's the only movie I've done maybe cuz I haven't been al

ive long enough I see it's you go generation after generation after generation so people are showing their kids now they're really excited showing their kids because they remember the experience that they had when it first came out and that's a that's a really satisfying thing sakario I turned down sakario strangely enough with Deni a couple of times and Roger deacons had said to me at some point stop being an and it down there your face is on the drawings and I was like okay stop being an I kno

w I was being an but Den had said this thing like we're going to develop it and all that and you hear every director say that and it's usually and it's kind of a go-to for every director to make the actor feel like super important anyway we did develop it and Denise that kind of director where he's like what's working what's not working and this is what we had planned but it doesn't feel right so let's try something else what are we looking for just keep watching in the beginning I told da like

I need a hook like there's something that I need to have as a foundation and a base that I can always rely on that I can always fall back on and I was doing that first scene and I was really nervous I got really nervous and if that's called for in the scene then great but it wasn't called for in the scene cuz I was like supposed to be super confident whatever Den pulled out I think he pulled out a piece of gum to chew it himself and I said can I have a piece of that gum and I put it in my mouth

and I said I'm I'm good I'm there and it was the gum the gum became almost like its own character in the movie like there's a scene at the end with Emily that we had created maybe 15 minutes before we did it in the middle of the night during that scene because it was so intense and so kind of face to face there was a moment where I looked away like just kind of getting myself together and deciding what I wanted to do given that she was going to go tell everybody you listen you went up the wrong

tunnel you saw things you shouldn't have seen when the reality was I I forgot my line and I looked and I was where is that what is it what did we just write but he didn't cut around it he used it and that's another great thing about denas that he uses things and it feels like a a a family it feels like a team as opposed to oh I'm an actor and I want to have an idea I have an idea can I you know as opposed to just all of us kind of like what's the better idea craft service has a great idea idea l

et's use that one doesn't matter where it comes from as long as it's right told us about a tunnel East to nogalus near s now we're trying to find out what areas near their migrants avoid so we can find the tunnel I remember Deni coming to my trailer and knocking on the door and it got to the point where I would say go away because I knew that Benny Benicio del Toro the less Benny said it the better so then they would give it to me because they go Josh likes to talk a lot why don't you just give

it to Josh and I didn't want to necessarily have all the dialogue in the movie but it worked out because he'd come in and there was you know we'd figure out how to fit in Exposition or whatever and try to make it behavioral and it was a cool process in the end the MCU who is he he's a super good guy just a guy that you know he like a neighbor he like a neighbor he's just purple and big this universe is finite its resource finite his life is is left unchecked life will cease to exist it needs cor

rection you don't know that I'm the only one who knows that at least I'm the only one with the will to act on it that to me is the most interesting question because people go look he's talking about getting rid of half the planet in order to save half the planet it's just a ratio reality that he's talking about but then what's behind it what's the intention behind it it's just an excuse to kill it's an excuse to take over to leverage or to power and all that kind of stuff it's almost like watchi

ng a Quinton Tarantino movie where you're you cringe but you don't leave the theater like do I want to see violence on this but there's something about the violence and the behavior behind the violence that has reason to it sometimes when they asked me to do it it was more like a cameo early on and they gave me this huge Bible of this character Thanos and I went through it and I got so into it and I didn't expect it at all like I almost said no just cuz I was like Marvel and I don't know and it'

s really what I do and and I think that's what was so fun about playing that character was the psychology of it the behavior of it and then the russos would come up and they'd be like like remember that scene in Scarface and you're like what yeah remember that guy with the chainsaw yes do that but with your voice well well what a great Direction you should have killed me would have been a waste apart working with people who are absolutely and utterly committed to their vision and their imaginati

on and how to to convey it in a way that's inspiring will forever be inspiring to me you know I just want to be around those people all the time but like improvising is when you're like okay let's do a take where say you don't throw her off the cliff you go okay you have 1,500 dots on your face and you're in a onesie with a lot of Velcro on it and you know you don't feel like you're the most powerful person in the universe but I did wear the glove all the time cuz I like the weight of that glove

so offset the onesie when I was looking through YouTube Benedict Cumberbatch smog what did they say SM for the obit he had the same onesie on he had the same dots on and all that and I was so blown away that that kind of inspired like you learn the same lesson again and again and again you just further it every time and you're like it's all about conviction it's all about how much you lend yourself I am inevitable when I was finally in a scene with people who I knew Ruffalo I knew Don cheel I k

new so we had a scene that we did together I'm on the ground and the cameras are on me they're off camera and I looked at Ruffalo and I forgot my line and I go What's My Line like he would know it's a different character it's a different actor and he looked at me and he goes I don't know and I go you have to know what is it what is it and I knew it was coming and like Chris is off there saying something I don't know what he's saying picking up his big thing and I go what's the line and he actual

ly gave me the line and I remember I thought that was so funny I was like how the did you remember the line Ruffalo is the nicest human being in the world and the most giving human being that's my favorite memory of of doing that movie Dune come on come on oh man having worked with Denny before I think it was something that he thought that I wouldn't do for whatever reason and when he offered it to me you know he said I'll send you the script and I said no need cuz I just had a feeling first of

all and it was Denise second of all and then it turned out that it was going to be a lot of work so I had to deal with that you know it was very very very physical and I wasn't necessarily in the best shape at that point but then when you're in a place like outside of Abu Dhabi there's a different feeling because we were surrounded by 100 km in every direction of nothing but sand and my body changed so it was like everything that you have or that I had planned for the movie suddenly became a moo

t point it started taking on its own life you know what I mean and you're out there and you're like am I in good shape and am I this and and it's all kind of cosmetic and then it starts to affect you in the ways that it affects you and you start sleeping out in the sand not as an affectation but as something that is pulling at you something that I've written about a lot you know we have a book coming out in the fall and Greg Fraser and I did two books for duning one and dune 2 and a lot of that

writing is around that time or in remembrance of that time and there's something about the spiritual aspects without it being the trend word spiritual the spirit aspects of being out in the desert that are so overwhelming kind of like the sea I find it uh beautifully right sizing my lungs taste the air of time L past Fallen sand you know you're talking about the greatest actors and so you have in a group you have the newbies that are amazing you have the veterans and then you have like the legen

dary actors Chris Walkin and and Charlotte and they're all in one room and you're like what the am I doing here man this is crazy this is crazy and this is and is there professionally anywhere else I would rather be no and then helming the whole thing is a guy who is not only my good friend but I have incredible immeasurable respect for I've been fortunate enough to do a few movies like that and if it all goes to now I'm still good No Country for Old Men I don't come back you tell mother I love

her your mother's dead L willing well then I'll tell her myself lucky pure luck I mean I had read for it I had read for it um when I was doing Grindhouse we had done an audition tape that Quinton Tarantino kind of helped to direct and Robert Rodriguez who was my friend said why don't we just use our camera I did that sent it to him never got a response my agent had gotten Ethan's phone number and said please just I know this is it but just see him and they sent me six scenes and I studied the si

x scenes and I went down there I stopped at a like a Boot Barn on the way down and grabbed a cowboy hat cuz I didn't have M and rubbed it on the asphalt a little bit put it on and who I think was going to get it came out they were all laughing together it was uproariously laughing like a family I was like I know I'm never going to get this and I went in there and I read and Joel stared at me and then Ethan asked me can you do a West Texas accent and I said I was and he said oh good which I didn'

t understand and then I left and I thought I read for the Cohen that's super cool and I I always have that but there was not a chance I felt like I was going to get it and then they called me at about noon that day and they said would you like to would you be interested in doing this movie let me check hold hold on a second let me check my schedule I haven't worked in 12 months yeah I'll do it so it was luck I mean it was luck and it just something very particular that they were looking for that

I think they found in me for that I need to know that keep Runing that mouth yours I'm going to take you in the back and screw you big talk keep it up I would call like West Texas different motels and all that and I said hey I'm thinking about coming in and and where should I you know do you have room or what's good to do around and you start conversations with people over the phone and I would record them and I had stopped at a gas station and I heard some guy and I was like where are you from

and he goes I'm West Texas and I like no that was the voice that I used don't worry I'm not the man who's after you I know that I've seen him you want to talk about scooby scooby scooby was the pitbull that was used to come after me how eat you know trained dog it's like you don't have to worry about getting hurt and then at one point he wasn't following me we're doing it over and over and over and they gave me was a chew toy they go have him see you put it in your pants and then he'll come aft

er it meaning he'll come after you and then you're in the water and then you're freezing and then you're trying to keep your face above water and you're not able to use your right arm and then you look back and you see this dog it's just like just can't wait to just eat you but he wants to eat the thing that's in your crot so eat even if he doesn't eat you he's going to eat your crotch and that's never a good thing he got closer and closer and I went with one arm trying to get under but I couldn

't get under cuz I had the floaty in my crotch so I reached down and I'm pulling this thing and I'm trying to get it out but my pants are wet so they're stuck to my stomach and stuck to my legs and finally I rip it out and probably ripped something else with it and then threw it away and then he didn't care about me all right it went another Direction but yeah Scooby was super scary then you look over at Cohen and what are they doing you're not concerned about their lead actor in the least like

not even for a nano second just laughing smiling and laughing true gret any harm comes to that child you do not get paid har let me ride up with you barl I will pay you $50 out of my winnings I am not Happ heavy we were rehearsing in Santa Fe we did that in Santa Fe too and and you know it wasn't a huge role but it was I it was like a thing that I was doing it just didn't work and I knew it didn't work and they never said anything but I looked at Ethan and Joel at one point and I was like this i

sn't working is it and they go I don't think so and that's the kind of collaborative egoless kind of place that you get to and you're like okay what do I do and they used to rehearsing with Matt Damon and be like let's scream our lines or let's do you you're in a panic at that point and then this kind of like somewhere between like my an and Michael Shannon and you know he was kind of like you talk like this I don't understand what you mean what do you mean we looked at each other and we go is t

hat it and I go maybe I know you your name is Maddie but you're a little Maddy the bookkeeper that's something but it was like there was no way you were going to do that like who would do that nobody would do that that's just dumb that's like career ending but it we did it and and it worked I lost a bunch of weight I have a big skull I have a big head so the more weight I lose the beig it looks like somebody's pumping up my head so that made him look more Awkward than I already look and then we

took a knife and we cut my hair so it's kind of you know like what would it be like for those guys back there they didn't go to the you know maybe if they were in town they went to a barber but I doubt that this sociopath went to a barber you know what I mean well I don't want to spend that kind of money I'm going do it myself and then it becomes fun and and it was a great moment that Joel and Ethan kind of took advantage of and and it just came out of like it was a just an ad lib movement and w

as talking to Haley steinfeld's character and that's when you see him change cuz he looks like a child before that like a Lenny type you know of M and men and then he moves his head a certain way and then you everything changes and that's when it starts to become like a shorthand and you see how it works better for the movie something that you may not have seen had they not done that but then do you see it because they you know piggybacked on that from that point on it became like three brothers

working together and in Black 3 my granddaddy always said if you got a problem that you can't solve helps to get out of your head pie it's good pie yeah your granddaddy Heavy's that man a little bit Barry son andf called me and said hey do you want to do this I heard this impression when I was out with Josh and the Cohen and he convinced the studio that I should do it and then I went down to Mexico with my computer and garage ban and the first Men In Black I didn't like watching the second man

in Black but the first man in black there was something about his young tone the only comfort I can offer is my promise that tomorrow morning you won't remember a thing and I washed it over and over and over and over and over and I don't know if it was I had to unlearn what I had the little funny thing that I had done and then relearn it I don't know what it was but I just kept getting worse and worse worse and worse and worse you know it's funny because like when you do an impression when you d

o a drunk impression of Tommy that's one thing and it's like people laugh or you know you you sort of got it but the truth of the matter is is like getting Tommy is an impossibility Tommy could never do Tommy like he it's all it's so disconnected and it's so like the lils are all over the place and they don't repeat themselves and they change and I was in again total panic and then eventually I got a line so when we got to set and I did my first scene with Will who I didn't know very well and wi

ll was doing all the stuff to get ready you know some people like do thing and he was going and I was like what the man and I'm trying to focus and I'm super nervous about doing this voice and whether it's going to work and the mannerisms are going to work and now I know what you look like when you're lying don't you show me what you look like when you're telling the truth we did this scene and Barry came around the back of the camera and he had tears flowing down his face he goes I knew it I kn

ew it I knew it like I knew you could do it basically and then he stayed there and he kept crying and then will started laughing hysterically and pointing at him and then Barry kept crying and then will kept laughing and kept pointing and I was sitting there not knowing what the was going on I was like this is the beginning of a very long process that I'm really happy that I made somebody happy that they hired the right person but now I have this to contend with that's how the whole relationship

went I'm not sure at this point whether Barry sonnenfeld was the lead of that film or the director I'm not sure