Josh Brolin: Acting Journey and Iconic Roles

Josh Brolin's journey in acting reveals the transformative power of creativity and collaboration in filmmaking.

### The Journey of Josh Brolin: From The Goonies to Dune and Beyond
* 🎬 Josh Brolin recalls a moment on set where he forgot his line while filming, humorously asking Mark Ruffalo for help, highlighting the **camaraderie among actors**.
* 🎥 Reflecting on his early acting experiences, Brolin shares how he initially **resisted pursuing acting** due to his father's financial struggles but eventually found **joy in improvisation** during a theater class.
* 🌟 Brolin's breakthrough came after numerous auditions, with the pivotal moment being his **sixth callback for "The Goonies,"** which he describes as a **life-changing experience**.
* 🏴 He reminisces about the excitement of filming "The Goonies," particularly the **pirate ship set**, and how he naively believed that filmmaking was always **that fun and innocent**.
* 🧠 During the production, he approached Steven Spielberg with a deep metaphor about the tunnels in the film, only to be advised to **keep it simple and focus on acting**.
* 🎭 Brolin discusses the emotional journey of reconnecting with former co-stars like Ke Huy Quan, who found **renewed success in their careers** after years away from acting.
* 🎞 Transitioning to "Sicario," Brolin shares how he initially **hesitated to join the project** but was convinced by Roger Deakins and found the **collaborative environment** with director Denis Villeneuve **refreshing**.
* 🌌 In reflecting on his role as Thanos in the MCU, Brolin describes the character's **complex motivations** and the unique challenges of working with motion capture technology, emphasizing the **importance of conviction in performance**.

- 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. [upbeat music] - [Crew Member] Key iconic
characters with Josh Brolin. Scene one, take one. - Okay. [upbeat music] The Goonies. My dad's not home, Mr. Perkins. 

- Is your mommy here? - No, sir, actually
she's down 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 because
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 wanna do this?" 

This is just dumb. So I took 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 was a lot of laughter and I remember how it felt, and 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 a Goonies audition.

I was asked back six times
before they said yes. - We can't go, we can't
leave all that gold, that's your future. - No Mikey, we stay here and
we got no future, now come on.

Come back for it later. - All that rich though. - Come on!
[Mikey yelling] - [Interviewer] The pirate ship. Don't ruin my childhood or anything, but how cool was that set? - It was 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. Anne Ramsey, she was
really old at the time,

so she would get close to the plank and she would get really and
she's supposed to be tough. Robert Davi, Joey Pantoliano, us pocketing doubloons and all this stuff, I wish I knew where those were, I don't.

[dramatic music] You take the plastic
gems that are supposed to be real gems you throw them in the air and you're all like yay. [laughs] It was a really innocent
time and a really fun time, and I thought that's how movies
were done and they weren't.

I remember coming up to
Spielberg at some point 'cause I was reading Stanislavsky 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, whatever I said. And 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. [laughs] - I'm serious Brandon, that's not funny.

He takes one step outside
and you are in deep absolutely the deepest- - Shit, ma. - I don't like that language, but that's exactly what
you're gonna be in. - I mean it was great though.

You were like the big brother,
all these amazing kids and these kids had worked. - They can't wait until
tomorrow when they foreclose on all the whatever you call it. - Ke Huy Quan, he'd done Indiana Jones

and then you have this thing
that like he quit acting, he was doing stunt coordinating. You can go, oh that person had
their time and they're done and then 20 years later,
bang, they have a time again, it's a different time, it's
a totally different setup.

So emotional and so available and you go like how? Like why now as 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 think that something might be like wrong

with their DNA or something, you know what I'm saying? [laughs] It's the fact that it's become like part of the fabric. It's the only movie I've done, maybe 'cause I haven't been alive long enough,

I see it go generation after generation after generation. So people are showing their kids now and they're really excited showing their kids because they remember the experience that they had when it first came out, and that's a really satisfying thing.

[upbeat music] Sicario. I had turned down Sicario strangely enough with Denis a couple of times, and Roger Deakins had said to me at some point, stop being an asshole and get down there, your face is on the drawings,

and I was like okay, I'll stop being an asshole. [laughs] I know I was being an asshole, but Denis had said this thing like we're gonna develop it and all that and you hear every director say that and it's usually bullshit

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 Denis is 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
Denis 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

'cause I was like supposed to be super confident, whatever. [laughs] Denis 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 good, I'm there,

and it was the gum. The gum became almost like its
own character in the movie. 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
gonna go tell everybody. You listen. You went out the wrong tunnel.

You saw things you shouldn't have seen. When the reality was I forgot my line and I looked and I was [laughs],
where is that *f*cking line? 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 Denis is that he uses things and
it feels like 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!"

Oh, oh, oh! As opposed to just all of us kind of like, "What's the better idea? Craft service has a great
idea, let's use that one. Doesn't matter where it comes
from as long as it's right."

Told us about a tunnel east
of Nogales near Sasalba. Now we're trying to find out what areas near there migrants avoid so we can find the tunnel. I remember Denis 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, 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 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.

[upbeat music] The MCU. Who is he? A super good guy, just a
guy that is like a neighbor. He's like a neighbor. He's just purple and big. This universe is finite,
its resources are finite.

If life is left unchecked,
life will cease to exist. It needs correction. - 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.

and 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 watching
a Quentin Tarantino movie where 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
'cause I was like, 'Marvel and I don't know and it's
not really what I do,' 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, 'Remember
that scene in Scarface?' And you're like, 'What?' Yeah, remember that guy with a chainsaw?

Yes, do that but with your voice. Well, well. What a great direction. - You should have killed me. - Would've been a waste of parts! Working with people who are absolutely and utterly committed to their vision and their imagination

and how to convey it in a way that's inspiring will forever be inspiring to me. I just wanna 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?

[laughs] Okay. You have 1500 dots on your face and you're in a onesie with a lot of Velcro on it and you don't feel like you're the most powerful person in the universe, but I did wear the glove all the time

'cause I liked the weight of that glove, so that offset the onesie. [laughs] When I was looking through YouTube, Benedict Cumberbatch, Smaug, what did they say? Smaug for the Hobbit.

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 Cheadle I knew,

so we had a scene that we did together. I'm on the ground, 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 actually gave me the line, and I remember I thought
that was so funny, I was like, "How the fuck
did you remember the line?"

Ruffalo is the nicest human
being in the world [laughs], and the most giving human being. That's my favorite memory
of doing that movie. [upbeat music] Dune. Come on. Come on. - Old man. 

- Having worked with Denis before, I think it was something that he thought that I wouldn't do for whatever reason, and when he offered it to me, he said, "I'll send you the
script" and I said, "No need 'cause I just had a feeling first of all

and it was Denis second of all. And then it turned out
that it was gonna be a lot of work [laughs], so
I had to deal with that. 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 a hundred kilometers 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 moot 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 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.

We have a book coming out in the fall and Greg Fraser and I did two books for Dune one and Dune two, and a lot of that writing
is around that time and 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 beautifully right-sizing. My lungs taste the air of
time blown past fallen sand.

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 legendary actors, Chris Walken and Charlotte Rampling,
and they're all in one room

[laughs] And you're like, "What the fuck am I doing here, man? This is crazy, this is crazy!" 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 shit now, I'm still good. [upbeat music]

"No Country for Old Men." I don't come back, you tell mother I love her. - Your mother's dead, Llewelyn. - Well then, I'll tell her myself. Lucky, pure luck. I had read for it, I had read for it

when I was doing Grindhouse, we had done an audition tape that Quentin 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, I know this is it but just see him." And they sent me six scenes and I studied the six scenes and I went down there. I stopped at like a Boot Barn on the way down

and grabbed a cowboy hat 'cause I didn't have mine, and rubbed it on the asphalt a little bit, put it on, and who I think was gonna get it came out and they were all laughing together, was uproariously laughing like a family,

and I was like, I know
I'm never gonna 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 Coens, that's super cool and I always have that, but there was not a chance I
felt like I was gonna get it. And then they called me
at about noon that day

and they said, would you like, would you be interested
in doing this movie? Lemme check. Hold on a second [laughs],
lemme 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 just something very particular that they were looking for that I think they found in me for that. - I need to know that. - Keep running that mouth of yours, I'm gonna 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 say hey, I'm
thinking about coming in and where should I, do you have room or what's good to do around?

And then 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 oh, I'm west
Texas, and I was like, no shit?

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. - [Interviewer] You
wanna talk about Scooby? - Scooby?

Scooby was the pit bull that
was used to come after me. [dog barking] It was a 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 after 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's just like [snarls], I just
can't wait to just eat you

but he wants to eat the
thing that's in your crotch, so even if he doesn't eat you,
he is gonna 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 'cause I had the floaty in my crotch. So I reached down and
I'm pulling at 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. [snarls] He went another direction. But yeah, Scooby was [laughs] super scary.

Then you look over at the Coen brothers and what are they doing? They're not concerned about their lead actor in the least, like not even for a nanosecond, just laughing, smiling and laughing. [upbeat music]

True Grit. - Any harm comes to that child, you do not get paid. - Harold, lemme ride up with you. [Harold laughing] Harold, I will pay you $50 outta my winnings, I am not heavy.

We were rehearsing in Santa Fe, we did that in Santa Fe too, and it wasn't a huge role but it was like a thing that I was doing and it just didn't work, and I knew it didn't work and they never said anything,

but I'd looked at Ethan and Joel at one point and I was like, this isn't working, is it? And they go hmm, 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 be rehearsing with Matt Damon and be like, let's scream our lines, you're in a panic at that point, and then this kind of like somewhere

between like my aunt and Michael Shannon and he was kinda like him, talk like this, right? I don't understand what you mean, what do you mean? We looked at each other and we go, is that it? And I go, maybe.

I know you. Your name is Maddie, you're little Maddie the bookkeeper. Isn't that something? But it was like there was no way you were gonna do that, like who would do that? Nobody would do that, that's just dumb.

that's like career ending but fuck it, we did it 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 bigger, 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 like what would it be like for those guys back there? They didn't go to the, 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 wanna spend that kind of money, I'm gonna do it myself. And then it becomes fun, and it was a great moment

that Joel and Ethan kind of took advantage of and it just came out of like, it was just an ad-lib movement, and was talking to Hailee Steinfeld's character and that's when you see him change 'cause he looks like a child before that.

like a Lenny type, from *Of Mice and Men*, and then he moves his head a certain way and then 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 you see it because
they piggybacked on that. From that point on, it became like three
brothers working together. [upbeat music] *Men in Black 3*. 

My granddaddy always
said, if you got a problem that you can't solve, helps
to get outta your head, pie is good. - Pie? - Yep. - Your granddaddy, heavyset man? - A little bit.

Barry Sonnenfeld called me and said hey, do you want to do this? I heard this impression
when I was out with Josh and the Coen brothers and he convinced the studio that I should do it. And then I went down to
Mexico with my computer

and GarageBand and
the first *Men in Black*, I didn't like watching
the second *Men in Black*, but the first *Men in Black*, there was something about his young tone. - The only comfort I
can offer is my promise that tomorrow morning he
won't remember a thing.

- And I watched 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 and worse and worse. It's funny because like
when you do an impression, when you do a drunk impression of Tommy, that's one thing and
it's like people laugh or you sort of got it, but
the truth of the matter is

getting Tommy is an impossibility. Tommy could never do
Tommy. It's so disconnected and it's so like the lilts
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 Will was doing all
this stuff to get ready. Some people like to do
things and he was going wah!

Wah! And I was like, what the fuck, man? And I'm trying to focus and I'm super nervous
about doing this voice and whether it's gonna work and the mannerisms are gonna work. Now I know what you look
like when you're lying.

Josh Brolin Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

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Forgetting lines on set and seeking help from co-stars.

Early acting experiences and initial reluctance towards the profession due to his father's career.

Discovering a passion for improvisation and acting in high school.

The Goonies audition process, involving numerous callbacks.

Memories of filming The Goonies, including the impressive set design and interactions with cast members.

Reflecting on the innocence and fun of the Goonies filming experience.

Initially declining the role in Sicario before accepting it after encouragement.

Villeneuve's collaborative directing style and willingness to adapt during filming.

The importance of finding a foundation for the character and overcoming initial nervousness.

Using a piece of gum as a tool to find his character's confidence.

Creating an intense scene with Emily Blunt spontaneously.

Villeneuve's ability to incorporate unexpected moments into the film.

Initial reluctance to take the role and the unexpected depth of the character.

Exploring the complex moral questions behind Thanos's actions.

Comparing the violence in the MCU to that of a Quentin Tarantino film.

The collaborative process with the Russo brothers and drawing inspiration from other films.

The importance of commitment and conviction in acting.

Improvisation and the challenges of wearing the Thanos costume.

Initial acceptance of the role based on trust in Denis Villeneuve and later realizing the physical demands.

The impact of the filming location in Abu Dhabi on his physical and mental state.

The spiritual aspects of being in the desert and its influence on his performance.

Working with a cast of legendary actors and the humbling experience.

Working on No Country for Old Men with the Coen Brothers

The audition process, including the use of a self-recorded audition tape.

Preparing for the audition and developing a West Texas accent.

Unexpectedly getting the role and the initial disbelief.

Researching and developing the character's accent through conversations with locals.

Experiences with the trained dog used in a scene, including a humorous anecdote.

Working on True Grit with the Coen Brothers

The collaborative process with the Coen brothers and their willingness to adjust the performance.

Experimenting with different approaches to the character, including screaming and improvisational techniques.

Making bold choices for the character's appearance and behavior.

The collaboration between Brolin and the Coen brothers resulting in a significant change in the character's portrayal.

Getting the role through a convincing impression and the challenges of capturing Tommy Lee Jones's mannerisms.

The process of studying and perfecting the impression.

The difficulty of accurately portraying Tommy Lee Jones's unique style.

The first scene with Will Smith and Barry Sonnenfeld's emotional reaction.

The director's emotional response to Brolin's performance and the humorous interaction with Will Smith.