TONIGHT

• Home
• Video
• Podcasts/RSS 
• Local Showtimes
• Past Shows
• Blogs
• About the Show
• Tell Tavis
• Features
• Mobile

RELATED LINKS

• "Josh Brolin can't be broken"
• "Hardworking Josh Brolin shoots down 'overnight' success story"
• No Country for Old Men

E-mail a friend

Tavis: On Sunday night the film "No Country for Old Men" took home the top prize at this year's Academy Awards. Not long ago, I sat down with one of the film's stars, Josh Brolin. In addition to his stand-out role in "No Country," he also received acclaim for his work on another recent project, "American Gangster."

So I was watching you, Josh, watch the trailer, or the clip. How many times have you seen that since you did the movie?

Josh Brolin: Five.

Tavis: (Laughs) You say that with no energy.

Brolin: I do. (Laughter) And you don't want to take away from people seeing it again and again. I heard that Roger Ebert saw it four times, and this is a guy who's seen, what, 600, 700 movies a year?

Tavis: At least, yeah.

Brolin: And he's gone back again and again and again. But when you're in the movie, you've read the book twice, you've read the script 15 times, you've done the movie, five times is absolutely enough. (Laughter) It's good.

Tavis: So what do you make of it, having seen it all these many times? Because everybody else seems to really like it.

Brolin: It's weird, because when Javier and I did it, when we did the film, we had no idea how it was going to turn out. People said, "Did you know you were doing something wonderful," or the film turned out obviously amazing and the Coen brothers, the way they edit, it's very different than the majority of filmmakers out there.

But then when we saw the film the first time, we were both - I looked over at Javier and his shoulders were all hunched up like that. And then he looked over at me and it was the same way. It was like we had never read the script. And then he leaned over to me and he goes, "This is a pretty good movie, don't you think?" (Laughter) I said, "Yeah, man, I think it's a good movie." I was very surprised, actually, because we had no idea.

Tavis: So is that typical? When I say typical, I mean when you get a script and you make a decision for whatever reason or reasons to star in something or act in something, do you ever have a sense that this really is something special as opposed to a good role that I'm interested in taking?

Brolin: Well, because this movie was based on a book by Cormac McCarthy that was obviously fairly accessible and a lot of people read it, when I read that book - and I read that book on its own, without knowing that it was going to be a movie, I loved the book. I loved the book. And then when I heard it was going to be a movie, I thought god, this could be so - it's written cinematically, it's already there.

And then you hear the Coen brothers are doing it and you know this could be really special. It could be really bad, who knows? Because they've never really tackled this kind of subject before. The last time was probably "Blood Simple." So they're very dialogue-driven and a lot of comedy and all that, and it's a very different deal to get into.

So no, during it, we had no idea. I did a movie called "Flirting with Disaster." In the middle of the movie, I thought this could be great, this could be really great, and it did. For me, it turned out great. But "No Country," we had no idea, no.

Tavis: If I have my story straight, and if I don't I'm sure you'll correct me - so you read the book, not knowing it's going to be a movie. As you just laid out, it becomes a movie, the Coen brothers, a great cast, all that good stuff. You want to be a part of this and you put yourself out there to want to be a part of the project. You get the part, and then what happens?

Brolin: Well, first of all - yeah.

Tavis: You know where I'm going, right?

Brolin: I do, I do.

Tavis: Okay.

Brolin: Two days after I got the part, I was actually doing another movie also, called - what is it called? What? "The Dead Girl." (Laughter) Unbelievable. I've done way too many of these, man.

Tavis: No, we'll come back to that, because you've had quite a year, as I intimated earlier. We'll come back to that, but go ahead.

Brolin: No, "The Dead Girl," and I was going from one wardrobe fitting to the next. And I was starting "The Dead Girl" three days later and I was going up Highland Avenue on my motorcycle and a car kind of pulled right in front of me, and I was in the air for quite a long time, thinking man, it would have been great to work with the Coen brothers, (laughter) and this isn't really working out like I wanted.

And I really worked hard to get this part. So anyway, it all kind of flashed before me and it was all going away as I was on this trajectory downward and snapped my collarbone in half.

Tavis: So filming starts -

Brolin: Two weeks from then.

Tavis: Two weeks from then.

Brolin: Yeah. I was doing "Dead Girl" four days from that. So the whole thing is I called the director of "Dead Girl" and I said, "There's no way I can do this, I just snapped my collarbone, I can't lift my arm, half of my body is completely bruised." And she really wanted me to do it and really wanted me.

So I remember the next day I woke up and I thought, if I can pull off "The Dead Girl" four days after I've done it - and it's funny, because have seen "The Dead Girl" and I have a sling in "The Dead Girl," and they go, "What a brilliant choice. You're such an amazing actor." (Laughter) It's never explained or any of it. So I figured I could do that, I could pull off "No Country." Anyway, that's how it worked out.

Tavis: Well, better "The Dead Girl" than the dead boy.

Brolin: Yeah, right? Exactly.

Tavis: Yes, I'm glad -

Brolin: Dead man.

Tavis: - be a dead man, I'm glad you survived that.

Brolin: You see me as a boy, I appreciate that.

Tavis: Yeah, well. (Laughs) I didn't mean to insult you.

Brolin: It's all right; no, no, no, I took it as a compliment.

Tavis: Let me go back to the comment that you made earlier that reminded me that you have had a busy year. Did you plan this year this way? By my count, at least five movies are out this year with Josh Brolin in them. You planned it that way, or it just kind of -

Brolin: No, no, of course I didn't plan it. If I could plan it, I would have planned it 20 years ago. But no. With "The Dead Girl," it was all - they were all fairly insular, too, because they weren't really affected because none of these movies were out yet. So "The Dead Girl" turned into "Grindhouse" turned into "No Country" turned into "American Gangster," and then I did "In the Valley of Elah."

But "Grindhouse" was because I knew Robert Rodriguez for a long time. "Elah" was because I knew Paul Haggis for a long time, and then other ones were just what they were. Usually with an actor you get to work with a great filmmaker like once every five years or something like that, whereas this was all kind of condensed into a year and a half. Pretty amazing. I'm very grateful.

Tavis: As I look back over your career, and this is my read, you tell me if I'm right or wrong about this, not unlike anybody in this business, careers ebb and flow. But you've had some real flow and some real ebb over the course of your career. Is that by choice? Were there periods where you deliberately slowed down?

Brolin: Well, I think from a public perception it would seem like I was out of the loop and just waiting in my office for a call, when really I had a theater group going on and I had a lot of that stuff, and a lot of times it was by choice. Okay, I've done this movie, putting my kids through college, it's all good. Now I can go do two plays if I want to do two plays, and then I'll resurface for another job.

But I would usually do one job a year. This year, the last year and a half has been very different for me because I went from one job to the next. I worked, I don't know, I think 11 months nonstop from one job to the other. I finished "No Country" on a Thursday and I started "American Gangster" the following Tuesday. It's a little insane.

Tavis: Let me talk about "American Gangster." What did you think of the film once you saw it? I know you saw "No Country" five times. What'd you think of "Gangster" when you actually saw it?

Brolin: "Gangster" I hadn't seen until the premiere in Harlem. And I had an idea of what - the difference between "Gangster" and "No Country" is "Gangster" is big scope. It's a large, epic kind of film, and it parallels two stories with Richie Roberts and Frank Lucas and all that, and then I'm the conduit in between. And I don't know, it was just huge. And Ridley, he shoots big, everything is big, so there's a weight to it that I've never really experienced or I've never been involved in a film like that.

I've been involved in big films, but nothing with the weight that this had. And plus I got to work with Denzel and I got to work with Russell and two of my favorite actors. I wanted to work with Ridley, but it was more the challenge of working with Russell and Denzel and the kind of part that it was. I had just come from "No Country," I was in the middle of doing "No Country," and it's more of a vulnerable part, more of an everyday man, whereas this was not only hold your own but try and overwhelm the scenes with both characters.

And to me, I found that almost impossible and I loved the challenge of doing something almost impossible. And who knows? When we were doing it, I don't know if I pulled it off. I don't know if I felt like I pulled it off. But now in hindsight and people reacting to the film, I guess I fulfilled what I was supposed to.

Tavis: To your latter point, then, Josh, when you go from scene to scene and the director says, "Cut, wrap, we're moving on," when he or she says, "We're moving on," what's your internal barometer for whether or not you hit - you said a moment ago I don't know if I did or didn't do it, but is there an internal barometer that you check against as to whether or not you deliver what you want to deliver in that scene before you hear those words, "moving on?"

Brolin: Yeah, and it's usually, god, I completely screwed that up, that's too bad; (laughter) I'll probably never work again. That was my barometer. I left that and I just went, "Forget it, I just can't do this, it's no good." I had a scene with Russell, it was the first scene. I'd never met Ridley; I did an audition tape when I was doing "No Country."

So I showed up on the set having known Russell a little bit, and I was very nervous. And I started this scene and Ridley says, "Why don't you really own the room, you're this extortionist and you're full of ego, and really own the room, even though it's Richie's place." And I went in there and I said, "Look, I just need to work out the nerves a little bit.

"Can I just grab a chair and can I get really into Russell and what he's doing, and just kind of get over these initial nerves, because I just showed up on the set?" And I sat down and I hadn't lost as much weight as I wanted to after "No Country," and I sat down and the ass of my pants ripped about 12 inches, right? (Laughter) So I missed that mark of being able to make it funny.

So I'm sitting there and my voice is starting to shake, and the sweat's starting to bead down my face, and I'm trying to keep my butt away from the crew and away from Russell, and literally had done the worst acting of my entire life. And then went in my trailer afterwards and waited for Ridley to knock on my door and say, "This is really not working out for us, you're fired." And truly thought that that was going to happen.

And he came in and he knocked on the door and I opened the door and he says, "I love what you're doing, there's a vulnerability to this role that I really didn't see before. Just keep doing what you're doing." And I was like, right on. It's all good.

Tavis: See, I - (laughs).

Brolin: And Russell doesn't know that story, and neither does Ridley.

Tavis: They do now. They do now. Which cracks me up - I'm out of time, but what cracks me up is when you see stuff on the film, as I've heard a thousand times over the years during these conversations, sometimes the best stories are the back story.

Brolin: It's true, right?

Tavis: The back stories. So now when I watch "Gangster" again, I'm going to have an appreciation for that scene.

Brolin: There you go. You'll be the only guy in the theater laughing. (Laughter)

Tavis: I'm honored to meet you.

Brolin: Hey, thank you very much.

Tavis: And glad to have you. What a great year it's been for Josh Brolin. You can catch him in either of two great films, "No Country for Old Men," still in theaters, of course; "American Gangster," still out there, and we're glad to have you.

Brolin: Thanks.