Josh Brolin’s unwavering support of the Coen brothers: “It could be horrendous and I’d still say yes”
Joel Daniel and Ethan Jesse Coen are one of the greatest directing duos of all time. The Coen brothers (with Joel being the elder by about three years) are celebrated for their instantly recognisable classics across a variety of genres. Whether it’s the stoner comedy of The Big Lebowski, the all-out madness of Raising Arizona, or the neo-western realism of No Country for Old Men, you can count on their films to deliver a memorable experience.
One actor who knows just how good the siblings can be is Josh Brolin. He’s been in three of their movies – No Country for Old Men, True Grit, and Hail, Caesar! – and he’s been absolutely superb in every single one of them. The Coens played a significant part in helping the former child star rejuvenate his image in adulthood, which might be why he is prepared to go to some pretty extreme lengths for them.
“There’s nothing I would say no to,” Brolin told The Independent about working with the Minnesota boys. “It could be horrendous and I’d still say yes. They could say ‘we’re going to do a Walt Disney story about pornography’, and I’d be like ‘great, let’s do it’. I don’t care. I just get it, it’s fun being with them. And it’s not necessarily fun, I’m not on the set laughing the whole time, but I very much appreciate their level of discomfort and what I think makes them great writers. That’s all they have, you know”.
It’s not like this is out of the realm of possibility, given the Coen brothers’ penchant for pushing the envelope in their films. Steve Buscemi met a grisly end in Fargo (good luck piecing him back together), John Goodman went on a bloody rampage in Barton Fink, and then there’s Burn After Reading, which is disturbing in more ways than one. So far, Josh Brolin has managed to avoid anything truly brutal in their projects. While he does meet his end in a couple of their films, revealing which ones would spoil the experience for those yet to watch.
One of the reasons why Brolin is so loyal to Joel and Ethan is because of how straight-talking they are. “A lot of directors are feeding you a lot of stuff,” the veteran actor explained. “You either get yelled at or manipulated into a certain performance of what they think they’re manipulating you into, over-directing. Or there are other people who don’t really know what they’re doing or feeding you lots of compliments thinking that will help. But Joel and Ethan don’t do either. They just do the job. They’re pleasant while they do it, but many, many, many times have I finished a scene and then looked for their approval, but they’re already moving to the next set because we’re done. That’s the point, we’re done with that scene.”
The Coens have a reputation for being eerily in sync on set, but, according to Brolin, this is all hearsay. “We all play up this thing about how weird and fucking strange they are, and quiet, and all this stuff,” Brolin said of the Coen faithful. “But it’s really not.”
“You tell the press things like ‘they’re really weird and they’re like one mind in two heads’ and [the press] are like, ‘one mind in two heads, that’s a good soundbite’, or whatever it is,” he continued. “You just lend yourself to it and you know you’re doing it. I just caught myself, in an interview in front of millions of people and I died in my own bullshit for a couple of seconds.”
