The movie Josh Brolin hated every single second of making: “Seven months of that shit”
Unlike many of the modern-day nepo babies who are constantly accused of being fast-tracked to the top based largely on their parentage, Josh Brolin didn’t take the easy route toward Hollywood respectability.
As the son of James Brolin and stepson of Barbra Streisand, most people within the industry knew exactly who he was before he’d even had the chance to prove himself as an actor, and when he made his big-screen debut in Richard Donner’s The Goonies, it seemed as though it wouldn’t take him long to make a name for himself outside of his familial connections.
However, by the end of the 1980s, Brolin was already struggling. He didn’t appear in a single theatrically released feature between 1986’s disastrous Thrashin‘ and 1994’s The Road Killers, having become increasingly convinced that he simply wasn’t good or talented enough to succeed in the business.
He didn’t disappear completely, but he wasn’t even a blip on the mainstream radar. Of course, that all changed when the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men was released, and at the time he booked the role, Brolin was making his living as a full-time stock trader who occasionally dabbled in acting.
During his lean years, he made some forgettable films, but since he needed the work, he wasn’t in a position to turn them down. Funnily enough, an experience he absolutely loathed from beginning to end wasn’t an isolated incident, since the leading man and director both came to despise the picture, too.
Paul Verhoeven called Hollow Man the worst movie he ever made, and the straw that broke the camel’s back, in terms of forcing him out of American cinema. Meanwhile, the extensive and exhaustive shoot made Kevin Bacon equally miserable, with Brolin rounding out the trio of key players who hated it.
“That fucking movie, dude,” he sighed during an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “Seven months of that shit. So we’re doing that movie, and we have these googles on with, like, this red film on it to make it look like they’re X-ray or whatever. And then we’re watching invisible monkeys pass us.”
Standard practice for a CGI-heavy production, but since it was Brolin’s first time working on a set like that, he didn’t consider it real acting. “We finish the scene, and Kevin looks at me and goes, ‘You got some chops,'” Brolin explained, rather incredulously. “I was like, ‘What the fuck?’ We’re watching invisible monkeys pass us. What do you mean ‘chops’?”
Ironically, the next time Brolin would have to spend the bulk of his time on set acting against things that weren’t there, his turn as Thanos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe resulted in several of the biggest movies of all time, and some of his best experiences. Hollow Man, though, was a crock of shite that he couldn’t stand.
