"Josh Brolin"

Voted the best podcast of all time, I Had a Laugh Riot, Smartless, brings all the laughs when three friends, Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett, get together and just chop it up and spit it out. It's Smartless, and it's a, wait, am I not doing an ad for the, no, it's just a, it's a cold open, okay, you're listening to Smartless.

Have I noticed?

No, he's all pissed off. he had to reboot.

Yeah, I had to reboot my computer, I hate when that happens, I don't like being late. I don't like being the guy. that's the trouble, I don't like being third.

Will was third today.

No, I was, that's not true. Technically. second.

I was third.

Practically second, but technically third, because Sean was here earlier.

You know what, you know what, I thought that I had more time and I went, and I actually, I went to the same guy that Sean did, who helped him with his carpal tunnel, Tarek, and he, so I was going, I was standing on a rack.

Don't drop Tarek's name in hopes of getting a break on your medical bill from him, okay? That was pathetic. Let's have the last name too, go ahead.

Jason, have you been to him?

Yes, I have. Yes, I have.

Oh, you have now? Oh, yeah, oh, really? So why don't you want to?

Well, yeah, I had a bad back. at some point, I still do, but.

Tarek Godreau, he helped Aline, and he's great, and here comes your discount. So I was standing on a, the reason I was late, I was standing on a racquetball, because, as you know, I have a bad, I had to bail out from my hamstring last week, I had to bail out of golf, remember you and I were with Charlie and Robin, and it got so bad, and he said that there was basically buildup on my hamstring around my sciatic nerve, fuck man, I couldn't even sit down.

Is it better now?

Yeah, so how's it doing?

Much better, he's helped it out a lot, a lot, a lot.

Yeah, so what do you got to do now to maintain it?

He made you stand on a racquetball, that fixed it?

Yeah, that was part of it. No, it was, my posture was terrible, pillow under your knees when you sleep, how you sit, all this kind of stuff.

Anything about eating cereal for dinner?

He said, he said double down.

Oh, did he?

He said double down on that, and instead of milk, ice cream, like a real soft, soft serve ice cream. What a doctor. Sean just got a boner.

Sean, can I ask you a question? So earlier, earlier this morning, before I record here, just, just half hour ago, I'm on a business call, right, because this is a work, it's a work day.

We're out with a business man.

Yeah, a business call, and so I couldn't take the incoming phone call from Mr. Arnett, right? Just let it, let it go to voicemail. Hang up the business call, check my voicemail. There's no message, just a record that he's called.

No, but do you leave a message? I never leave a message either.

Of course I leave a message, or at least I'll text afterwards and say, hey, tried you.

Yeah, well, I'll do that sometimes, but, but, but the call is the same. Not the message. Listen.

No, it's not enough that there's just a recent call from you. That doesn't qualify. You got to leave me a message if you want to call back.

Honestly, no offense to Chris Berman at ESPN, but I think your new nickname might be Boomer. So listen, Boomer, here's the deal.

I will say this.

What we do now is we don't leave messages because there's a record that I called and so you can decide whether or not.

That's your message. That's the message.

So that's official, or were you just trying to hide the fact that you're stalking me like some kind of wounded, wounded ex-boyfriend of mine?

Hey, by the way, do you think I wanted to talk to you? I had to ask you something.

Well, is it?

Look at this attitude. Do you think I want to deal with this? Do you think I want to deal with this?

Well, text it. Imagine a smile. No, but listen. No, because it's easier. To Jason's credit.

Exactly.

And you call me right away.

That's what folks do nowadays, Will.

You call me almost instantly.

Well, I was just trying, you know what? You know what? I was just trying to make it easy and streamline it, and I was trying to cold call you, yeah, because we have a relationship that was established on calling years ago. When did we decide that we were going to text first? I didn't get that text.

Now that I got you all warmed up and ready for the first round, let's go out there and meet our fighter.

Fucking.

Who we got, Arnett?

By the way, by the way, our buddy Bradley got seven Oscar nominations for Mercer today.

He sure as fuck did. Wait, he did?

He should have got director. God damn it. He should have got director. That's the best directed film of the last decade. I agree.

I totally agree. I agree. I agree.

It's fucking, it's unbelievable. Christ, that movie. Blown away. Listener, there's no better film this year than Maestro. I agree.

Full stop. Yeah. Full stop. If you, to do what he did with that film is so incredible. An impossible target.

Yeah. When I first saw it, I was blown away. Yep.

It's a stunning piece of work. Stunning. And I hope he takes solace in the fact that the Academy will probably look at this and Star is Born as, okay, he did it twice really, really well. So this next one, we're going to give him at least a nomination, if not the statue.

It'd be great if they did it for the next one.

Oh yeah. Exactly, Willie.

So that would be great. That would be nice.

Willie's got one coming up with Bradley.

So, speaking of the Academy Awards, our fella seems to got himself an Academy Award nomination. Oh.

Today? Yeah.

Not today. But, but he has had Academy. He's, he's been, I looked at his, he's one of those guys, he's got his own award nomination page on Wikipedia, because there's so many that they can't even fit in his regular page.

I'm getting nervous.

Same goes with his, with his filmography. It's got its own fucking page, which most of the times it would bum you out, but with this guy, it's okay, because he's one of the good dudes and he, he has done stuff. I mean, you're going to, you're going to remember a lot of this stuff. Johnny Betts from Private Eye, Taylor Rolator from 21 Jump Street. You might know him as Glenn from Finish Line.

Oh, Josh, it was just talking about you this morning.

Dude, when you started, when you started that resume, I go, what the fuck dude?

The stuff you tried to bury.

What is he doing? Dude.

It's all there. Brolin, I'm sorry.

All the things that you've never seen and don't remember, welcome our guest.

No, I mean, if he just said Goonies, I would have guessed in two seconds.

Well, fuck, I didn't want to say Goonies, because I was, I was trying to go old first. And so if I said Goonies, fucking Sean would have gone, oh, it's Johnny Brolin.

Josh, does Goonies follow you around like Teen Wolf 2 follows me around?

Yeah, but how proud of Teen Wolf for you, honestly.

But no, but thank God.

Like, are you? Like, there was a point. There was a point with Goonies, where it was like, please, God, give me another movie, any movie that anybody will see.

But Goonies was a great film. Teen Wolf 2 had its challenges. It wasn't for trying, but thank God it has turned into just kitsch in our, in our, in our, in our resume. Right?

But it's not just, it's not just Teen Wolf 2, it's Teen Wolf also. I just want to make. Yeah. Teen Double O.

Okay. This was not a sequel. Right?

I wouldn't dare.

I know.

Do you get the, are they going to do another one? Do you get that?

Yeah. I mean, it's, we're, it's in deep development right now. Who's better than Josh Brolin? Look at this.

I am so psyched to settle in with JB. I am so psyched, you're here.

So nice to meet you.

Let's start with what you guys met on the set of. what was that? What was it?

Well, we met before a little bit, but we both, I didn't want to bring up the Razzie nominated Jonah Hex. Why?

I don't know. Did it get a Razzie?

You know what? Why don't you tell the story? if you're willing to tell the story. Tell the story that you've told me. when you were over at my house one day, you told me that you were walking by my trailer, and what did you see?

It was the end of a long day. We were shooting this scene where we came into, we were on horseback. Do you remember that Josh, in that park, and they set up that old, the old town, and John Gallagher and I came in leading, I did not know how to ride a horse. They taught me.

Shocker.

Anyway, so it was like a dusty day. We'd been on horseback all day and I walked by and Josh had this incredible makeup for Jonah Hex. that took hours to put on. He could barely move. He could speak out of one side of his mouth.

And then had a hole in the prosthetic. So I couldn't.

And a hole in the prosthetic. So I walked by his trailer and it's like 6 PM. We've been shooting 12 hours. It's hot as fuck in New Orleans, like a thousand degrees, and Josh is sitting on the steps of his trailer with a cigarette sticking out of the hole of his, of his prosthetic.

And I had to put a finger over the hole in order to get, be able to inhale the cigarette. And I had, what else did I have?

And he was holding a bottle of whiskey.

Maker's Mark.

He was holding a bottle of Maker's Mark in his fucking hand, drinking it.

At 11 o'clock in the morning.

He sounded like he had a triple banger too, or a double banger.

It was a little later than that, but it was still.

And I, and I, and the fact that I blame Jonah Hex on anybody else is a fucking joke.

Other than me.

I got to see that movie, man.

You have to.

It looked handsome. The trailer looked great.

He did look like a cowboy. I will tell you that much. I was like, this motherfucker came to fucking play.

Can I tell you a quick story about that, Ashley? So we went to the premiere and we're looking in the studio, kind of took over that movie and they made it even worse than it already was. And it wasn't that bad. It really wasn't that bad. But we left early, as one does at their own premiere.

That's really funny.

The worst review I've ever gotten.

I'd rather lose the other leg than see that shit again.

It's really funny. Sorry. Well, I don't want to.

Yeah, go ahead.

I don't want to rain on your parade, but just let me know if it's now or 40 minutes. I can talk about Dune because I have 800,000 questions.

Okay. You can, you can talk about Dune anytime you want. You can start now if you want. I was going to, I was going to start a little further back than his most recent projects.

he's working on.

Josh. So I wanted to talk, man. It's so great to have you. You're one of the all time great dudes. And I, and I really mean that just outside of even the shit that we do.

Is that sort of true? I wasn't, I wasn't, I was born in LA. I was born in Santa Monica, which goes back five generations, I believe.

St. John's?

St. John's, where my, where my father was born and my grandfather was born. Holy shit. And my kid, my kid, two of my kids were born in St. John's.

I smell a real compelling one hour episodic.

Yeah.

Right? Yeah. Yeah.

And, by the way, we just wrote a book that's going to be out in November 19th that I didn't really know what the book was, and it's kind of an unconventional memoir, but it's very mother heavy.

Fucking A.

And you wrote?

What's the name of it? Plug it.

It's not, I can't plug it because I'm not allowed to, but yeah. But it is coming out in November, Harper Collins. But yeah, man. So my dad was an actor. He stayed in LA most of the time.

So Tracy, the catwalk is the permanent walkways way up at the top of the soundstage, usually like 30 feet up above.

Way up at the top. So I'm looking down and I'm watching my dad. You hear action, which I don't even know what that is. And he comes in through the door with an ax and goes to another door where somebody's doing off camera to help him out. But I don't know that.

No, no.

And he's axing the door. And I'm like, and it reminded me of this story that I heard once of Laura Dern saying, the first time she ever saw her dad on film was his head rolling down a flight of stairs.

Oh, my God.

But I remember that there was no, there was never anything. I don't have that story of like, oh my God, when I was four, I was doing little plays, I made up in my head in front of my family and I just knew at five, this is, yeah, there was none of that. So I had no interest in the, in the acting thing. And then ultimately, just to jump forward, I took, I was kind of flunking out of school once we moved to Santa Barbara and I did a, an improv class and I didn't even know what it was. It was like, you can do underwater basket weaving or improv.

How old were you?

I think I was at that point, maybe four, 15, 14, 15.. And then, when I was answered, then there was laughter, right? And that was it. Like. that was so, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

So that or the attention or the, you can see that you're good at something. Like, I wonder, because I think for any kid-.

Or the effect on people.

Yeah, but any kid right at that age, if you put something in front of them that they don't suck at and they get some sort of, you know, charming sort of social status. I mean, I'm seeing it with my kids now, Willie, I'm sure you are too. You know, it's like right about this age, anywhere between 12 and 17,, like you're trying to like, where do I fit in? What's my lane? What's my group?

I did this play, I did Twelfth Night, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in high school. I didn't understand a word. I was saying. And until there was an audience, there's one line that says, I'll make one too. And that's the end of the scene.

I was just thinking about, like, how strange you do something and then people give you a lot of positive feedback, and why would you want to do that?

You got to be careful what you put in front of your kid at that age, because that's what they're going to end up doing.

But, Josh, when you did, like Amityville Horror was damaging to me. Like. I saw that as a kid. And I was like, it was like, it was one of the scariest things I've ever seen. You growing up on that set, did you, could you then go back and watch the movie, having experienced seeing, filming it, and get immersed into it?

But not having grown up on the set, only having seen that scene.

But even that, even that.

No, I had no interest, man. I'm telling you, I had no interest. And it wasn't until, very irresponsibly, my dad took me to the theater, the mission theater, to see Apocalypse Now,

How old were you when you saw that?

I was 11. 11..

That's enough to absorb it.

I was two and a half.

Sorry. Sorry. Yeah. I don't think I've fucking seen that at 11.. Like, I don't think I saw it at that young.

Well, what about Jaws? I mean, Jaws was out in what, 75?.

I saw Jaws in the theater. I was six.

I was six at 75.. And that's why. Or Rocky.

Do you remember seeing Rocky? Oh, yes.

And like the fact that, like, he doesn't win the fight, but it's a great, big, happy ending. I was just like, how do you pull that magic trick off?

Yeah. Exactly.

We'll be right back.

It's all a lighthearted nightmare. on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly.

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All right, back to the show.

So, Josh, so then what happens? and you were like, first of all, I don't want to, it's kind of two questions. When you were up there, you were kind of, you surfed a lot. that played a big part in your life, right? You were a big time surfer.

Everything is super morbid. If I, every story I tell, thank God for you guys being able to chat. Welcome to the party.

By the way, morbid podcasts are like the best. They do the best on the charts.

We got Josh Brolin.

Oh, what the fuck? Um, yeah, what, so I grew up with these guys called, that, called themselves, we called ourselves, I'll include myself in that, the Sito rats. And, and most of those guys, 37 out of probably 50 of us are dead now. And that was the beginning of the punk rock era. That was an amazing time.

Wait, what was the offense?

I, the offense is my mouth. You know, I just got myself in a lot of trouble.

Cost me a few schools.

Words. Yeah, exactly. So, um, yeah, my, my mom said, it's time for you to leave. And I left. and, and, and I stayed with my dad, who was living with his girlfriend in this apartment.

process before. they said, nothing, nothing about, but a fucking Thomas guide and a lot of hope. Right.

A bunch of headshots. Yeah.

It's an accident. Yeah. And I wasn't good. I can't say I was good. I've said it, it, the same goes to today.

Well, so, so actually talk about that. and now we're going into Dune, Sean. And, but, but I do want to say, as, as a sort of entree to that, that's a really interesting point, uh, Josh, that you can go and do something. And, and part of the reason that people like you choose directors and choose projects are because you, you say, I want to be with that person, because I believe that I'm in good hands. I believe that a, that the script's good.

Yeah. But I also think, you know, just to kind of preface it. and then more up your alley, Sean, is that, you know, theater, I met a guy named Anthony Zerbe, and Anthony Zerbe was one of the great Shakespearean actors, maybe the lesser known, and, and he had a, uh, a poetry thing that he did, which I can't think of anything more boring, I don't know if you remember Cafe Lalo back in the day on, like Fairfax and like Steve Baldwin, would go and read his poet, and it was all just super dumb. and, and, and, uh, and, and I met a guy around that time named Anthony Zerbe and Anthony Zerbe and Roscoe Lee Brown, the great Roscoe Lee Brown would do an hour and a half of poetry and I saw it and it fucking blew my mind, the fact that they had such a command over the language and they understood pause, they understood cadence, they understood weight and all that kind of stuff. So I got together with Anthony and I started doing theater in Rochester, New York, and I did five seasons of theater in Rochester, New York.

And there's, you know, there's kind of, do you have a, do you have a favorite of?

those plays back, back, when I did a play that never went anywhere, called Pits and Joe, and it was a guy with traumatic brainstem injury that had gotten into a motorcycle accident. It was based in truth, and this woman wrote it about her and her brother. And, and I did one of those things where, back when you wanted to be Daniel Day Lewis or whoever, you know, and, and, and I, I went into the, the care center that Joe was at, and I checked in, I, I, I met with the head of the care center. I met with like the five heads, the, the psychology head and all that. And I said, I really want to live in here as one of these people for a couple of weeks.

She bought a ticket to the opening night. Yeah.

There was the, the, the head of the psychology, that there, um, he hated me and he hated what I was doing. And I was waiting by myself to have my, you know, two cigarettes of the day. And he walked by me and it was just he and I, and he whispered, or he kind of, like, you know, snarky said, as he was walking by. He said, Joe would never do that. Remember, I remember, I felt a rage and it was the rage that I felt.

I love that.

Interesting.

I love that.

Have you stayed that, that kind of a researching actor, or have you found that, you know, what, what you've got, what you've absorbed in your life, gives you enough of a toolbox to apply to any character that you're attracted to nowadays?

I think both. And I think what I'm going through right now, you know, I've been, I've been very lucky to be offered a lot of really nice things recently. And I think that the hunger right now is to kind of go back to 2008 or two or go back to that theater experience because I miss having to do or feeling like I have to do the research.

Well, I'll tell you something about the research. It reminded me, Josh, of a story you told me years ago where you, um, when you did No Country for Old Man, which is just such a spectacular movie, so, so good. And you're so good at it. And I remember we were talking, maybe it was when we were doing Jonah Hex, but you were saying there's that scene early on where you're going to, and the motorcycle accident reminded me of this, where you got, you got to shoot the guy and you take your boot off to, to, uh, level the gun. Is that, am I remembering that correctly?

Yeah, because I had gotten to it. Yeah. Yeah. I got into a motorcycle accident.

And you didn't tell them, tell these guys what happened.

No, two days after I got, so I was doing this, this small movie with Brittany Murphy, and I was having to go from, I had gotten No Country and there was no way I was going to get No Country. I even read for No Country and their only response, because I was doing a movie at the time, we sent in the video and their only response was, who lit it? So they didn't even comment on my act, they just thought it was really well lit. And then I got in there as the last reading and, uh, and I got that part, you know, they asked me that afternoon, would you be interested in playing this part? And I was like, well, hold on, let me, let me, let me think about it.

say these words in this way.

Um, and it turned out that the only reason I was able to do the role was because Llewellyn gets shot in the right shoulder, had it been the chef left shoulder, I couldn't have done it. So he gets, so we're in the beginning of the movie, he puts the, he's supposed to be standing up and shooting at the antelope and I couldn't do it. I couldn't lift up the, cause literally. it had only been two weeks since I snapped my collarbone and I was letting it heal, naturally. So I called somebody and there was somebody who knew a sniper in Vietnam.

I love that you called somebody who knew a sniper. Sure.

I tend to know those people. So, yeah. So that's why the boot is, I took my boot up.

And the Coen brothers seem to seem to like that as sort of a character choice that you would use the boot or was a boot off camera?

No, you see it.

No, the boots on camera. And they liked that. just because it, it was, it was viable.

And he takes his fucking boot off, and then, and then, and then he, he, he balances the gun on his fucking boot because he literally can't hold the gun.

While we're there, before we get to, to, to Sean's dune fiesta, um, anything about the Coen brothers or just the, you know, like every other person in this industry, they, they are my North star and like, they can do no wrong. I just, to work with them. I'm just so like, I'll take anything you can give me about what that experience is like.

It's so, you know, it's funny. Cause I've tried to make it, you know, in the past and you're on talk shows and you're like, tell me about the Coen, it's like, tell me a funny story. And there's not, there's so fucking normal, the greatest thing that I, you know, I've done three, three movies in a short with the Coen's and, and, and the greatest thing I ever got from them was, after every scene I've ever done, especially in the beginning, with the exception of one story that I'll tell you, I've never, ever gotten a great scene. Right. I've never gotten a thumbs up.

Great job.

Really? Just the moving on is the, it's literally moving on.

And looking up and seeing their backs, walking away to the next set. So it best, it's like, Hey, what'd you think? Like? maybe later on I'd go, you know, what'd you think of that scene? And they go, yeah, like, basically it's got, it's, we got what we need.

That was my dad's reaction growing up.

That was your dad? But yeah, there's a trauma in that.

He didn't have it. How would you, how would you know what his reaction was?

Yeah. Unless you could read his mind through the rear view mirror, you know,

you can read people's minds from 50 miles away.

Woody Harrelson was the only guy who couldn't remember his lines during No Country, and we had that scene in the hospital together and he talks the majority of the time. And he couldn't get through his fucking lines. And then, when finally he did one take where he kind of stumbled through his lines, and then I saw the Coen's come from behind set and they looked up and they go, wow, that was amazing. And I was like, you got to be fucking kidding me. It's literally sputtering through his shit.

You're holding his cue cards, right? Nothing.

Yeah.

Nothing. They were just, they were, they were just happy. They got a take. Let's be honest.

Wait, so Dune.

So here we go. Okay.

So wait, so a ride.

So is the sand real? Let's just start.

So, okay. I'm so bored. Can I talk about Dune?

Can you get sand in your eyes? Can I talk about Dune?

No, by the way, is it a real place?

Is it a real place? Yes.

No, it's, it's one of no country for old men is one of my favorite movies too. But Dune, I can't get, first of all, Arrival is one of my favorite movies as well. Yeah.

Me too. Me too.

So clever and well-made, and the script is amazing. That's the direction.

I mean, tell him, tell him why it's where it's connect. Tell Tracy why that's connected, Sean.

Oh, cause, he directed the same director directed Arrival as Denny Villeneuve.

Right. Yeah.

And so, yeah. And so, uh, so Dune.

I also directed Sicario, by the way.

Yeah. And you were also great in that. Yeah.

Maybe a top three.

I want to get it. I want to, well, after Dune, I want to get a Sicario.

Okay. So wait, so, so, so I want to know, just like Jason said, was like the Ethan's, what's it like on that set? Where are, I mean, are they sets? Are you really in the desert? Like?

Most of it, most of it is practical. Most of it is.

Let's just, just, let me just pause the interview.

Cause it looks like it's really in the desert.

It does. Doesn't it?

It's cause they've got the fun.

What part gave you that impression? Was it the desert?

Would they be spending less money if they just green screen the whole goddamn thing, or that may be a little bit more.

It's actually really sweet, because he's like a full fan boy.

I'm massive, massive fan.

Ask him to stand up. You can see his pants.

You're so good.

And then having pan his camera, right. And you'll see Scotty just in full pole mode.

Wait. So isn't it, by the way, isn't it wild that you guys had to hold the release because of the strike?

Speaking of holding the release.

So now it's coming in March. Is that what it is?

Yeah. Was that why? Yeah. And then we, and then we went back for reshoots in the first one during the pandemic, which we hadn't, we did it before the pandemic.

What is it? Tell me what it's like working with him. And is it, is it, as, is it the opposite of the Ethan's? Of the Coen's?

Well, he's also Canadian. Is he not Denny?

He is. He's French Canadian.

Right. So he's incredibly kind and probably effusive with his compliments. Thank you. Right. He's coming up, giving you a little high five at the end of a good day.

He is actually a little, yeah. But what I was going to say about the Coen's thing is that taught me a great thing, and I don't really look for that anymore, I don't, but I mean, what,

what, what he's accomplished in you two in Dune is like, it's hard to get the tone and the feel and the actors in the script and the sets, and just everything works perfectly. It creates a world that we haven't seen.

It's very collaborative, you know, and if I can go back to Sicario for a second, you know, I had turned down because he wasn't really an established director. at that point. He had done Assan D, he had done one American film with Hugh Jackman. What was that film called?

Uh, uh, not passengers, uh, not visitors.

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. Um, about the kidnapping.

Jake Gyllenhaal, which was actually really good, but I said, I don't know.

Was Bob Elswit on board? yet? I mean, I think that wasn't, you mean Deakins. Oh, was it Deakins that did it?

It was Deakins. And I had worked with Deakins a couple of times and, and, and, and it was also Benicio and it was Emily Blunt. And anyway, I said, no, I said no twice. And I don't know why, but, but, and, and, and he called me and he said what every director says and lies about, which is we're going to expand this role, right? Like what it is right now is not really what it's going to be.

top, but Sean, but Sean points out, like Sicario, you know, is about a world that, that exists, right? Like this, it's a reflection of this real world, maybe height, maybe not. I don't really know, but like of this thing, do things like Dune, as Sean pointed out, that he it's world building, right? It's creating a world that's creating a whole thing.

It's so hard to get right. Yeah.

No kidding.

Yeah. But there was a guy at Zev Boro, who I know from New York, and he's my good buddy, and he, and he read through that whole series three times when he was a kid, so he knows it as well as anybody, as well as Denise, does, you know? And when he saw the movie, I kind of snuck him in in Santa Fe when I saw the first one and there was a pause after the movie ended and this guy's a 48 year old guy, and he stood up and he started screaming, yes, that's it.

That's great. What do they call him? What are they? His nickname is Zev the Virgin, right? I mean, he read through all three, Zev the Virgin.

Wait, now, now that you're cool, now that you've had all the success and you've been working for so many years, and you told us the story about how, you know, your dad had money, then didn't have money, had money, then didn't have money. And so it kind of left you in a weird place, probably growing up. How are you with, with money now and handling it? Are you, are you more responsible and you would try to teach your kids about the responsibility of money?

Yeah, it's a, it's an ongoing subject about where we live and what that promotes and what that, you know, given that I grew up on a ranch, given that we have a ranch, that's three miles away from the ranch I grew up on, but I take my kids there a lot. I take my kids right now. They haven't been to the set very much, but I take them wherever we shoot. You know, I have a 30 year old, a 35 year old, a three year old and a five year old.

That's crazy. Wow. So now what, what kind of, what kind of grandfather skills does, does he have? What kind of grandma skills does Babs have? I mean, what, what, what are these, what are these family get togethers like?

You know, there's, there's a real, what, for lack of a better word, hard on for my, for my, for my kids, my young kids, with, with, said, uh, grandparents.

And really quick, just for my sister. And I'm just saying this for my sister, Josh.

No, you're not.

Your dad is James Brolin. Who's married to Barbra Streisand.

Really?

Yeah. Yeah.

No, this is all of it. Yeah.

It's amazing. That's it.

Go dad.

It's for my sister and for my sister, Tracy.

Um, but they're, uh, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're keyed in on these, on these two. Was it different than the, uh, than the first two kids? Like they got another crack.

I think in my, my first two kids, definitely, you know, they laugh at it now where they were like, you know, we're still here, by the way. Um, but the young kids are very cute. And I think that they're at an age now where things have slowed down enough, where you start to appreciate those familially, et cetera, et cetera. Right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

That's great. What, what would you say, is the biggest difference between your fathering on the first two versus the, the, the second two? Um, what, what, what have you, yeah, you've got a little, little lighter blend on the, on your, um, on your hydration this round, I mean, that's.

just the fucking truth, man. I mean, I was in and out and that kind of thing, but you know, I mean, and I think it's okay to say this, even though it's in an anonymous program, my son's sober, my daughter's married to a sober dude.

That's great.

My wife's sober.

I love that. I love it.

Right. So they, well, they, so they learned a lot from your, your, your mistakes, or your, hopefully.

Yeah. In all honesty, you know what I mean? I think we were all pretty open. I tried not to let the thing cross over, and it did cross over a few times and we talk about it, but it's a very open, open dialogue with us.

When you mentioned about you getting kicked out at 16 years old because of your mouth and stuff, do you rec, do you recognize the signs? any of your kids that they, they kind of re are, might repeat the.

same behavior that you did when you know, because I think mine was so extreme that, that it was, it was definitely a warning light as opposed to, let me try and emulate that to see if I can pull that off.

Uh-huh. Right, right.

We'll be right back.

And now back to the show.

You know what, you know, what's funny, Josh, is the other, the other day I was reading this story, um, in the wall street journal. These guys don't know what that is, but there was a, there was a story, there was a story about, about, uh, weed, uh, there's a story about weed and it was saying how they've seen an uptick in, uh, you know, kids having psychotic breaks as a result of cannabis as compared to 10, 20 years ago. So I send it to my ex, I texted to Amy, like immediately, and she goes, why are you sending me this? And our, our older sons are 13 and 15.. And I go, because it's, weed is very readily available and there are things around available and I'm very nervous about it.

Cause it wasn't like. I understand. It was like, remember back in the seventies, I remember, I, I, I, I was a friend of my dad's in Paso Robles and I, I like was on the floor or something and I looked under his bed and I found a drawer, a pot, and I rolled it up in some writing paper and tried to smoke it when I got home. and I was like eight or nine, but even if I was able to smoke it, I would have been, you wouldn't have been that high, right?

You smoke a full joint nowadays.

You've got to call your mom hit nowadays. Yeah.

Oh, no, no, no. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Before I got sober, I remember I, I loved the idea of dispensaries and I loved the idea behind the science in it all. And I was like, what does this do? And where is this? And how do you make this?

I made it for the science too.

Yeah, I know. I get it. But there was a guy, he was from Poland, and we kind of would go through this whole thing and I would pretend, like, like I didn't smoke, cause I didn't really love smoking very much. And then I would give it to my friends. But then one night I was home alone and I was supposed to read this, this, uh, essay that my daughter had done.

know, army crawl back into the house.

Yeah. And then I tried to read the essay and I read the same first line about 125 times. And that was one hit, man. I get it.

He needed to get into the edibles.

It's heavy duty.

Sean, Sean. I love it.

Well, Jason, Jason is, his book is coming about and it's about edibles, but he's hasn't read the first, he's written the first line 120 times, Sean, when Sean gets on weed, it is my favorite. when you take, gets on weed, who's old, but when Sean smokes weed or takes an edible, it's the funniest, it makes me laugh, Sean. Yeah.

I, well, I get like, as he's getting to the hospital and I get spurts of little energy, but wait, like when I was a kid, I was so afraid of doing anything wrong. Like I was, I remember I was scared about, um, having a library book out too long and I thought I was going to get in massive trouble. Where does it come? Where does that come from? Where you're like, yeah, I'll try this.

Like. I never beat the shit out of a kid. I was never that guy, you know, I bullies, maybe, but I was never, even though we all fought a lot, but it was, that was the, that was the culture. That was the culture that I grew up in, in punk rock and all that kind of stuff. Back when parents were doing blow instead of parenting.

Imagine what a bummer it would be to get into a fight with Brolin, it would fucking suck.

At any age, I'll bet, I'll bet at eight, he could really square you up.

I went over there, I went over to Brolin. Remember, I came over and tried your cold punch like five years ago, and we get in the fucking cold punch and he's a couple of years older than me. I was like, look how fucking stacked this motherfucker is.

How old are you, Josh? Baby.

55.. See, here, he's just cut to ribbons. Are you in better shape now than you've ever been in your life? I'll bet you are.

I was, I was in better shape during Dune than I've been in, in a very, very long time. I think, when I did, when I did a dead pool too, I think that's the best shape I've ever been in.

Sean, cool it.

Did you, did you still do the martial arts and, and have you ever, and, or would you, and can I promote you and Downey fighting each other?

I would do that. I was just with Downey and we were talking about you two days ago.

I'm going to fucking set that up. Wait, can I get in on that, Arnett?

Yeah, I'm getting it running down. Downey, Brolin fight.

Well, let's do it in, uh, do we think Vegas, Atlantic city, or what about Laughlin? Laughlin would be kind of kitschy, right?

Remember that? Wasn't there like an animated thing, like celebrity fights or something like that? It was like a claymation thing. Yeah. Look it up afterwards.

Oh, that's right. There was a claymation show.

Yeah. I'm bored with the acting. I want to fuck celebrities.

There's our clip.

I would fucking, I am backing you, Brolin. You're my fucking dog in this one.

Wait, Josh, do you, do you know Brendan Shanahan? He's a friend of Will's.

He's a hockey player.

He's a retired hockey player.

President of the Toronto Maple Leafs. One of the all time great guys.

So Will and Brendan and I were out to dinner. This is a few weeks ago. And I said to Brendan Shanahan, who's been in, you know, a thousand fights on the, on the ice rink.

He holds the record for the most, what they call Gordie Howe hat tricks, which is goal assistant fight in a game.

So I told him I always had this a little tiny, tiny, tiny bit of a fantasy of getting in a fight. Cause I've never been in a fist fight.

Mostly on the receiving end. Right. Just getting beat to shit.

Literally hockey fights, where you just grab my hair right before you.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

By the way, it's borderline fetish, but go ahead.

No, no. Just cause I, I don't know. I, I, part of me, just wants to know what that feels like. And so Brendan, Brendan takes me out. Yeah.

And how'd you feel? How'd you feel when he said that you guys made me laugh harder.

Yeah. He's like, stop looking like you're going to enjoy this. God damn it.

So he grabs me in some crazy hold in two seconds flat. I can't move my entire body. And he's like, this is, you would be dead. You had just beat the shit out of your face.

He had his arm wrapped around. And he said, and then I would just start filling you in like this. And he just starts going, Sean's laughing. And he did say, by the way, it's at the back entrance, that little back side door behind the polo lounge. There's nothing more elitist than that scenario.

Um, what about, what about, uh, uh, MMA kind of stuff? Are you training with that too? Like, could you, is that, is that your skillset, or is it more, uh, martial arts?

I think it was martial arts no longer, even though I know that, like the Gracie's, become good friends, and through Laird Hamilton and all that. And I have massive respect for them, but no, I think the, the, the getting in shape. MMA, you know, Dana White's a really close friend of mine. I love MMA. I've always loved boxing.

What time?

I'll invite you.

You know, you know, it's funny, Josh, is all this stuff and you do a lot of this, this stuff, and you're very in shape and whatever, but you know, over the last couple of years I've noticed, and I think you've, you mentioned going to, you know, listen to poetry years ago, but anybody who follows you on Instagram or anybody who, uh, who gets texts from you, uh, you know, talking about your day or the things that you're grateful for, IE gratitude list, knows that you, you've kind of like, veered into that as, as much of a guy. you like to sort of mix it up. You've also become quite, and maybe this is just a result of, of older age and having kids, younger kids again, you've become quite ponderous. You've become quite, uh, uh, you really appreciating the world around you in a way that's, that's pretty astounding. I know I'm going to make out with you now too.

He's got that soft, chewy center.

It's true, man. You, you, you do like every day you talk about, and you talk about things you really open about appreciating your wife, loving your wife, loving your kids. You're really open about it. And I think there's something super, super, super nice and vulnerable and beautiful about that.

Thanks. I appreciate that very much. I don't think it's a new thing, but I think it's ramped up recently because I love the idea of contrast. And the fact that I'm, you know, that I ride a vintage motorcycle or with a group of dudes, or the fact that, you know, I I'm perceived as this scrappy, gnarly, whatever, ultra man, the last man in Hollywood, but then, but then what.

is, it should be noted that Josh is smiling when he says that, um, that, you.

know, I, I love the idea of contrasting that with, with, because I, I, there is incredible sensitivity and I do love my kids. I will be raising. I had my first kid when I was 20 and my, and my youngest, I'll be 70 when she graduates high school, you know, and I love it, man. I love it in the ride.

What would, what, what would be the contrasting thing that would, that would surprise most people? Like what, what is the softest thing that you do?

Here's, here's, here's a story. Here's a story. And I don't know if this is the best story to tell, but the story, when we went to Atlanta. And we, and we, during the pandemic, we kind of moved to Atlanta, where my wife is from, and, and, and, you know, nothing against Atlanta, but when I got to Atlanta, I realized I was in Atlanta. I didn't realize Atlanta was in Atlanta, so I couldn't stay, but I was sitting there and it's such a nice house and I'm looking out the window and I see this kind of barrel chested, tattooed, huge goatee tattoo, you know, guy, uh, in the middle of my yard and he's kind of looking up at a tree and I go, who the fuck is that?

Wow.

And it turns out that he's 24 years sober. He runs the biggest sober biker club. That's an international biker club in the world.

That's amazing.

He's one of my best friends now.

I love that.

So I love the idea of this cosmetic thing that you immediately judge and then underneath it is whatever.

I love that. Well, the biggest compliment I can give you is I've never met you before. This is the first time. And I feel, and you're completely, I feel completely at ease with you. I feel like I've known you forever.

Please put me in a chokehold.

And can you please put me in a chokehold?

Maybe the best time joke of all time.

I'm in Los. Angeles.

You're in Los. Angeles. My wife saw your play. I did not, admittedly, but my wife saw your play, which I heard was, you were truly a revelation.

Oh, that's very nice.

It was. honestly, it was so, no, I know Sean, fuck off. Fuck off. It was so good. It deserves to get mentioned whenever, whenever we talk about it.

Oh, speaking of Josh, you got any horrible, tragic theater stories? Something that just went horribly wrong?

You know, no man, but just theater, theater is such a, it's a funny thing. You know, it's like my experience of theater is like you fucking people in Hollywood, you know, you're such phonies, you're such fakes, you don't understand the real thing. And then that person, three days later, you'll see it in like an El Pollo Loco commercial.

Oh, right. Exactly. I'm coming out in March for pilot season. You got an extra bag? Yeah, literally.

Yeah. I find it the most hypocritical society I've ever, you know what I mean? And I love it. And I just wrote a play and I'm, we're trying to get that play done in Ojai. And it's really good, but I'm reminded again and again, how much I hate the theater community.

He's totally kidding.

One of my favorite questions, um, and we'll let you go, uh, is, with all of the incredible set experience that you have and all the incredible directors you've worked with, have you ever been tempted to take all of that, which you've cherry picked from them and, and, and sit in the chair yourself and direct something?

You know, it's funny. You would bring this up, and I'm curious why you would bring it up, because I was going to bring it up, regardless of whether you brought it up or not, but I reached out to you when I directed an episode of Outer Range, which is something that I did with, uh, with Amazon and a very strange kind of Western, contemporary Western. And, you know, it's something that I've always wanted to do. I've directed theater. I've never direct, I directed a short, but I've never directed something that was substantial and with money.

about it at the time, weren't you?

I was thinking about it at the time. And I reached out to you and I said, you know, do you have any advice for me? And which I thought was really interesting. Like, why, why would I reach out to you?

So, obviously my respect for you, who do you think you've called?

No, but I, I love that. I reached out to you and you said a great thing. You were like, don't you focus on the day players. You said, don't forget about the day players. That was one, one bit of advice that you gave me, but you were so sweet and so kind of, you, you kind of, the, the, the, the day players are.

the, are the actors that are doing the parts, that are not the starring roles.

Maybe one line, three lines.

Yeah. Sometimes they're cast right from the local city that you're shooting in. And, you know, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's an instinct sometimes for them to potentially overplay their scene because they're only in a couple of scenes, and sometimes as a director, which can.

take you right out of a scene.

Right. Yeah.

And so as a director, which was your point, I think, right.

So how did that go?

Really, really well. And I have to say that directing, and I know a lot of probably actors feel like this, it wasn't an opportunity to finally do the thing that I wanted to do that no director wouldn't let me do. But it was more that the myriad interests that I've had in my lifetime, that I never really understood, all made sense. suddenly, it was like, I can utilize everything I've ever been interested in and everything that I've wanted to randomly learn and didn't know why now makes perfect sense. When you're available to somebody in the way that they need you to be available, which changes from actor to actor and, and, and, you know staff, members, whatever, you know, DP or whatever, and say, how can I be most helpful as opposed to how can I make my mark and utilize, you know, use my power, because now I finally have it.

Right. Right. Exactly.

You know, you think about doing it again, perhaps?

I think that's the, I think out of that has come a real interest in, in, in finding foreign directors right now and finding projects like that and really focusing on, on, on another echelon of great directors. and yes, I would like to think that I would further, that. I think it would be dumb not to. I think the only reason why it wouldn't happen is out of fear. And I'm kind of at 55, I'm kind of done with the idea of fear.

But I was going to say, you know, the thing that Jason says to a lot of people, and he talks about experience on set, and you've been doing it a long time, you have, you do have so much experience and you do have such a point of view, and that's important as a director, obviously, as you all, as we all know, and I'm surprised that it's not something that you're like actively doing more, because you do have such a strong point of view.

And know-how and incredible experience and comfort on a set in order to lead. You know?

But I think, I think it's also the fact, and I think this has to do with raising kids is you're not afraid to be wrong, because you understand that wrong doesn't really pertain. You just have to make a decision and you have to allow other people to be able to lean on you and stand behind your decisions and know that it's not going to be perfect, and know that you're going to have to compensate, and know that you may have to fix some things in editing and all that kind of stuff. I just think it's another, it's kind of like photography. It's one of those things that, you know, you'll never master. And I love the idea of having to pursue something that you'll never master.

Amen. Cool. Uh, dude, we can fucking talk to you forever, honestly.

I love you guys. I've loved this time.

Yeah. Yeah.

Thank you for saying yes and doing this with us.

Yeah. Thank you. It's been a long time coming.

Thank you for having me.

I'm a massive fan.

Thanks, Sean.

You're one of the all time. You're one of the all timers, JB. Fucking. love you. Miss you, dude.

Yeah.

Miss you guys too. Thank you very much for this time. Honestly.

Thank you, pal.

It was, it was nutritious.

Have a great rest of the day.

Thanks, brother. We'll talk to you soon.

Thank you.

See you, Josh.

Bye. Bye.

That is, that's a JB.

That's a real JB. That's a capital, J capital.

Yeah. If somebody says, Hey, show me the best JB you got. I'm wheeling him out.

Sure. Sure. And then, like, they'll say, well, second, third, fourth. What else? Just, just as a backup.

Yeah. We're going to go lowercase, like a more, like more of a beta JB. And I was like, Hey guys. Hey, there you are.

What if somebody said, show me a great BJ?

Um, and you'd say how much time you got?

I'd say, I'd say, Sean, let me look at your browser history.

I really liked that, Josh Brolin. He's a sweet guy. He's a normal guy. God, I could talk to him forever.

I'm surprised you've never met him before.

I never met him before. I'm a huge fan.

That's a good dude. Wouldn't you love to be stuck on set with him for a few months?

Oh God. Yeah. Super, super fun.

Yeah. I had the pleasure, uh, back in the day, day when he w. it was a different, different time, but it was still super fun hanging with him.

And he's, yeah, he's one of those guys. That's just electric.

He is electric. He's really funny and, uh, he's really smart, and, uh, he's interesting and all that stuff. He's well read. Like he's just like one of those, but, uh, Bateman, you, you kind of, you've kind of known him right on and off for years.

Yeah. A little bit. We, we shared an agent for a little while. And, uh, yeah, but, um, I think you, you know, I'm a lot better. I wish, I, I wish I knew him, um, A lot better.

I, I can, we have a lot of friends in common, if you know what I mean. And, uh, he's just a fucking.

Is he back here in LA now? Full-time.

Yeah. They may, he was here and then they moved to, like he said, they moved to Atlanta for a bit and then they came back.

And, um, Oh, by the way, everybody in Atlanta, I love Atlanta. All right. I, it's, it's, oh, it'll, it'll surprise you.

He does too. He, he, he was being, he was, he was playing it up. He does too. And his wife is, is from Atlanta, her whole family and, and his, uh, his sister in law and brother-in-law, who's a good friend of mine, Jackson, who we didn't talk about, uh, is a really good buddy of mine who lives in Atlanta. Atlanta is a great, great time.

I shot a movie there. It was super hot, but it was wonderful.