“The great thing about 'No Country for Old Men,' more than these other movies, is that there are a lot of questions that surface for people and they want to talk about it, which I think is just so satisfying as a filmmaker or an actor involved with something like that. I can’t remember the last movie I saw that I’ve thought about for days.”
“No Country for Old Men” is undoubtedly this year’s most talked about film and most of the chatter has focused on the strong performances by its stars. Josh Brolin, who can also be seen in the acclaimed “American Gangster,” stars in this Coen brothers thriller about a man who finds that he’s in over his head when he comes across a bag full of cash. As he tries to escape with the money, he inadvertently ignites a cat-and-mouse chase with a mysterious assassin (Javier Bardem) and a local sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones), both always two steps away from finding him.
We spoke with Josh on the phone recently about “No Country for Old Men” as well as working with the Coen Brothers.
Q: With “American Gangster” and “No Country for Old Men” both out and getting some pretty good feedback, this must be a pretty good year for you?
JOSH: Yes. (Laughs)
Q: Which project did you sign up for first?
JOSH: Out of those two, “No Country for Old Men.”
Q: How did the Coen Brothers pitch the project to you?
JOSH: The Coen Brothers didn’t pitch the project to me actually. I had read the book first without knowing that there was a movie being made. My agent actually called me and said they were making “No Country” and explained the script to me and said, “No, no. I read the book.” She sent me a couple of scenes and then I said, “I can’t get out of work.” I was working with Robert Rodriguez on “Grind House” and Robert and Quentin [Tarantino] helped put me on tape as an audition tape and sent that to the Coens. They were smitten with the lighting and not so much for me. (laughs) So that was a no.
It was only through my agent, Michael Cooper, who is my good friend and a great agent. He’s an old time agent; there are few and far between that actually care about their clients. He kept telling Ethan [Coen], “Just meet him. I’m not going to tell you he’s the one but I’m going to tell you to just meet him.” I met them on what I found out later was their last casting call and then I got the part.
Q: Was working with the Coens something you had always wanted to do in your career?
JOSH: Honestly I couldn’t even imagine it. Not because of the work I was doing because I’ve gotten to work with great people like David O’Russell, Woody Allen and people like that. But I always loved their movies. My kids [love] “O Brother Where Art Thou” and for me, I love “The Big Lebowski,” “Fargo,” “Blood Simple.” They’ve always been huge favorites for me. But it never crossed my mind because at that point, they had really used all the same actors and it was very rare. I think I thought more that it would be great to do a couple of scenes for them in one of their wacky movies.
Q: Having read the book, did you distance yourself as much as possible from the writings in the book and rely more on the Coens’ vision?
JOSH: I don’t think you can. I don’t think you can carbon copy a performance from a book. It’s all up to interpretation especially with Cormac’s book. It’s more about the rhythm, the vernacular and the cadence of the dialogue than it is about the physical nature of the person. If you look at the Coens’ screenplay compared with the book, it’s pretty loyal. So I didn’t even think about it. I would go back to the book in creating a character that I thought matched what the Coens were envisioning, which I didn’t really know the whole time. They don’t really talk about that kind of stuff. I think they just hired me and said, “We really get a sense from you that you’re right for this part. So come up with something interesting.”
Q: What was the most appealing aspect of the story and in particular, your character?
JOSH: I just loved the laconic nature of the whole thing. Coming from theater and master rifts of dialogue, I loved the idea and challenge of fear that was put into me of conveying ideas that weren’t necessary just dialogue. Everything had weight: every movement, how you carried yourself, each look. Each look suddenly wasn’t just a look. It meant something. That was a nice thing to explore for me.
Q: What was that like, working in that environment where you have to convey a lot of what’s going on through your facial expressions?
JOSH: Well that was the big challenge. It was almost as if we were shooting a silent film without the subtitles and without looking silly. I can’t say it was easy. I was definitely nervous about it. The nerves came out of a fear of being boring and not filling the moment appropriately, and not overfilling the moment by doing things that weren’t appropriate. So it was trying to find a nice balance between that.
Q: Would you say that there’s a fundamental flaw in your character?
JOSH: Compassion. But I wouldn’t see it as a flaw necessarily. It’s a flaw within the story. I think he’s an incredibly heartfelt, compassionate character just in the way the story goes. The fact that he goes back and gives water to what we call “agua man.” It gets him into a lot of trouble. He would have had major obstacles anyway but that one in particular got him shot.
Q: Having been a fan of the Coens’ work, if you could look at “No Country” from an outside perspective, how do you think “No Country” stacks up against their other films?
JOSH: I can’t look at it from an outside perspective. I wish I could but I can’t. I wouldn’t stack it up against their movies. I’m very happy I’m in this one. That’s for sure.
Q: What are you working on next?
JOSH: We’re deciding right now. Because of the strike, everything’s kind of pending. There are a few things that have come our way but only a couple of things that we’ve embraced. We’re just figuring out dates and things like that.
Q: When you were shooting the film, was there a sense that the project was going to receive the kind of reception that it ended up getting?
JOSH: There was a feeling that we were doing something really wonderful. We were really into the work and make it work. We were very focused and had a good time. You really didn’t get a sense of how the thing was going to come together until Javier and I saw it for the first time and he leaned over to me and said, “This is a pretty good movie.” So I think it is.
Q: Since it’s that time of season, there’s a lot of talk about awards and Oscars for this movie. Does that kind of thing grab your attention or do you take it in stride?
JOSH: I’ve been doing it for a while so I think I take everything in stride. It sounds like bull shit but it’s not; I’m just really happy that people are seeing the movie. It’s nice that I’m in a few movies that people are actually affected by. The great thing about “No Country for Old Men,” more than these other movies, is that there are a lot of questions that surface for people and they want to talk about it, which I think is just so satisfying as a filmmaker or an actor involved with something like that. I can’t remember the last movie I saw that I’ve thought about for days. It seems that people are doing that, which I can’t tell you how much of a complement I think it is.
Q: One of the interesting things about the film is that people are going on the Internet and having debates about the ending. What’s your take on that?
JOSH: I think it’s appropriate and I think the reaction is appropriate. The reaction only defines the fact that we chose a good thing. If people weren’t reactionary of the ending, then we would not have done our jobs. The whole point of danger and frustration that comes out of that is that people feel raped to a certain point, I think is incredibly appropriate. It’s an homage to that kind of violence which we don’t necessarily see in a lot in film anymore. Sudden violence as opposed to movie violence.
"No Country for Old Men" is currently playing in limited theaters.
