ALL EYES ARE ON JOSH

THIS THINKING MAN’S ACTION HERO IS IN BIG DEMAND FOR MOVIES

To say Josh Brolin is on a roll would be the understatement of the year in the movie industry.

When Sicario: Day of the Soldado hits screens this week, it will be Brolin’s fourth movie in seven months, after starring as a firefighter in Only The Brave, voicing Thanos in Avengers: Infinity Wars, plus muscle-ripped Cable in Deadpool 2.

In Siciario: Day of the Soldado Brolin returns as agent Matt Graver alongside Benicio Del Toro as they continue their war against the Mexican drug cartels.

It’s a movie he didn’t expect to make. He doesn’t do sequels, but he believed Day of the

Soldado was not a true sequel. In the original it was Emily Blunt in the lead role. This time, Brolin and Del Toro get a chance to expand on their characters in a fresh storyline.

And after discovering fans like his characters enough to return to the cinema for follow-up films, Brolin’s starting to come around to the idea of sequels.

“Day of the Soldado had some really original ideas. Here was a chance to explore it emotionally, as there’s a lot more at stake. It’s more personal, it’s more colourful – so I was in,” Brolin said.

“You know I was reluctant in the beginning. Sometimes you put 1000 per cent into something, you see the result and say ‘What the hell happened?’

“Only The Brave is a prime example of me being really proud of the movie and for whatever reasons, nobody saw it in cinemas, but then people started seeing it on DVD.

“Just like Sicario, more people have seen it outside of theatres than they did in, but to me Day of the Soldado really is a theatre experience of a movie. It goes back to my experience when I saw Apocalypse Now when I was 12 years old, when the lights go down you’re in your own bubble.”

Brolin is aware that watching the Sicario movies is a gritty, brutal, realistic experience that leaves viewers on the edge of their seats – and that was always the aim.

“For this movie you want the stakes to be high enough that it’s almost interactive, you don’t know how it’s going to turn out,” he said.

“There is expectation, there is judgment, there is pre-judgment – but when you do a movie that is decent all that kind of goes away. I think it’s always the intention of every movie, drama at least, to get a reaction.

“If you’re doing Deadpool you want to make people laugh so much their stomachs hurt. You want to give people as much of an experience as possible.

“I’d liken it to doing Avengers and playing Thanos. So many people have lived with that character for so long, and you better get it right, even though the comic book says to do it this way.

“Then you’re making personal decisions on set, and you say ‘Maybe it would work better this way’ even though I know it’s not particularly accurate. You get reactions from people saying ‘Hey, that isn’t right’. But when the movie comes out they accept it because the experience is visceral.”

The 50-year-old got into the best shape of his life in preparation for his role as Cable in Deadpool 2, and even though the experience was tough, Brolin said it taught him how to stay in shape for life, even though the six pack has gone, which he admits would be a full-time job to retain.

“That’s what’s so funny, nobody could keep that up,” Brolin said.

“I post pics on Instagram and they say ‘What happened to you? You’ve deflated.’

“First of all I did it without drugs, and that’s what happens. Second, you can’t keep it up. Doing Deadpool was hard man, really hard, and I didn’t use steroids or testosterone which made it even harder. I liked the idea of doing the training, and I wanted to know as a then 49-year-old if I could do it.

“I was kind of putting my arse on the line as if I showed up all scrawny I’d say ‘Well that didn’t work,’ but I was really happy with what we did.”

Josh is now preparing to appear in more sequels, as Thanos in the second Infinity Wars movie, and will return to the role of Cable in the recently announced X-Force with Ryan Reynolds (as Deadpool) and Zazie Beetz (as Domino).

“Usually I would go back to eating a heap of horse sh-t and not doing anything, but then getting back into that kind of shape is horrible, it’s like going to hell,” Brolin said.

“So I want to keep in some kind of shape now so it’s a little bit easier when I have to do it again. But it’s fun man – I think the anomaly will be gone and it will be even tougher the second time, but we’ll do it.

“I’m excited for the future, and that’s what I took out of it. It’s really fun to take these stories and further them along.”

In the meantime, the star hopes for a bit of time off and on the recommendation of Infinity Wars co-star Chris Hemsworth, is eyeing off the surf breaks Down Under.

“Australia is one place I’ve been watching for many years,” he said.

“I’m a lifelong surfer and Hemsworth tells me all the time, ‘Come to the Gold Coast, and Bells Beach’. Man, I’d love to get there.”

Sicario: Day of the Soldado opens in cinemas on Thursday.

“DAY OF THE SOLDADO HAD SOME REALLY ORIGINAL IDEAS. HERE WAS A CHANCE TO EXPLORE IT EMOTIONALLY, AS THERE’S A LOT MORE AT STAKE. IT’S MORE PERSONAL, IT’S MORE COLOURFUL...”