Brolin brings element of surprise to firefighter role
LOS ANGELES — Josh Brolin invented the game “Silent Rock” between scenes on the set of his action drama Only the Brave.
The rules are simple: Sit in a circle with your fellow actors playing ace forest firefighters and trickily lob a rock at your neighbour, hoping it’s fumbled.
“You toss it so they don’t know what’s coming,” says Brolin, grinning. “When you drop the rock — and there’s no way not to drop the rock — you have to do 25 sit-ups, push-ups or squats. How nobody lost teeth, I have no idea.”
Some might call this game moronic. But not only did “Silent Rock” give the cast the opportunity to build firefighter camaraderie, it also represents a big part of what makes Brolin, 49, in peak demand in Hollywood: You just don’t know what’s coming.
It’s a feeling that compelled director Joseph Kosinski to cast Brolin as Eric Marsh, the charismatic leader of Arizona’s Granite Mountain Hotshots firefighters in Only the Brave (in theatres today).
“The most fascinating actors are the ones who give off this unpredictability: You don’t know exactly what’s going to happen next,” says Kosinski. “Josh has that quality inherent in him. That’s what makes him so watchable.”
During an interview at the Four Seasons hotel, Brolin brings this watchability, along with his partially shaved eyebrow and aggressive hairstyle — “Brolin meets Bieber” he calls it — remnants of his Cable character in the just-completed Deadpool 2.
“Three days ago, I was getting my [butt] kicked in Deadpool,” says Brolin. “I was being chucked up against walls, punched, thrown and all that stuff. I’m hurting right now.”
Only the Brave provided its share of physical challenges, training with co-stars such as Miles Teller and Taylor Kitsch to pull off the depiction of the Navy SEALs of wilderness firefighters. But the true story of the Granite Mountain crew, who were overcome by Arizona’s 2013 Yarnell Hill fire, killing 19, was more emotionally challenging.
It was particularly close to Brolin, who served as a volunteer firefighter in Arizona in the 1990s. He fell hard for the firehouse brotherhood, “the firehouse tacos, and the constant ribbing.” He vowed to make sure his new crew paid respect to the story and spirit.
“We’re actors. We’re not Hotshots. That’s a given,” Brolin says. “But everyone is carrying their 45-pound packs, even at 11,000-foot elevation. Let’s not skimp even half a per cent.”
He’s sustaining that effort professionally with an impressive rollout of top-tier movies in the next year. That he’s sparring with Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool 2 (out June 1) is just half the story of Brolin’s sudden comic-book dominance.
Brolin is looming so large that he’s the chosen one to portray supervillain Thanos, who battles an army of Marvel’s biggest heroes starting with Avengers: Infinity War (May 4).
“I wasn’t this hardcore fan,” says Brolin. “But there’s something about playing the baddest guy in the universe which is very cool to me.”
He’ll continue to bring more emotional surprises to the ultimate baddie.
“The great thing about Thanos is we saw him as this thing,” says Brolin. “And now he’s this weirdly complex, almost empathetic character. We didn’t see that before.”