Josh Brolinplays Detective “Bigfoot” Bjornsen inPaul Thomas Anderson’s newest film,Inherent Vice.
I recently sat down with Brolin, along with a few other journalists, to talk about the role.
Inherent Viceis now playing in limited release before going wide on January 9th.
I heartily (and respectfully) disagree withMatt’s reviewand urge you to see it ASAP.
Hit the jump for the interview.
Question: Youve worked with every great director there is, pretty much.
Image via Warner Bros.
Spike Lee recently, Oliver Stone, the Coen brothers.
For Paul Thomas Anderson, what was it like to come on and work with him?
JOSH BROLIN: Great!
Better than great just because hes a guy that creates and ambiance of possibility.
You choose a story like this.
He has a perspective that I think is interesting, personally.
It has nothing to do with how successful he is or how this or how that.
Is this a fun theater piece to do?
Who else is doing it?
Image via Warner Bros.
Well, thats a given so why would you not do it?
Then you get involved.
I knew him through the award circuit, when I was doingNo Countryhe hadThere Will Be Blood.
So I knew him a little bit but I knew him with Daniel so it was a little untouchable.
I was like, This guy works with the greatest actors out there.
Even seeingThe Master, I just thought it was amazing.
Its just like, Thats probably something thats not gonna happen.
And then you get a call saying, Look, I think I may have some work for you.
Which was the line, and then it works out.
Then youre on set with this guy and hes like your brother.
We appreciate a lot of the same absurdities and we see the humanity in those absurdities.
Alright, so what do we do?
Lets try this, lets try that.
Theres never an argument, theres misunderstanding, differences of opinion but never any, Why?
Why do you want to do that for?
It was like, Lets go here.
Hes like, Cool.
Hes holding on to so much.
BROLIN: Yeah and he doesnt want to.
Its not only a generation behind, hes like a generation and three quarters behind.
And quit being such an idea of yourself.
I said it in the other room, inside hes a kid having a tantrum.
He wants his Fruit Loops and hes not getting his Fruit Loops.
He doesnt know how, he doesnt understand that the tantrums not working.
But he doesnt get that.
Because of that, you see him at home being so severely emasculated by his wife.
He just rolls over.
BROLIN: Totally rolls over.
And hes doing his best hippie thing.
Thats the most intelligent he is the entire time.
Because hes like, What does that mean, man?
And he goes, [sigh] Shes gone.
You and Joaquin are both very transformative actors.
Could you imagine the roles being flipped?
BROLIN: Totally, totally.
It would be like ourOthello, I would do it again in a second.
Oh my god, it would be great, and especially like Bigfoot, it would be awesome.
I never thought of that.
Thatd be amazing actually.
I would love to do something like that.
I like that, some people dont.
I know actors that hate improvising - not that we improvised a lot in this.
I think we emotionally improvised, behaviorally improvised but some people dont like that.
Plus, by the way, I like to learn a script before I start.
I know the whole script before I start the movie.
But knowing that Paul may rewrite and this and that but I know the foundation.
I dont feel like I can work on what I want to do unless I know the whole thing.
Because its more human for them, stretching for it and then reaching for it.
I always have that foundation to go back to.
So, its just different strokes for different folks.
Kind of internally do you know when hes just messing around or when hes being overtly serious?
BROLIN: No, it dictated itself.
You know the scene, you know the character.
And you think you know the character and then youre in a situation.
BROLIN: The frozen banana was.
Yeah, thats in the book.
The frozen banana but not what he does with the frozen banana.
Did you all find that on the day?
BROLIN: Oh, I found that.
And then Paul laughs and then I know its working.
Not because he laughs because theres a lot of things that he laughed at that we didnt use.
But it was that moment that it just made sense.
When hes doing it, that scene doesnt work without Doc.
I didnt think about it, I mean I did, but I didnt come up with anything.
And I thought, Oh.
What did you think?
BROLIN: I dont know.
Thats when those boundaries start dissolving in a big way and you think it could very much be that.
If you have any psychological knowledge whatsoever, or behavioral knowledge, it could very easily be that.
Does it mean anything?
Does it lend to anything?
Its just more specific.
I thought it was maybe a cue to the love story between him and his partner.
BROLIN: I have the chills right now.
What were you actually eating at the end of the movie?
I think it was that and something else.
And we did that a lot, we did that all day.
You eat a lot in this movie.
I mean, with big black bananas.
BROLIN: Oh, totally.
That relationship is such a marriage, as any cop relationship.
Hes replacing it with the opposite of what you would think you would replace it with.
Theres a total marriage there.
That relationship is a total marriage; its much more than he and his wife.
Its much more functional than anything else hes doing, even though hes totally dysfunctional.
But yeah, its a definite relationship, thats the basis for the whole thing.
Is there more stuff with Bigfoots family that was shot?
BROLIN: Bigfoots family?
More other stuff but not that.
BROLIN: Wait, wait, sorry.
And then he poured the Tang, it was Pauls idea, the Tang which I loved.
Then I thought, Why doesnt he slide it across?
And the freaking kid was so good and he took it.
I said, Why dont you try sliding it?
And he says, I hit it that way?
And I said, Yeah.
He puts it in the thing and its perfect the first time.
I looked at Paul and was like, Oh my God!
But thats more defining of how Bigfoot wants things to be, anyway, sorry.
Its just like I read a story and I go, Wow.
Not, I want to get into this genre, I want to get into that genre.
We didHollow Mantogether and he called me and we started talking about this thing.
It was nice because I could intimately talk to him about it.
What I liked, what I didnt like about the whole idea of it.
I loved the idea of Thanos and ultimately its Thanos against everyone, so why wouldnt you do that?
Its a strange thing.
I was more nervous doing that than I think Ive been for a long time.
So, it was very, very different but I like it.
Its fun, its different.
Is there an excitement to take on that huge physicality?
BROLIN: When I saw what they did, that was exciting.
Even though it was only a minute or two minutes or something, not even that.
Its a character mentality, thats just a different character.
Its all fun, man.
