The Coen Brothers' new film "No Country for Old Men" is yet another shining example of their ability to throw film-making convention out the door and reestablish the bounds of what makes a great movie. Joel and Ethan Coen utilize an ever-present combination of an all-star cast, a masterful script, and truly ground breaking direction. This movie has no music and the stars almost never interact on screen. The guys that created "Fargo" (1996) and "The Big Lebowski" (1998) have now come up with another classic in "No Country for Old Men," based on the 2005 book of the same name by Cormac McCarthy
Josh Brolin plays the lead role of Llewellyn Moss, a Vietnam veteran who lives in a trailer park and works as an industrial welder. His accidental encounter with an abandoned truck filled with two million dollars and heroin surrounded by dead bodies starts the film off with a bang. Needless to say, violence ensues, despite the efforts of Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones). Particularly disturbing is Javier Bardem's character, Anton Chigurh, a murderer on Moss's trail who flips coins to determine how he proceeds with his victims.
Brolin spoke to the Daily at a round table interview about his preparations for acting in a notoriously difficult Coen Brothers movie, and how it all came together once they were on set.
Question: How do you prepare for a Coen Brothers movie?
Josh Brolin: Um, you pry, that's what you do. You pry because they're not the most verbose duo. At least during the rehearsal process they're open, they're very open, because, well, they're not great conversationalists and they don't feel any need to uphold their end of the conversation in the least ... But, now that I know them well, there's a million different things to talk about ... In the end, it's just, you don't know me, I don't know you, let's just do the work. It's all about the work.
Q: How does the fact that your character spends a lot of time not talking, and is often surrounded by dead bodies, affect your psyche as an actor?
JB: Well, when you have the dead bodies, after they yell cut, blinking and going like this [makes a strange hand motion on his eyes], and standing up, and their eyes are still white because they have the contacts still in, it's pretty humorous. It makes for some good joke-telling. But, no man, for your psyche, no, it's all make believe, you lend yourself to the moment where it's happening, and then you go have your coffee and your donut and maybe talk to the props guy, or maybe get in with the props girl, who's his assistant, and is pretty hot. No, I'm kidding, I'm making it all up, because we're on the set, we create our own fun, and especially with a movie that's this heavy, you create a lot more fun than you normally would in a comedy, where everything is much more serious on the set.
Q: You've had a pretty big year this year, can you talk about the four films you made and your experiences with them?
JB: Well, I don't want to sound pretentious, but there are five, and I only say that because I really like that movie, and while not a lot of people saw it, I really enjoyed "The Dead Girl" (2006). One of the best compliments I've gotten was when I saw Sean Penn at Sundance, and he goes, "Yo, saw 'The Dead Girl' - f--kin' loved it!" But, you know, I think the difference now is that people are seeing these movies. I mean, I've liked the work I've done before this year, too.
Q: You must be exhausted after five movies in such a short period of time?
JB: No, no, because they are exciting. They are really exciting parts and really exciting filmmakers, so no, not at all.
Q: Did your motorcycle accident change your approach to acting at all?
JB: No and yes, I mean, that was the great thing about doing this movie. The Coens have no egos, and there isn't a lot of petting going on with actors. In the beginning especially, actors have insecurities, and a director will usually pick up on that, and he'll either try to bash it out of you or make you feel bad for it or put you up on a pedestal where you don't belong, so the great thing about working with [the Coens] is there's an incredible lack of ego and compliments and all that stuff, so it becomes only about the work ... And you know, that was the great thing about my accident: I was just there! And then I was in the air! And I was like s**t, I'm not gonna be able to do that Coen Brothers movie, and that sucks! So it all worked out, but hey, anything can happen. Cormac's book, it has the same theme, anything can happen.
Q: Were you a fan of the book before you did the movie?
JB: Sam Shepard turned me onto the book when I was in Austin working on "Grindhouse" [2007], so yeah, I was a fan of the book before the movie.
Q: Was Llewellyn Moss the character you were interested in when you read the book?
JB: No, I wasn't interested in any character when I read it. I think if I was interested in anything, it would have been Chigurh ... He is so confident that he is the messenger, he is the grim reaper, the messenger of death or however you want to put it. I think, rightly so, Llewellyn, having had two tours in Nam, thought that he was resourceful enough, having taken this money, to deal with any kind of obstacles that came up.
Q: How did you construct your acting when the three main characters never interact on screen?
JB: Well, we were very specific about the whole look. When you're doing dialogue, and you're playing a character, it's a little easier 'cause you have this crutch that you can always rely on whether its brilliant or if it turns out to be not so brilliant. We've had both, Javier and I, and Tommy too, everybody. But the quiet, that's a whole other thing, because you have to convey the ideas and the story that you're telling, but the fear is, 'Oh I'm gonna be boring so I'm gonna start doing things that don't belong there.' And yet when you're not doing anything, and you lend yourself to this vacancy, then you're not filling the moment properly. So we talked a lot about that, you know, how much should Llewellyn talk to himself when he's out in the desert ... We don't want him to start to seem crazy. We want a guy that's basically keeping himself company, because that's what you do when you spend all that time alone ... The setting becomes a character; the ambiance becomes a character ... So it became a huge challenge for us and a huge challenge for me ...
Q: How is it working with two directors on one film?
JB: They finish each others sentences. There are no arguments, ever, no real disagreements, and if there is a disagreement, it's usually one immediately going, 'Oh, okay, that's fine.' They aren't even looking at each other, they're looking at you, so it's like they've already figured it out. It's kind of miraculous; I've never really seen anything quite like it.
Q: You and Javier and Tommy never really see each other on screen. Did you work on some sort of existential continuity that created the connection that you inevitably feel between the three of you during the film?
JB: No, no, you know that's one of those questions where you would have asked the Coens, and they would of have gone, "Nah." I think a lot of that stuff comes afterwards. I don't think that you can play that in movies. You play the reality in movies, and then when you're in post, you start putting stuff together.
