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"FacebookPinterest\n\nReborn as a craggy character actor earlier this decade after snapping a midcareer cold streak, Brolin has worked with the Coen brothers, Woody Allen, and Oliver Stone. He was also the star of Jonah Hex, but we won&amp;#39;t hold that against him.\n\n You postponed this interview so you could spend the morning surfing, because you&amp;#39;d heard the surf was good today. How was it?\n\n The ocean was cold, refreshing, but with no surf.\n\n Oh, so you were lied to. You were deceived.\n\n I was deceived [laughs]. I was sorely deceived. I went out with a couple buddies, and we were told it was going to be great. But you know what? Honestly, it sounds so lame, but just to get out in the ocean is almost enough, sometimes.\n\n A bad day surfing is better than a good day doing many other things.\n\n Exactly, right. I&amp;#39;ve been trying to do more and more, just to equalize a bit, because I get so into manic work mode that I forget to do all those things that you&amp;#39;re supposed to do to utilize this money that you&amp;#39;re making.\n\n Your leisure time that you bought, with your hard work and sweat.\n\n Exactly. Actors are always saying, y&amp;#39;know, &amp;quot;I tried to read the script. I just got so much that I&amp;#39;m doing right now, man.&amp;quot; In reality, actors probably do less than anybody else on the planet. [laughs]\n\n People weren&amp;#39;t happy that we used a shot of you smoking a cigarette on the cover. We got letters.\n\n I heard, I heard. And you know, what&amp;#39;s funny is, there was a conscious choice during that shoot that we weren&amp;#39;t going to smoke during the shoot. So that was a pre-photograph. That was a test photograph, as we were waiting to do a real photograph, and that&amp;#39;s the photograph they used. But it&amp;#39;s all good.\n\n It made for a good cover.\n\n Good cover\u2014and understandably, people were upset. But I wonder if it does lead to anybody smoking in the end. I hope not.\n\n What made you pick start smoking again?\n\n You know, it&amp;#39;s the lamest excuse ever, and hopefully it won&amp;#39;t last for long, but I went to Cannes. I had two movies at Cannes. And I got there, and it was just one of those things\u2014nerves, whatever it was, a mask, a veil\u2014and I thought, &amp;quot;Well, y&amp;#39;know, I&amp;#39;ll have a couple cigarettes and that&amp;#39;ll be it. I&amp;#39;m going on a trip&amp;quot;\u2014my wife and I went on a trip after that\u2014&amp;quot;and then I&amp;#39;ll make sure not to smoke on that trip.&amp;quot; And then, forget it. I mean, once I had two cigarettes, that was it. I bought a truckload and made sure to carry it in the trunk.\n\n Back up the forklift.\n\n Yeah, pretty much. And I hate it, I really do. I don&amp;#39;t like it at all.\n\n You had a window where you saw what it was like to not smoke. You were a different man, for a while.\n\n It wasn&amp;#39;t the first thought. That was the biggest thing. You start to realize\u2014it&amp;#39;s something you&amp;#39;re not conscious of when you&amp;#39;re smoking, but when you stop smoking, you realize that it&amp;#39;s not the first thought. I was smoking in Indonesia. We went on this surf trip, me and this buddy of mine that I was just with this morning, we went on a surf trip to Indonesia. Not only was I kind of rotund from having done Woody Allen&amp;#39;s movie, but I was winded, also, because of the smoking. So you know, I was the KFC guy [laughs]. Hi guys! Everybody looks hot and they&amp;#39;re just like all cut up and in shape and getting ready to surf, and then there&amp;#39;s me, you know, looking more like a buoy.\n\n You looked like shark bait.\n\n Exactly. &amp;quot;Nail the dude that smells like KFC.&amp;quot;\n\n So this package is really just an excuse for us to talk to a bunch of actors we actually kind of like, as opposed to people who have things to promote, necessarily.\n\n The key word is &amp;quot;kind of.&amp;quot; A bunch of actors that we kind of like. Or we think we like, but we&amp;#39;re never quite sure. I like that. I don&amp;#39;t want to be involved in the portfolio that has to do with the actors that we love. I like the actors that we kind of like. That makes me feel much more comfortable in this interview.\n\n You&amp;#39;re in here with some heavy dudes. Duvall&amp;#39;s in here.\n\n I know! Duvall, whom I know well. And my grand favorite\u2014I don&amp;#39;t know if it&amp;#39;s more than Duvall, cause I really love him, but: Harry Dean. Harry Dean, whose pictures I saw when I showed up for the photo shoot, who looks fantastic, who brought his Spanish guitar and his little hat, his little cowboy hat. And he was singing them tunes. I&amp;#39;ve never heard him sing. My wife has. I&amp;#39;ve only heard him sing on the soundtrack for Paris, Texas, which is an amazing song, a Spanish song, that he sings on that soundtrack. It&amp;#39;s incredible. But I know he&amp;#39;s a virtuoso for sure, when it comes to Spanish-speaking songs.\n\n Do you know him through Sean Penn, or\u2014\n\n I know him slightly through Sean. I know that there was a moment when I was about 19 and Sean was like 25, 26, that I actually was desperate to just make my mark as an actor, or in any way, really. And I saw he and Harry Dean, out at Barney&amp;#39;s Beanery, of course. Back then\u2014this was like the &amp;#39;80s, I think. Some point in the &amp;#39;80s. I think I was doing that series Private Eye, so I had a pompadour at the time. And it was around the time that The Color of Money came out. I was playing pool, and it looked like I was trying to do my own rendition of what success might like, which was Tom Cruise in Color of Money. It was like I had a sign on my back that just said &amp;quot;Beat me up, now.&amp;quot; And I think Sean threw out a few comments based on that. That was before I knew him. But yeah, that&amp;#39;s really my only run-in with him. With the exception of\u2014there was one time, at a restaurant. I sat at the table with him, and I don&amp;#39;t know if he remembers it or not, Harry Dean, but\u2014yeah, well, he consumed. Just say that, consumed. But I don&amp;#39;t really have any close ties with him. I wish I did. The closest ties I have with him are once-removed, and that&amp;#39;s through the movie that I love so much, Paris, Texas. I&amp;#39;ve probably seen that movie 20 times, if not more. I just love it. Love it.\n\n Great soundtrack, too.\n\n Amazing soundtrack by Ry Cooder. I asked Bob Dylan to do The People Speak, and luckily he had seen No Country or something and was really smitten with that movie, so we were able to communicate, kind of, via that. So we went down to Malibu, where Bob was cool with doing it, and we had some cameras and some recording equipment and all that. And Bob came down there, and then in walks this other guy. And I&amp;#39;m like, &amp;quot;Fuck, why does that guy look so familiar?&amp;quot; Bob had just decided he&amp;#39;d bring Ry Cooder along, you know, to back him up during &amp;quot;Do Re Mi&amp;quot; and one other song. I think he did two songs, maybe three. My mind was completely blown, having no idea, really, how to deal with this duo. Cause it&amp;#39;s just amazing. Just the history involved, and the juggling that they&amp;#39;ve done. &amp;quot;Okay, now we&amp;#39;ve done this. Now what should we do?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;I don&amp;#39;t know, let&amp;#39;s take all our talents and kind of throw them in the air and see where it lands.&amp;quot; And then that turns out to be brilliant, and they&amp;#39;re like, &amp;quot;Okay, let&amp;#39;s do it again and bring somebody else in and see what happens.&amp;quot; It was just an amazing experience to be able to watch them do their thing.\n\n What was their rapport like? Did they communicate verbally?\n\n It was very unverbal. Nonverbal communication. Just a real laconic understanding. More of a tilt of the head, or an index-finger communication. They were rehearsing, and they just got into this groove. After a few of those finger communications, or, y&amp;#39;know, glances at each other, they just got into a groove that was mind-blowing to me. I mean, it really was. It was like other-worldly, you know. And I know, with Bob, from what I&amp;#39;ve heard, it&amp;#39;s like he&amp;#39;s always great. But then it just went into this other place. And you understand why he&amp;#39;s Bob Dylan, and still around, playing as well as he is, and respected as much as he is. We were just sitting there with our jaws down to the floor, going, &amp;quot;How are they\u2014what is that extra thing?&amp;quot;\n\n There&amp;#39;s some kind of fourth dimension that people like that get into.\n\n There really is. It was really something. I&amp;#39;d never really experienced it. I experienced it with Eddie Vedder. That was another time. Where he was playing &amp;quot;Masters of War&amp;quot; and he almost became rabid while he was singing it. There was something that happened there during that song, that, again, he reached this place that separates them from the norm. From the typical, the common geniuses.\n\n Right. Your run-of-the-mill geniuses. Did you get to talk to Dylan at all? Does he make small talk?\n\n There was a little small talk. There was a little movie small talk, there was a little music small talk. I don&amp;#39;t really\u2026yeah. We&amp;#39;ve spoken. And it&amp;#39;s, you know, there was nothing other than just kind of brotherly sweetness about it, you know. But I do remember that after that whole thing happened, we didn&amp;#39;t speak a lot. It&amp;#39;s not like we got to know each other really well. But we had enough communication to say that we know each other somewhat.\n\n And there&amp;#39;s a buddy of mine who was involved in The People Speak, [director] Anthony Arnove. I was in New York. I don&amp;#39;t know what I was doing, I was doing something, working. And he said, &amp;quot;Do you want to come up and see Dylan with me?&amp;quot; I think it was in Washington Heights. Up at this amazing theater. Amazing. It used to be a church and they converted it. But anyway, I said, yeah, I would love to. So he had these seats that were kind of, you know, halfway back on the left side of the aisle. And we went, and I guess somebody had told Bob that we were there, they ran up to us in our seats halfway through the gig and said, &amp;quot;Bob would love to see you backstage. Maybe two songs before he ends, you can go backstage.&amp;quot;\n\nAnd so, my buddy Anthony, who&amp;#39;s seen him probably 60 times, said, &amp;quot;Listen&amp;quot;\u2014he felt like he had some inside information, from just seeing him so many times, and studying like he has\u2014&amp;quot;what Bob does after a show is, he runs out. He runs to his bus and he doesn&amp;#39;t really stop and say hello. He doesn&amp;#39;t have a full conversation. But what he likes to do is, he doesn&amp;#39;t like to shake hands or anything, so just put your fist out there. He likes to fist bump.&amp;quot;\n\nI was like, &amp;quot;really?&amp;quot; He said, &amp;quot;Yeah. It&amp;#39;s just a fist bump. And it&amp;#39;s kind of common knowledge now, for anybody who&amp;#39;s been backstage.&amp;quot; And I was like, &amp;quot;Oh.&amp;quot; So we go backstage, and he finishes the last two songs, and he steps off for a second and we didn&amp;#39;t say anything to him. And then he went back on stage and did an encore. An amazing encore. And then, finally, he left and you could tell that was it. And then Bob was coming our way, headed outside. You know, it was kind of dark. So I had my fist up there high, where he could see it. I don&amp;#39;t know if Anthony did, but I wanted to be respectful. I guess if you&amp;#39;re into fist bumping, that&amp;#39;s the thing to do. So Bob comes and he sees me and I go, &amp;quot;Hey, man.&amp;quot; And I had my fist up there, like, &amp;quot;I&amp;#39;m ready.&amp;quot; And he gave me this huge hug. This huge hug. He was like, &amp;quot;Josh, oh my God, I&amp;#39;m so glad you made it. How are you? Thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of The People Speak. You know, I saw it and it really came out well. And I&amp;#39;m just so proud to be a part of it, and thanks man.&amp;quot; I didn&amp;#39;t know what was happening. And I said, &amp;quot;You remember my friend Anthony?&amp;quot; And he&amp;#39;s like, &amp;quot;Yeah, yeah.&amp;quot; And Anthony&amp;#39;s sitting there with his fist up in the air, waiting to be bumped. But that never happened.\n\n Do you find yourself looking to guys like that for lessons? About longevity, how to sustain your creativity in a long-haul career, stuff like that?\n\n Y&amp;#39;know, it&amp;#39;s like what I said, about throwing things up in the air and then seeing how they land and saying &amp;quot;Let&amp;#39;s try that.&amp;quot; I think there&amp;#39;s a little more strategy to it than that, but they keep mixing it up. And there&amp;#39;s integrity behind what they do. They seem to stick\u2014all of &amp;#39;em\u2014seem to stick with something very personal. Eddie&amp;#39;s the same way. Dealing with these people\u2014they all seem to have a real respect for their own personal sensibilities. Not an arrogance, just a respect. They just know, like, &amp;quot;If I do that other thing, I&amp;#39;ll probably start feeling really shitty and I&amp;#39;m kind of tired of that.&amp;quot; And it&amp;#39;s important to be respectful of the fans. I mean, look at what Eddie did with Ticketmaster, y&amp;#39;know. That was a moment where I said, &amp;quot;God, I have so much fucking respect for that band.&amp;quot; It wasn&amp;#39;t them going head-to-head with a big corporation just to say, &amp;quot;Hey, look, we&amp;#39;re real artists, we&amp;#39;re going to go up against a big corporation just to make a point.&amp;quot; It was a very specific thing, always, with the fans in mind. I really think that was the intention. Like, when we were kids and we wanted to go see our favorite band, there was no reason we couldn&amp;#39;t pay $28 to go see them. It wasn&amp;#39;t like, &amp;quot;Okay, I&amp;#39;ll work for a month so I can go out one night and see this band that I love.&amp;quot; I have a lot of respect for that.\n\nI remember when they were actually playing off-the-beaten-track places, like state fairgrounds and stuff like that, just to get around the whole Ticketmaster monolith. I don&amp;#39;t know if they really changed anything, but they at least demonstrated that it was possible to cut those guys out of the process. Exactly, exactly. And why not? &amp;quot;Oh, we can&amp;#39;t do that now because we&amp;#39;re too big and it will make it seem like we&amp;#39;re losing our edge, or that we&amp;#39;re not as popular as we used to be, so therefore we can&amp;#39;t play lesser venues or smaller venues.&amp;quot; That doesn&amp;#39;t seem to be the case with them. They seem to continue to do what they want. So, what I think you may be asking, ultimately, is how does that affect me? Yes. I try and do the same thing, with that lesson in mind. It doesn&amp;#39;t just come out of my own intelligence, for sure.\n\n Trying to mix it up, you mean?\n\n Trying to mix it up, and then also realizing that a good part is just a good part. And if I&amp;#39;m going to do True Grit, it may not be a huge part, but it&amp;#39;s an integral part for great filmmakers who I love, who I love as people, first and foremost, and that I love as artists, absolutely. And you know, I did that thing Jonah Hex recently, which I think we all had the best intentions for. I think that movie could have been a really, really fun and great movie. But y&amp;#39;know, that&amp;#39;s what happens when you go outside of that trajectory and you go &amp;quot;Okay, let&amp;#39;s mix it up, and let&amp;#39;s give a new [director] a break and see what happens. Somebody who seems to have a lot of energy and a lot of creativity.&amp;quot; It was just a bad call on my part.\n\n Since you brought it up\u2014what do you think went wrong there, with Jonah Hex? What was the biggest problem?\n\n The biggest problem initially?\n\n Sure.\n\n I think there was a guy who presented himself as one thing and turned out to be something else. I think that was the biggest problem, and I think I can say that with total confidence. There&amp;#39;s people who you might not think are professional, you know, or who you think might be a problem on the set. And then they get on the set\u2014I&amp;#39;m just talking generally now\u2014you get on the set, and you&amp;#39;re like, &amp;quot;Wow, this person really cares about what they&amp;#39;re doing.&amp;quot; However they come off publicly is one thing, but then you see them on the set\u2014I&amp;#39;m talking about people I&amp;#39;ve worked with, really wonderful actors\u2014and you go, &amp;quot;God, man, they&amp;#39;re not only respectful of other people, but they&amp;#39;re respectful of the process and they&amp;#39;re workhorses. They go out there and when they decide to do a job, they really lend themselves to it absolutely and entirely, you know.&amp;quot; And even if you&amp;#39;re having fun within what you&amp;#39;re doing, it&amp;#39;s the conviction level is still a thousand percent, which I love. I love being around that.\n\n You seem to have had positive experiences with collaborators who seem like they&amp;#39;d be pretty challenging to work with. Oliver Stone, for example, seems like a complete lunatic.\n\n I&amp;#39;ve never had a bad experience, with the exception of\u2014and even this wasn&amp;#39;t horrible\u2014except for Jonah Hex, because you knew something was really fucking wrong.\n\n Something was amiss.\n\n Yeah, I felt like something was wrong and it wasn&amp;#39;t okay with me. It wasn&amp;#39;t okay how people were presenting themselves, necessarily, y&amp;#39;know? &amp;#39;Cause I really do think that could have been a really fun film. A fun rendition of that type of genre, or whatever hybrid genre that we were trying to create at the moment. I still think it could have been really great. But no, I haven&amp;#39;t\u2014other than that, I&amp;#39;ve never had a really bad [experience.] I keep hearing about them. And I keep hearing about them with some of the people that I&amp;#39;ve worked with. And I just don&amp;#39;t see it, at all. Oliver&amp;#39;s fantastic, one of the most sensitive and incredible people I know. And I&amp;#39;m not just saying that. That&amp;#39;s purely how I feel. Who else? Sean, Denzel, Russell. Whoever.\n\n Presumably you&amp;#39;ve heard the same things about a lot of these guys that we&amp;#39;ve all heard.\n\n You do hear things, and maybe that&amp;#39;s part of it. Maybe I hear things, and I get to the set and I&amp;#39;m like, ready. [laughs] And I realize there&amp;#39;s nothing to be ready for and that I&amp;#39;m all fucked up and I don&amp;#39;t know what to do with myself. No, they&amp;#39;ve all been very gracious, in my experience. Very.\n\n And you seem to like to go back to those situations. The next few things you&amp;#39;ve got coming out are all re-teams with directors you&amp;#39;ve worked with before.\n\n Yeah, I know. Which I hope to continue. You know, the Coens, I just have a ball with. And we&amp;#39;re always talking about what we can do together. And then Oliver and I are always talking about things. I just love working with him. Strangely enough\u2014to just stay on the subject that we&amp;#39;re talking about\u2014there&amp;#39;s an extreme lack of pretense in my experience of these people. They just want to do the work. I was just with the Coens in San Francisco. I try to keep my mouth shut\u2014I do my very best\u2014and watch them edit, which I&amp;#39;ve done on several of their movies, just to experience it, just to watch them do what they do. And it&amp;#39;s a very simple, economic process with them. And that&amp;#39;s why I love being around it. Cause it doesn&amp;#39;t have to be chaotic, it doesn&amp;#39;t have to be this thing. Two perpendicular desks and a bellman&amp;#39;s bell. That&amp;#39;s it.\n\n What&amp;#39;s the bellman&amp;#39;s bell for?\n\n For Ethan to let Joel know that he&amp;#39;s just dragged a preferred take over to his [computer.]\n\n So it&amp;#39;s nonverbal between them, too.\n\n It&amp;#39;s absolutely nonverbal. And there&amp;#39;s never any argument, you know. There&amp;#39;s hardly debate. It&amp;#39;s just, like, &amp;quot;You think that one, really? Wasn&amp;#39;t there another one?&amp;quot; &amp;#39;Oh yeah, I think there might have been another one. Yeah I&amp;#39;ll look for that one.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Okay. No, no that didn&amp;#39;t work. You were right.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Okay, on to the next scene.&amp;quot;\n\n I love that they use a bellman&amp;#39;s bell. It&amp;#39;s very Barton Fink.\n\n It is, right. But it&amp;#39;s easy, y&amp;#39;know? Not easy, but simplified. Economic. I think economic is the best word. Economic.\n\n Right. There&amp;#39;s not a needless expenditure of energy.\n\n It sure doesn&amp;#39;t seem like it. Not in my experience. Whereas Oliver&amp;#39;s different. Oliver may have quite a few people involved [in the editing process], several different rooms, but when it comes down to it, it&amp;#39;s the same thing with him. It&amp;#39;s very pointed and focused, whether on the set or editing or whatever. And it&amp;#39;s just what I respond to. It&amp;#39;s a much more collaborative arena than a status thing.\n\n It&amp;#39;s interesting, because you seem to have had these great experiences working with directors like the Coens, or Woody Allen, who aren&amp;#39;t known for being real hands-on directors of actors. \n\n Which is so not the case. I mean, Woody, maybe, a little bit. Y&amp;#39;know, Woody would let me do my thing. But Woody makes you focus, man. I don&amp;#39;t know if he makes you focus more than normal, but he creates an ambiance [where] you really want to please him, and you don&amp;#39;t know why. You know, maybe it&amp;#39;s his age. I don&amp;#39;t know what it is. The fact that he&amp;#39;s done 41 films, or however many he&amp;#39;s done.\n\n Maybe it&amp;#39;s the fact that he&amp;#39;s Woody fucking Allen.\n\n [Laughing] The fact that he&amp;#39;s Woody fucking Allen. That&amp;#39;s true. That could be it. I don&amp;#39;t know why. We seem to get along very well, and he was confident in what I was bringing to the table. He&amp;#39;d say, &amp;quot;Really make it your own, don&amp;#39;t worry about fucking up so much and really allow it to be your own.&amp;quot; And I don&amp;#39;t think I made the mistake of trying to do Woody, to be Woody, you know what I mean? I don&amp;#39;t think I could if I tried. I think most people can&amp;#39;t, but I didn&amp;#39;t even attempt it.\n\n People do try, though. It&amp;#39;s really weird. They do a Woody impression.\n\n I don&amp;#39;t understand that in the least. I don&amp;#39;t. It&amp;#39;s like, Woody&amp;#39;s not in the movie, so therefore you&amp;#39;re playing Woody? Why? Is it the cadence in which he writes? Is it that thing? That&amp;#39;s part of it, I think. There&amp;#39;s a very specific vernacular that&amp;#39;s his. But I think if you can find a different rhythm within that vernacular, I think it pleases him, y&amp;#39;know? It&amp;#39;s another rendition of the song. It&amp;#39;s like when you hear Chris Cornell doing &amp;quot;Billie Jean,&amp;quot; and you&amp;#39;re like, &amp;quot;Jesus Christ.&amp;quot; That&amp;#39;s unbelievable. And not to take anything away from what Michael Jackson did, but suddenly you&amp;#39;re hearing the poetry in it and you&amp;#39;re just like &amp;quot;Wow, this is a completely different deal. I&amp;#39;m feeling different things, and I&amp;#39;m hearing the song in different ways.&amp;quot; Just a different impact. It&amp;#39;s the same thing with Woody. I think he feels that way. He&amp;#39;s happy to see somebody come in and kind of twist up the rhythm and the cadence, but still using his vernacular. But once in a while, Woody would come up and he&amp;#39;d be like, &amp;quot;Josh, you\u2014that&amp;#39;s [supposed to be] a contraction. You broke the contraction.&amp;quot; And I&amp;#39;d go, &amp;quot;Yeah, it says &amp;#39;didn&amp;#39;t,&amp;#39; but I said &amp;#39;did not,&amp;#39; cause I was trying to emphasize that that did not happen.&amp;#39; He says, &amp;quot;Yeah, I know. But it says didn&amp;#39;t.&amp;quot; And I&amp;#39;m like, &amp;quot;C&amp;#39;mon, man. You said make it my own.&amp;quot; He says, &amp;quot;No, no, no, I understand\u2014but it says didn&amp;#39;t.&amp;quot; And I&amp;#39;m like, &amp;quot;Fuck, okay. Okay, I understand. You want to do the whole thing again because I didn&amp;#39;t say didn&amp;#39;t. Alright, man. Whatever.&amp;quot; But I think those guys enjoy the fact that I try not to take it all too seriously.\n\n And that you care enough to push back on them about something like that.\n\n But ultimately they know I&amp;#39;ll say &amp;quot;didn&amp;#39;t,&amp;quot; you know what I mean? So there&amp;#39;s some fun volleying, going back and forth, but I do believe in and respect the fact that the directors are the directors. It&amp;#39;s their vision, especially if they&amp;#39;ve written it. I can bring what I bring, and I&amp;#39;ll try and mix it up as much as possible, and either they go for it or they don&amp;#39;t, but ultimately you&amp;#39;re seeing their vision through. Like, when Sean and I were doing Milk\u2014the drunk scene, my scene at the party, that wasn&amp;#39;t written as a drunk scene. It was just a pretty straight scene where I give him this bottle of alcohol and I say &amp;quot;Here&amp;#39;s your gift, sorry I was late.&amp;quot; And I&amp;#39;m kind of pissed at him, that he didn&amp;#39;t vote for the bill that I had up.\n\n Right, I remember\u2014he&amp;#39;s slighted you in some way.\n\n Exactly. So I was bored by the scene. It was a boring scene. And I didn&amp;#39;t want to be in a boring scene. And I said, y&amp;#39;know, &amp;quot;What if he&amp;#39;s so pissed at this guy, he&amp;#39;s so resentful and he&amp;#39;s so kind of repressed also, that maybe he just starts drinking his gift. Maybe he thinks that&amp;#39;s the ultimate rebellion, the ultimate fuck you. And he just starts drinking his gift on the way over. And then now, because he is so repressed, the alcohol surfaces a bunch of shit that you wish it hadn&amp;#39;t the next day. So what would that be? What would that look like? That might be kind of fun, pathetic. You know, let&amp;#39;s explore that.&amp;quot; And then we did. We explored that, and really had a good time. So that&amp;#39;s the other end of the spectrum, y&amp;#39;know. Of Gus [Van Sant] saying, &amp;quot;Fuck. This needs to work, so why don&amp;#39;t we just go with it?&amp;quot; And then he used what he used, which I think was the tamer version of what we were doing. To his credit\u2014but it turned out to be a pretty decent exchange. An uncomfortable exchange.\n\n It&amp;#39;s a really uncomfortable moment. It is a genuinely uncomfortable moment.\n\n I think it was genuinely uncomfortable for Sean. I remember looking at his face during takes and wanting to laugh and trying not to.\n\n And I assume any time you can create a genuine moment, even if it&amp;#39;s a genuine moment of uncomfortableness, you feel like you&amp;#39;re doing something right.\n\n Yeah, genuine. Exactly. Exactly. That&amp;#39;s exactly right. Not to mix it up just to mix it up, and not to create something that you find compelling, masturbatorily compelling just for its own sake. You want it to lend to the story in some way and you want it to be the better decision, the more compelling decision, within the story. You always have to look at the global part of it, the big picture, and say &amp;quot;Does this fit into the story, or am I just being selfish?&amp;quot; Like, &amp;quot;Oh, this would be great for me. This is a great moment for me.&amp;quot;\n\n Right. You don&amp;#39;t want to be just creating an Oscar moment yourself.\n\n Yeah, I try not to do that. Which you&amp;#39;ll see, in the Woody film. [laughs] Don&amp;#39;t fucking write that, Alex. Don&amp;#39;t write that.\n\n You have no compelling moments in that one?\n\n Not one compelling moment. [laughs]\n\n So, True Grit. You&amp;#39;re not in it that much, but your character is important to the story. You&amp;#39;re the guy Bridges is going after. You&amp;#39;re the bounty-hunted.\n\n Yeah, Bridges, having been hired by this young girl. They&amp;#39;re tracking this character down. Tom Chaney. And then you eventually see him\u2014he surfaces. He climbs out from under a rock, figuratively.\n\n Although it could be literally, since it&amp;#39;s a Western.\n\n It could be. Well, when you see him, you&amp;#39;ll know what I mean. It very well could be literally.\n\n So you&amp;#39;re a scummy dude in this, then?\n\n There&amp;#39;s no adjective that could do it justice. And it&amp;#39;ll either be awful or it&amp;#39;ll be good. I don&amp;#39;t think there&amp;#39;s any gray area.\n\n So this one was not for your ego then?\n\n No. Not lending to the leading man status. Nope. Whatever No Country did for me, this will take away.\n\n You&amp;#39;re trying to undo that.\n\n Yeah, happily. The Coens are like, &amp;quot;We put your career in another place and now we&amp;#39;re going to take it away.&amp;quot; And I&amp;#39;m smiling too, which I don&amp;#39;t really understand. I&amp;#39;m like, &amp;quot;Yeah, okay, take it away. That&amp;#39;ll be fun.&amp;quot; No\u2014it was really fun. It was really, really, really fun. And the only thing that I&amp;#39;m sorry for is that we couldn&amp;#39;t have done more. But it just didn&amp;#39;t belong in there. We thought about it, but [the Coens] were true to the book and what was written. I think it&amp;#39;s fun, you know. I&amp;#39;ve seen enough of it now to realize really how not only extremely beautiful, but how interesting it is. I mean, really, really interesting. What they choose to hold on is fascinating to me. You know, the moments that they let play out, and the moments that they kind of quickly play through. It&amp;#39;s a really interesting sensibility. I personally completely understand it, which is why I like to be around it. Because it&amp;#39;s not that this is so off the beaten path\u2014it&amp;#39;s just their sensibility. They don&amp;#39;t know any other sensibility. And they&amp;#39;re so true to it at this point. You know, it&amp;#39;s not about, &amp;quot;What can we do to make sure people see this movie?&amp;quot; They want people to see their movie, but again, you know it&amp;#39;s that thing we were talking about before\u2014it&amp;#39;s not a conscious decision on their part, at all. In the least.\n\n They&amp;#39;re not thinking, &amp;quot;Oh\u2014here&amp;#39;s an opportunity for us to do a quirky thing.&amp;quot;\n\n Exactly, exactly. The only evidence of that is both of them laughing, which you don&amp;#39;t see often. But when it happens, it&amp;#39;s so infectious and so wonderful, that you don&amp;#39;t even want to say anything, even if you hate it. It&amp;#39;s just like, &amp;quot;God that just made them laugh. That&amp;#39;s wonderful. [laughs]. Just go with that.&amp;quot;\n\n It&amp;#39;s the only clue that they know they&amp;#39;re doing something slightly perverse.\n\n [Laughing] I don&amp;#39;t even know. It could be that. It could be a lot of things.\n\n But I know what you mean. Having Llewelyn get killed off-screen in No Country, that seems like an example of that sensibility at work. A very Coen Brothers decision.\n\n Yeah\u2014but no, though. Because that was in the book, man. You would think that was their decision\u2026\n\n Well, sure\u2014but a lot of people, adapting that story, might have felt the need to give the audience the closure of seeing you actually die. \n\n Oh, most people would have. I would say 99.9 percent of even the great directors I know would have. But no, it was never an issue with them. The only issue with them was whether or not to do a closer shot of Llewelyn to make sure that you knew it was Llewelyn, because, as it was, it was kind of a medium shot of him lying on the ground dead, and yet the clothing looked very similar to the Mexican that was crawling around in the parking lot before you got to the room, before Tommy Lee got to the room. But I liked that a lot. I voiced that loudly. The fact that you&amp;#39;re not sure. So as you go into the next scene, not only are you dealing with the fact that you were raped of the t\u00EAte-\u00E0-t\u00EAte [between the main characters]\u2014that&amp;#39;s a little strong, but you know what I&amp;#39;m saying.\n\n I know what you mean, though. They didn&amp;#39;t worry about people feeling cheated of that movie thing, that confrontation that they&amp;#39;ve been anticipating throughout the rest of the film, and thinking\u2014\n\n &amp;quot;I&amp;#39;ve been cheated of the movie thing that I always complain about, because it&amp;#39;s so Hollywood. And now I&amp;#39;m getting what I&amp;#39;ve hoped for, and not be pandered to, and now I&amp;#39;m pissed about that.&amp;quot; So it&amp;#39;s a great lesson, man. It&amp;#39;s the greatest lesson. There&amp;#39;s no way to please everybody, obviously\u2014but even pleasing a small amount of people, you might as well not even worry about it. You don&amp;#39;t want to confuse anybody, but I don&amp;#39;t think there was any confusion there. I think it was disbelief.\n\n And it works\u2014there&amp;#39;s a shock factor when you actually realize what happened that&amp;#39;s arguably greater than it would have been if they&amp;#39;d given you a big operatic death scene.\n\n Right. And the greatest thing, at least financially, from a Scott Rudin point of view or from a Paramount or Miramax point of view is that\u2014like with Inception, I guess\u2014is that people came back to see it again just to make sure they saw what they saw, that they experienced what they experienced. I remember I got pulled over by a cop once. And the cop looks at me and goes, &amp;quot;Hey, are you the guy in that frickin&amp;#39; &amp;#39;Old Country for No Men&amp;#39;?&amp;quot; Everybody fucks up the title, for some reason. &amp;quot;Was that you?\n\nI fucking hated that movie.&amp;quot; I was like, &amp;quot;Wow\u2014a cop just told me that. Why? A cop&amp;#39;s angry at me right now. Not because of anything I did on the highway. He&amp;#39;s mad that I did that movie and he got sucked into watching it.&amp;quot; I was like, &amp;quot;Are you going to give me a ticket, based on that? That&amp;#39;s amazing. Wow.&amp;quot; It was a great compliment, y&amp;#39;know? It was like the greatest compliment ever. Because what it meant was, &amp;quot;I got sucked into the story, man. And I felt raped, that you were stolen from us, the great protagonist that was going to win, that was going to beat evil incarnate. And then you just died. And you got killed by the banditos, even worse.&amp;quot; I love it.\n\n You don&amp;#39;t even get killed by the villain.\n\n No. I don&amp;#39;t get killed by the grim reaper himself.\n\n You just kind of get unceremoniously whacked on the side.\n\n Exactly. So, no\u2014True Grit I think is really great. I really do. I think Jeff&amp;#39;s amazing and I think Matt&amp;#39;s fantastic and I think the girl they got, that they finally hired was really top-notch, really great. That&amp;#39;s another thing about those movies\u2014everybody&amp;#39;s doing the work. Everybody&amp;#39;s really doing it. You know, they&amp;#39;re messing with each other most of the time, but when it comes down to the work, everybody&amp;#39;s very studied and really gung-ho about making it the best thing that they can make it. So that&amp;#39;s great.\n\n Did you get a chance to watch Bridges work?\n\n I watched him work a little bit, and it was nice, cause I had never seen him work. And I had seen him around and I know him a little bit, not well, but I know him well enough. We didn&amp;#39;t have any scenes together. We did, but it wasn&amp;#39;t direct. And I loved watching him work. He was playing this game\u2014I&amp;#39;ve forgotten what it&amp;#39;s called, but you have the two pigs in your hand, and you roll the two pigs. Have you ever seen this game?\n\n It&amp;#39;s like a pig dice game? I think so.\n\n Yeah, exactly. So he&amp;#39;d play that off on the side. [Bridges voice] &amp;quot;Hey, let&amp;#39;s play the pig game!&amp;quot; Barry Pepper is different. Barry Pepper\u2014I think Barry, even though I really liked him a lot, I think he was in character the whole time. I think. I&amp;#39;m not positive [laughs]. But I think. I don&amp;#39;t know. I&amp;#39;m not going to comment on that. I had heard that maybe Barry wasn&amp;#39;t wearing all the clothing he could because it was more authentic.\n\n But Jeff\u2014Jeff has a pretty high register. Like, [high voice] &amp;quot;Hey, man? How&amp;#39;s it going, man? It&amp;#39;s a great moment. I&amp;#39;m just kind of hanging out, man, I&amp;#39;m glad you&amp;#39;re here.&amp;quot; He almost sounds like Owen Wilson a little bit. And then he&amp;#39;ll go into character, and he&amp;#39;ll be like [nonverbal, guttural Bridges grunts.] And then, &amp;quot;Cut&amp;quot;\u2014and he&amp;#39;ll be like, [high voice again] &amp;quot;Hey, y&amp;#39;know, I take these pictures, and if you look one way for a second, I snap the picture and then I&amp;#39;ll whip it around and it&amp;#39;s a comedy-tragedy thing. I can put it in my book. It&amp;#39;ll be fun.&amp;quot; You&amp;#39;re like, &amp;quot;Okay, Jeff.&amp;quot; He&amp;#39;s like a 12-year-old. [laughs] But it was really, really great watching him work and I think he&amp;#39;s so masterful in this, I really do. He really comes across as incredibly authentic. Incredibly authentic. And also very funny. Like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. A lot of great physical comedy.\n\n He doesn&amp;#39;t do enough comedies.\n\n Yeah, and he&amp;#39;s great at it.\n\n I&amp;#39;ve interviewed him before. You get the sense that he&amp;#39;s somehow figured out how to fully commit to a part without carrying it around like a heavy weight, even if the material&amp;#39;s kind of heavy.\n\n Yeah. There&amp;#39;s a Buddhist quality to him. A monk quality. There&amp;#39;s a dark side in some of his roles, and you see it when you see him work, but otherwise it&amp;#39;s like, &amp;quot;Hey, man, it&amp;#39;s great, I love being here with you, man.&amp;quot; And you&amp;#39;re like, &amp;quot;Well, I love being here with you too, Jeff. We should do the scene now.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Yeah, let&amp;#39;s do it. Rawwr!&amp;quot; And then you go, &amp;quot;Oh\u2014there it is. He&amp;#39;s just saving it up. Got it.&amp;quot; Maybe he does that just to kind of catch you off guard, on camera, I don&amp;#39;t know. I don&amp;#39;t know if there&amp;#39;s a strategy to it. I doubt that there&amp;#39;s a strategy.\n\n You&amp;#39;re doing __Men in Black III sometime soon, right? What was the lure of that one, for you? Did you just like the idea of playing the younger version of Tommy Lee Jones&amp;#39; character?\n\n Mmm-hmm. I&amp;#39;ve always loved Will [Smith]. I respect Will a lot. I respect his decisions. He just has an uncanny ability to understand what to do next in order to stay where he&amp;#39;s at, and that&amp;#39;s a whole art in itself. But you know they came to me with the Men in Black thing, and you&amp;#39;re humbled by the fact that they&amp;#39;re coming to you. It&amp;#39;s amazing. But then you have to look at the story. You know, I don&amp;#39;t want to just do it just to do it, y&amp;#39;know? Ultimately, when you&amp;#39;re working, whether you&amp;#39;re doing Ethan&amp;#39;s play or Men in Black, it&amp;#39;s ultimately the same thing\u2014when you&amp;#39;re finally working, you want it to be good work. So if I don&amp;#39;t feel like I can lend anything to it that&amp;#39;s really interesting and that makes it a better story, then there&amp;#39;s really no point in me doing. Maybe somebody else could. I just have that limitation at that moment. And, but that, so when they came to me with Men in Black, I was like, &amp;quot;I&amp;#39;m not really into that.&amp;quot; And then they told me the insides of it, and that I&amp;#39;d be playing young Tommy, and I just loved the idea of that. It scared the shit out of me when they said it, which was a good sign. Like, God, I don&amp;#39;t know if I can do that. I can do young Malkovich. I can do that. But I&amp;#39;m not sure if I can do Tommy. [laughs]\n\n I would actually love to see you do The John Malkovich Story, actually.\n\n I would, too. But I would want it to be a TV movie, not a regular movie. I would only agree to do it as, like, an after-school special.\n\n Maybe you can get something set up at Lifetime.\n\n Exactly. Or Hallmark. [does an eerily good Malkovich voice.] &amp;quot;Would you guys like some tea? Oh, okay.&amp;quot; Johnny! Yeah, I&amp;#39;d be good. I&amp;#39;d love to play him. He&amp;#39;s a guy I&amp;#39;m obsessed with, and he knows it. I just think he&amp;#39;s\u2014you can&amp;#39;t do any better than that, as a human being and as an actor. I just think he&amp;#39;s the shit.\n\n Did you talk him into doing Jonah Hex? Was that your doing?\n\n [Laughs] &amp;quot;Did you talk him into doing Jonah Hex?&amp;quot; I love the way you just said that. You couldn&amp;#39;t hide it at all.\n\n Sorry. But was that your fault? \n\n That was my fault. That was my fault.\n\n I don&amp;#39;t mean to make fun of that movie, but you put it out there first.\n\n It&amp;#39;s okay. Our friendship is still intact. But yes, I did. I did. It was very important to me that Johnny did that role. [laughs] Yep.\n\n I liked some things about that movie. I liked how you never walked out of a building without the building exploding behind you. Not once.\n\n I know. It was all fun. All fun and games. &amp;quot;What do we do in this scene?&amp;quot; &amp;quot;I don&amp;#39;t know, why don&amp;#39;t we just blow it up?&amp;quot; I think that was my doing, too\u2014&amp;quot;What if we just make it explode?&amp;quot; And they thought\u2014they took me literally. I didn&amp;#39;t mean it literally. I was trying to make a point. I mean, you know what? Honestly, I&amp;#39;ll tell you this, as much as we bag on it\u2014Warner Bros. knew. I told Warner Bros., &amp;quot;Look, I&amp;#39;m not going to run away from this thing. I&amp;#39;m going to run toward it.&amp;quot; Because that&amp;#39;s what I think an actor should always do. You decide to do a movie, and then you promote it. But I said, &amp;quot;I can&amp;#39;t promote this movie and lose any integrity. So I need everybody to be on the same page here.&amp;quot; And so we were.\n\n The fact of the matter is, [the movie] lost itself, which was really too bad, because I really think there was some fun stuff in it. And, y&amp;#39;know for whatever reason, panic or whatever that is, we went back in there and tried to do some things that I didn&amp;#39;t necessarily agree with. That&amp;#39;s not what ultimately did the movie in, but y&amp;#39;know\u2026\n\n You have to have a respect for audiences, y&amp;#39;know? Once you lose that, once you&amp;#39;re not keeping it in mind that audiences are much more intelligent than you&amp;#39;re giving them credit for, and you release a movie like that the way it was released, that&amp;#39;s what you get. That&amp;#39;s what you get. People were going, &amp;quot;We&amp;#39;re actually watching the fucking movie, man. Do you know that? We actually realize that it doesn&amp;#39;t make any sense at all.&amp;quot;\n\n Yeah. I don&amp;#39;t know if it&amp;#39;s because I&amp;#39;d heard all the stuff about the changes that were made to it relatively late in the process, but when I was watching it, it felt like it was a couple different movies fighting it out.\n\n I would have to agree with you. I would second that. You look at it\u2014look, there&amp;#39;s different types of writing. Like, I don&amp;#39;t mean to keep bringing up Ethan and Joel, like they&amp;#39;re the ultimate, because, y&amp;#39;know, they are or they&amp;#39;re not, whatever, but I&amp;#39;ve talked to them at length about writing. There&amp;#39;s a process in their writing, but it&amp;#39;s not necessarily a Robert McKee process, y&amp;#39;know? It&amp;#39;s not Syd Field&amp;#39;s process? I know that they write, and they get to the end of the scene, and they go, &amp;quot;Okay\u2014what could happen next? What could be great? What could be compelling? What could be dynamic?&amp;quot;\n\n They&amp;#39;re not thinking, like, &amp;quot;Here&amp;#39;s my inciting incident. Here&amp;#39;s my pivotal plot point that&amp;#39;s supposed to be resolved by page 50.&amp;quot; \n\n Exactly. Exactly. That&amp;#39;s just intuitive for them at this point. And they&amp;#39;re guys who are obviously writing [other stuff] beyond what you see. Ethan&amp;#39;s writing short stories and plays, and Joel writes, and all that. So they&amp;#39;re always looking for a great story to tell, and playing with whatever structures they play with. Haggis is another one, although Haggis is a guy who&amp;#39;s much more structured. But what I was going to say was, y&amp;#39;know, Toy Story 3.\n\n Okay.\n\n I love animated films anyway\u2014I went to go see Toy Story 3 by myself, because I always try to see those films by myself so I can cry freely without anybody worrying about me, and that&amp;#39;s the truth. But what a fucking movie, man! What a movie! I mean, structurally it&amp;#39;s perfect. It&amp;#39;s the perfect film, you know. They don&amp;#39;t want to be left behind, they&amp;#39;re trying to figure out how to reattach the connection, and because of that, things get fucked up, they get thrown out of the house, and then it&amp;#39;s them trying to find their way back to the house. And every obstacle may be something that may help them further get back to the house or get closer to the house, or be an obstacle putting them further away from the house. It&amp;#39;s that simple. And it&amp;#39;s brilliant.\n\n Right. It&amp;#39;s like David Mamet-level simplicity, where the purpose of every scene is just to drive the story into the next scene. He&amp;#39;s always talking about that.\n\n But I don&amp;#39;t know if he&amp;#39;s able to do it. But yeah, you&amp;#39;re right. He&amp;#39;s good at talking about it. He&amp;#39;s great at talking about it. You know, it&amp;#39;s the same thing with Sidney Lumet&amp;#39;s book on directing. He talks about it really brilliantly. But he&amp;#39;s also a guy who can actually really do it. But yeah. So I have a lot of respect for that, you know. O Brother, Where Art Thou was a lot of that. They escape from prison, and then how do you get to the place when you&amp;#39;re not running anymore? And then obstacles, y&amp;#39;know? Like the guy singing &amp;quot;O Death.&amp;quot; What was he doing there, and why? It didn&amp;#39;t really matter. He was just another obstacle, y&amp;#39;know? You&amp;#39;re like, &amp;quot;How&amp;#39;s this one going to go? Is it going to help, or is it going to hurt?&amp;quot; And that&amp;#39;s why that movie flows, I think, as well as it does.\n\n Well, it&amp;#39;s basically The Odyssey. It&amp;#39;s the oldest story in the world.\n\n Exactly.\n\n Or wait\u2014it&amp;#39;s The Iliad.\n\n Yeah. It&amp;#39;s actually The Iliad, but I know what you meant. I wasn&amp;#39;t going to correct you.\n\n It&amp;#39;s okay. We&amp;#39;ve been bagging on Jonah Hex for an hour.\n\n I know we have, right. You deserve it. [laughs]\n\n I appreciate how honest you&amp;#39;re being about that movie. It&amp;#39;s interesting when somebody&amp;#39;s forthcoming about why they think something didn&amp;#39;t work.\n\n It is. It is. And I don&amp;#39;t want to put people down. I think you can tell, but I&amp;#39;m not saying, &amp;quot;Well, it was Warner Bros. and the way they marketed it. It was this and that.&amp;quot; I don&amp;#39;t believe that. I think that they had good intentions, too. I think everybody\u2014well, I think almost everybody had good intentions. I think a few people were extremely selfish, but, y&amp;#39;know. I got a lot of people to do that movie, man, and that&amp;#39;s the only anger I have about it. I don&amp;#39;t have any about the movie itself. I mean, I think it&amp;#39;s too bad it turned out the way it did, or it was received the way it was. But I got a lot of people to do that movie. Not only actors; I asked a lot of favors from really incredible crew members who I adore, and you know, I had them out in 110 degree heat, and 96 percent humidity for three months. Thanks a lot. [laughs]\n\n That&amp;#39;s on you.\n\n &amp;quot;I appreciate it! See you on the next one. Maybe not.&amp;quot;\n\n Well, that&amp;#39;s the thing. The only way to make this right is for you to go back in and do Jonah Hex: Reloaded.\n\n You know, it&amp;#39;s funny, because we were joking about that the other day. I go, &amp;quot;I just wanted to keep doing that movie over and over and over. Just do different renditions of that movie and wait and see which one hits. There&amp;#39;s gotta be one in there. There&amp;#39;s gotta be one successful version. I&amp;#39;m willing to lose $200 million to do this movie eight more times.&amp;quot; [laughs]\n\n It&amp;#39;ll just be a work in progress, forever. Like Blade Runner.\n\n I honestly think [Jonah Hex] would have been a better movie had we only had $15 million.\n\n I agree.\n\n You know what I&amp;#39;m saying?\n\n Yeah. If you&amp;#39;d just made it a spaghetti Western that happened to be based on a comic book.\n\n That was the intention. When I went into Warner Bros., I came in with a disc, and it was High Plains Drifter. And I said, &amp;#39;This should be the base of the movie. Anytime anybody gets squirrelly, we should always go back to this. Even though we&amp;#39;re making something different, my feeling is it should always go back to this, no matter what. It has to be a foundation to springboard from, always.&amp;quot; And I think it started out as that, but then\u2026\n\n You should go back. There should be no shame. Nic Cage is doing another Ghost Rider.\n\n Thanks. You&amp;#39;re just digging my grave now. &amp;quot;Hey, Nic&amp;#39;s doing another Ghost Rider\u2014you should do Jonah Hex again!&amp;quot; Oh, thanks, Alex. Okay. Buh-bye.\n\n We talked for the first time a couple of years ago, when you had No Country and all those other films kind of hitting all at once, when there was this perception that you&amp;#39;d finally hit your stride as an actor, or you were making a comeback, or however you want to classify it. Now that it&amp;#39;s been a few years, does the work feel different? You&amp;#39;re trying to maintain something, as opposed to trying to prove something. \n\n Sort of. I don&amp;#39;t see it as maintaining, necessarily. The only thing I want to maintain is the thing we were talking about from the beginning\u2014that I continue doing things. It doesn&amp;#39;t matter if it&amp;#39;s a small part, a big part, a lead, a supporting role, a cameo. It doesn&amp;#39;t, really. It&amp;#39;s something that I&amp;#39;ve talked about with my agent, who I adore and who I think is wonderful, and I always stress that because nobody stresses that. I really think he&amp;#39;s incredible. I love his sensibilities, and he and I\u2014really, I couldn&amp;#39;t do what I&amp;#39;m doing without him. So you know we&amp;#39;ve made it a very conscious choice to not get into that thing of, y&amp;#39;know, &amp;quot;Let&amp;#39;s get to this place where we just do big movies and only do that so we can make as much money as possible, you know, before this moment&amp;#39;s over,&amp;quot; that kind of thing. We said it doesn&amp;#39;t have to be that. We can have very typical fluctuations and hopefully work through them. The difference is that we&amp;#39;re taking absolute and total advantage of a moment to create an arena where we can instigate our own projects. And not in the way that we go, &amp;quot;Oh, I want to do another romantic comedy so I can get paid 8 million bucks and produce it, but not really produce it.&amp;quot; I mean, we&amp;#39;re really trying to get in there and do stories that are risky and that are classic stories, and then within that, keep trying to mix it up for me as an actor. And a couple of the things we&amp;#39;re developing really do scare me. They really scare me because I&amp;#39;m like, &amp;quot;Can I actually do that? I&amp;#39;m not sure if I&amp;#39;m good enough to be able to do that&amp;quot;\u2014which is why I want to try it, you know. If things end, they&amp;#39;re going to end horrendously. That&amp;#39;s what I&amp;#39;m saying. [laughs] I want to make sure that it&amp;#39;s a massive train wreck.\n\n Right. Where it&amp;#39;s not just that you&amp;#39;ll never work in this town again\u2014if it ends, you want it to end with you actually, like, in jail.\n\n Exactly. I want to be jailed for doing such a horrendous job. That&amp;#39;s kind of how I feel. I want to keep banging away and keep doing stuff that people respond to. And it&amp;#39;s interesting, that people respond to this stuff. Whether it&amp;#39;s Milk or American Gangster or whatever\u2014at first glance, they don&amp;#39;t seem to be accessible parts, per se.\n\n Yeah, they&amp;#39;re not likable guys, a lot of the time.\n\n No, yeah. At least not in this run. I think that&amp;#39;s part of the attraction of Men in Black\u2014I&amp;#39;m doing that, and I think there&amp;#39;s another project I&amp;#39;m probably going to do over the summer that also has a little more levity to it. But there&amp;#39;s levity in the range we&amp;#39;re playing in. So it can be a bad guy, but there can be levity, and there can be more complexity within that role. And that&amp;#39;s kind of what I&amp;#39;m looking for now, if I can say I&amp;#39;m looking for anything, which is probably not true. It&amp;#39;s like, okay\u2014I think I&amp;#39;ve done the tortured guy, or the guy who&amp;#39;s so full of himself and gets really confused and ends up killing himself. Nah, I don&amp;#39;t want to do that anymore.\n\n You&amp;#39;ve died in enough movies.\n\n Which is cute for a couple years, y&amp;#39;know? And then you go, okay\u2014what are you doing?\n\n I&amp;#39;ve kept you long enough. This has been great.\n\n You know what would be funny, because it&amp;#39;s such a long interview? You could have the interview go over like 14 pages, and you can have all the other actors&amp;#39; pictures on each page, but only have my interview.\n\n You could actually comment on everybody else. The whole thing could be &amp;quot;Text: Josh Brolin.&amp;quot;\n\n Yeah! Just little one-liners about how Josh feels about all these other actors.\n\n &amp;quot;I&amp;#39;m not familiar with his work.&amp;quot;\n\n Right. Under Bobby Duvall&amp;#39;s picture, there&amp;#39;s just a quote from Josh that just says, &amp;quot;I feel that he phones it in.&amp;quot;\n\n &amp;quot;Mediocre talent.&amp;quot;\n\n On Harry Dean: &amp;quot;If it wasn&amp;#39;t for his face, he wouldn&amp;#39;t be working.&amp;#39; Shit like that.&amp;quot;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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