After years of toil in supporting roles actor Josh Brolin broke through to a new level with high profile performances in American Gangster and No Country For Old Men. Now he plays lead in W., starring as American president George W. Bush for director Oliver Stone.
Itâs been a rather impressive few years for you, hasnât it?
Right, but once you confine it to the year of where do you go from there?
But itâs enabled you to take the step up to play the lead in W., doesnât it?
That was what I hoped, to respect the moment. I had a lot of opportunities and a lot of money came my way, so thank God for my friend Brett Markinson who taught me most of what I know about trading stocks. That gave me an objectivity to it all. His whole thing is âthe minute you start to feel greed, sell, and the minute you start to feel fear look and see if itâs something you want to acquire because itâs probably a pretty good time to buy inâ.
I think it helps to have the ability to step back and go âam I going to feel comfortable looking back on this or am I going to feel like I took the first buck because I was so happy to be making a buck as opposed to six cents?â.
You ran the script for W. by your oldest son, which suggests you trust his judgement a great deal.
Very much so. It doesnât end with him, I would never put that kind of pressure on him but Iâve shown him a few scripts that I was thinking about doing and I think he has a good point of view. Itâs an off beat point of view, but I like his insight into characters and story.
Your father, James Brolin, is a successful actor, was that easy to come to terms with when you started out?
I decided to get into that business early on after I took an acting class in school which I liked very much. Then once I decided to do it I did a bunch of things that Iâm sure my kids would never do. I made up a résumé, I lied, there were a lot of obstacles for me. People didnât want there to be any nepotism, so they sometimes wouldnât see me based on that fact.
Do you think W. offers a more sympathetic portrait of George Bush the man than people will expect?
For sure. Sympathetic is a tough word to use because of what that administration has done, itâs hard to use the word âsympatheticâ. Am I more sympathetic towards the man? I donât know, I just feel like I have more information now. There were moments where, the best thing for me just as a citizen, was to be able to study the Republican point of view.
To be able to study the evangelical point of view, and then ultimately to study the Bush administration, and Bush himself. And read as many books as I could on it.
How did you feel about him before embarking on this movie?
I judged this guy as cosmetically as a lot of other people, that heâs just a stammering, stuttering idiot. You canât be the president and just be an idiot, so I think that was very irresponsible of me, and lazy of me, to write him off as that. Iâve learned that thatâs not the case at all.
Large chunks of the American population trust him precisely because heâs not the smoothest of talkers, donât they?
I donât think thatâs accurate now but I think that was the case. I think thatâs how he got voted into office, twice. I think people really hooked into this fallibility, after the elitism of Reagan and all these other presidents. To bring somebody down to âour levelâ making us feel that it was more possible if a guy like that could become president maybe âweâ could.
For some people the sexual indiscretions of Bill Clinton are tougher to forgive than anything Bush has done though, arenât they?
Which is phenomenal. He made a mistake and he lied and I think thereâs been proper consequence for that, but to want to impeach somebody because of that and then to not impeach somebody under impeachable acts, not going forth with it is phenomenal.
Itâs stunning to me, some of the reactions of the American people. And itâs also stunning to me that by speaking up, which I think is very important, there are these blogs that say âwhy does this guy speak up, why does Susan Sarandon say anything, why does Sean Penn say anything?â. Why would you try and stifle that? Itâs good isnât it? Weâre the ones that vote so weâre the ones who should speak up regardless of what job you have, whether youâre an actor, a plumber or a reporter.
Oliver Stone was, briefly, in the same class as George Bush at Yale. Itâs curious that these men have followed such different paths?
Very different paths. When I was thinking about doing this role Oliver and I met at his house. I met his Mom whoâs a staunch Republican, from France, very funny. I was surprised by that. Then I met his wife who is, Iâm not going to say staunch, but a true Christian. I thought âwow, man, he hasnât surrounded himself with a bunch of yes people who think exactly like he does,â.
Heâs constantly challenging himself with the perspectives and perception of things of other people who are close to him. I was very turned on by that, it was very different from a lot of stories that you hear about political bias.
That flies in the face of Oliverâs reputation, doesnât it?
Whatever reputation Oliver has. Like Bush, Bush is very different from the reputation of this stammering, stuttering idiot. Once you get into it you go âI see his intention,â and some of the intention was very pure, itâs just curtailed by what it gets corrupted by a lot of times which is greed and fear and wanting to be re-elected. And oil.
But just because you have a conviction that somethingâs right doesnât mean itâs right does it?
No, and obviously to me the best leader and this is just my opinion is somebody who can reassess a situation. They may have a conviction and they may have foresight that the rest of us donât have, but the ability to reassess and create a different pathway is, to me, the sign of a great leader.
Is it satisfying to be able to explore issues like this through the medium of film?
It keeps it all sustainable for me because itâs something new every five or six months. This opens up so much information, so much psychologically and behaviourally that itâs overwhelming at times.
So do you think audiences will be surprised by Oliver Stoneâs nuanced and balanced portrait of George W. Bush?
I think so, personally. Weâre not out to slam anybody, weâre out to tell this very compelling story of a guy who was really flailing for many, many years, who decided to get sober on his own and then to deepen his whole relationship with Jesus, and became the President of the United States. Twice. Thatâs an amazing story.
W is released 7th November
After years of toil in supporting roles actor Josh Brolin broke through to a new level with high profile performances in American Gangster and No Country For Old Men. Now he plays lead in W., starring as American president George W. Bush for director Oliver Stone.
Itâs been a rather impressive few years for you, hasnât it?
Right, but once you confine it to the year of where do you go from there?
But itâs enabled you to take the step up to play the lead in W., doesnât it?
That was what I hoped, to respect the moment. I had a lot of opportunities and a lot of money came my way, so thank God for my friend Brett Markinson who taught me most of what I know about trading stocks. That gave me an objectivity to it all. His whole thing is âthe minute you start to feel greed, sell, and the minute you start to feel fear look and see if itâs something you want to acquire because itâs probably a pretty good time to buy inâ.
I think it helps to have the ability to step back and go âam I going to feel comfortable looking back on this or am I going to feel like I took the first buck because I was so happy to be making a buck as opposed to six cents?â.
You ran the script for W. by your oldest son, which suggests you trust his judgement a great deal.
Very much so. It doesnât end with him, I would never put that kind of pressure on him but Iâve shown him a few scripts that I was thinking about doing and I think he has a good point of view. Itâs an off beat point of view, but I like his insight into characters and story.
Your father, James Brolin, is a successful actor, was that easy to come to terms with when you started out?
I decided to get into that business early on after I took an acting class in school which I liked very much. Then once I decided to do it I did a bunch of things that Iâm sure my kids would never do. I made up a résumé, I lied, there were a lot of obstacles for me. People didnât want there to be any nepotism, so they sometimes wouldnât see me based on that fact.
Do you think W. offers a more sympathetic portrait of George Bush the man than people will expect?
For sure. Sympathetic is a tough word to use because of what that administration has done, itâs hard to use the word âsympatheticâ. Am I more sympathetic towards the man? I donât know, I just feel like I have more information now. There were moments where, the best thing for me just as a citizen, was to be able to study the Republican point of view.
To be able to study the evangelical point of view, and then ultimately to study the Bush administration, and Bush himself. And read as many books as I could on it.
How did you feel about him before embarking on this movie?
I judged this guy as cosmetically as a lot of other people, that heâs just a stammering, stuttering idiot. You canât be the president and just be an idiot, so I think that was very irresponsible of me, and lazy of me, to write him off as that. Iâve learned that thatâs not the case at all.
Large chunks of the American population trust him precisely because heâs not the smoothest of talkers, donât they?
I donât think thatâs accurate now but I think that was the case. I think thatâs how he got voted into office, twice. I think people really hooked into this fallibility, after the elitism of Reagan and all these other presidents. To bring somebody down to âour levelâ making us feel that it was more possible if a guy like that could become president maybe âweâ could.
For some people the sexual indiscretions of Bill Clinton are tougher to forgive than anything Bush has done though, arenât they?
Which is phenomenal. He made a mistake and he lied and I think thereâs been proper consequence for that, but to want to impeach somebody because of that and then to not impeach somebody under impeachable acts, not going forth with it is phenomenal.