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Josh Brolin Walks into a Hotel Room and...

Mon., Nov. 12, 2007 3:05 PM PST by Caroline Kepnes

The Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men

Richard Foreman/Courtesy of Miramax Films.

...you stop caring about the score of the Pats-Colts game. You forget that you are thirsty. Yes, the star of No Country for Old Men really is that enchanting. He notices a journalizer's helmet and calls it "old school." He tosses his half-smoked cigarette on the table. He looks at the huge phallic mike in his face and says, " I feel like I should go to a psychiatrist." Now I understand why Diane Lane always looks so happy. The man is a bolt of sunshine.

Onscreen, too. He plays down-on-his-luck Vietnam veteran Llewelyn Moss in Joel and Ethan Coen's majestic modern-day western adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel. The movie is refreshingly light on music, which means that when Josh emotes, winces and wisecracks, you are reacting to the purity of his performance not the distracting musical score.

So, here's some info that will come in handy when you're at an Oscar party discussing the nominees and assessing his odds of taking home Best Actor.

Josh Brolin Is a Liar: As any good celebrity gossip reader knows, Brolin had a motorcycle accident and busted his collarbone shortly before he was to start work on No Country for Old Men. Here's how he handled it: "I lied to the Coens so I could shoot the movie. And my lawyer called me and said, 'If you lie, you're liable.' It turned out fine. They didn't find out what really happened until the end of the movie."

Richard Foreman/Courtesy of Miramax Films

He Gives Good Eddie Vedder: First, you have to know that Javier Bardem plays a killer, named Anton Chigurh, with a flair for coin tosses and original killing methods. He's got creepy hair, a creepy voice—just amazing creepiness. So, how does this relate to Pearl Jam? "Eddie Vedder called Javier recently," Josh started. "We had seen him up in Toronto, and he loved the film, just hugely loved the film. [When] I talked to him a couple days ago, [he said] he left a message for Javier that he wanted to do Chigurh for Halloween, but he realized that the movie wasn't out yet and nobody would get it." Next year, Eddie. Next year.

He Gets Neurotic: On Joel and Ethan Coen, he says: "There's no compliments from them. There's no 'Great job, you're doing great, Josh,' none of that!" Did this make him all nervous? "In the beginning, it was tough. I mean, we joked about it. Javier was like, 'I don't know if I'm gonna be fired or what.' "

He Can Talk About Rejection: Josh taped his first audition while on the set of Grindhouse, with the help of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez. When the Coens saw it, Josh says, "Their response was, 'Who lit it?' They didn't respond to me at all. So, they said no. I have a great agent, and he just kept saying, 'Read the guy.' It was their last casting session, and they were focused on a couple of guys, and they called me the night before. It was a fine audition, and I thought, Well it was nice meeting them, that's not gonna happen." We're just happy it did.