Josh Brolin

Josh: (revealing he was inspired to take acting seriously by the death of his mother, killed in a 1995 car accident) When my mother died it brought it all home, magnified everything. 'What do I want to do? Where do I want to go?' It made me appreciate how fragile life was. I didn't know where I was going. I had a healthy fear of looking back on my life and thinking, 'Have I done enough? Am I proud of what I've done?'

Josh: (on working with Paul Haggis, Tarantino and Rodriguez, Ridley Scott and Coen brothers over the past year) Year and a half, and then there's Karen Moncrief who did The Dead Girl which I'm really happy with. Very good small film. They're all very, very different, but the majority of those people that you just mentioned, there's an incredible lack of ego… It seems that when you work with great filmmakers, there's an incredible lack of ego. It's more of a collaborative experience, as opposed to guys who are a little less confident in the experience [where] there seems to be a lot of yelling and a lot of ego. I didn't find that with the filmmakers you just mentioned. They were very mellow, very into the story and just limitless energy and creativity. I learned a lot as an actor looking at directors – how you can make something work and not have a s***load of strife…

Josh: (on the Coen brothers) Every time I hear the word "brilliant" or "genius" I feel them hit me in the back of the head, because they don't see themselves like that. They see themselves as just manifesting stories that they're interested in at that moment. They're very technically proficient. They understand film, they understand storytelling and they love to tell stories. These are two guys that would be perfectly satisfied sitting around a campfire telling f***ed up, bizarre twisty, turny stories.

Josh: (when asked if he was overwhelmed on being in three films in 2007 that are generating awards buzz) It's not overwhelming, but it is strange. It's a really nice time and I love that I'm involved with three films that people really react to. It's rare. I don't minimize the feeling I have about it. I'm happy, man. I'm almost embarrassed that I'm happy but I'm happy. I'm very happy and I'd love to continue along the same trajectory.

Josh: (when asked if he related to the tough guy he played in No Country for Old Men) I am not a tough guy at all. I think I am quite the opposite. I still fight. Is that tough? A lot of people I grew up with are perceived as tough guys but are not. They are also regional country people perceived as being tough but that is just because they're quiet. That's what I like about my character in the film. Without being insane he talks to himself, he is just keeping himself company. I love that. I completely understood that and spending a lot of time by myself working with cattle I got it. I think there is a lot of integrity with the boys I grew up with, they are very attached to their families. I have been in situations where people came up from LA and tried to find where I live. And people in my town would give them the wrong directions. I am very protected there. It is a very loyal bunch. I love that because you don't find that so much in urban settings. There is so much going on. I don't think it is a wrong thing but it is very narcissistic, you get very caught up in yourself. Country mentality means that people take care of each other. It is more primitive. It is the man with the clubs still. But the women run everything. My mother was from Corpus Christi, Texas. She was a loud Texan woman. She ran the show, man. When she spoke, everybody was listening.

Josh: (on getting along with Javier Bardem) We got along very well. We don't anymore. No, no. He is a great actor and a great person on top of it. He is not too precious and it is not all about him. He is not: "Oh, this is my moment." He takes it all with a grain of salt, which is something I like. He is out of his mind. I like the character, too. It was a really risky character. It was a great creation, not only of his but of the Coens. Take the haircut for example, when Javier got the haircut he looked in the mirror and then at me and said: "I'm not going to get laid for three months."

Josh: (when asked what was it like going from Tarantino to the Coens) It was really good. Well, Robert Rodgriguez and I have been friends for a long time, so there was a familiarity between us when we did Grindhouse. What I like about the Coens, and I didn't like it in the beginning but I love this now, is that there is no ego. There's no petting. A lot of time on sets you have a lot of ego and there's a lot of 'god you're doing great', and 'great job' and 'you're such a great actor'. The Coens never did that one time. So Jarvier (Bardem) and I in the beginning were like are we going to be fired. Do they hate us? What's happening? And then Jarvier on top of it had the bad haircut and he gained weight so he was depressed. Me I'd lost a lot of weight, two weeks before I started the movie I hit a car on my motorcycle so I snapped my collarbone so we were in a bad way man. We needed somebody to go, 'you guys are the best' and not until Woody (Harrelson) came onto the set and we did the hospital scene and Woody stumbled through his lines and right afterwards they said cut. They were like, 'oh my god Woody you're fantastic' and I said what the f***'s going on? Throw me a bone here. No they're great to work with. I have never seen the brothers argue, it's like two heads melting into one head.

Josh: ( on some of the key moments in No Country for Old Men being off screen) Well, that's the way it happens. I think that's why this is unique, because it happens like it really happens. My mother hit a tree; she was just dead. One moment I was talking to her and the next minute I could never talk to her again. I have never seen that in film before, where it just happens. That's it — everything changes.

Josh: (on his motorcycle accident) It was right after I got the role, and I was going from one wardrobe fitting to the other, and the car was just there. I've never been in a street accident ever — a lot of dirt-bike accidents, but never a street accident. And I fancy myself as someone who can get out of that stuff pretty quick. I could do nothing. The skid mark was like that long. I was just very pleased to hit the top of the car. I probably would have broken both my legs.

Josh: (on the Coen Brothers) They're just really good people. It's almost like they're an Eastern version of what I grew up with. Which is, they're very quiet. They're very sparse. They don't feel the need to uphold their end of the conversation. They're not into compliments.

Josh: (on auditioning for No Country for Old Men) I did an audition tape on the set of Grindhouse. I went to Robert Rodriguez and said, 'Hey, man, the Coen brothers are doing this film. I've got two scenes, and would you videotape me during lunch?' He said, 'What the (expletive)? Let's use our camera.' Quentin Tarantino (who did Death Proof, the other half of Grindhouse's double bill) directed me. Robert shot it on a $950,000 Genesis camera.

Josh: (on his rise in status) I'm very happy to be involved with great filmmakers. I'm not ashamed of the other stuff that I did. I was very OK with how things were going. Suddenly, I'm in movies that people are excited about, and that is a nice change.

Josh: (on becoming an actor) My father always told me not to get into the business, and so I'd set my mind to do other things. Then in my junior year in high school, I took an acting class, just to see what it was like. I played Stanley in 'A streetcar Named Desire'. I loved it, other people loved it, and I was hooked. There's no looking back.

Josh: (on doing theatre) If I'm any kind of actor now it's because of Rochester.