Josh Brolin has revealed that he almost left the set of Ridley Scott’s new film early in production, and it was only a timely word from the director himself that convinced him to stay.
The actor, 58, said Empire Magazine that he “got really scared” shortly after filming began The dog’s starsScott’s post-apocalyptic drama which hits theaters on August 28.
The source of his anxiety was Scott’s knee-jerk, underrehearsed approach to the set.
“Ridley was telling a lot of stories and not really rehearsing,” Brolin recalls, “and that pissed me off, and I got really scared. I went back and called my agent and said, ‘I want out. Something is seriously wrong, and I need to get the hell out of here.'”
His agent, a close friend, suggested that he take a day to rest and reconsider his decision. Brolin immediately understood the tactic.
“I was like, ‘No, man, I know what you’re doing.'”
What really changed things was Scott himself.
The 88-year-old director invited Brolin to his trailer and re-enacted a scene they had just filmed with his co-star Jacob Elordi.
These are the images that spoke.
“[Ridley] said, “Come here,” and he took me to his trailer and acted out the scene we had just finished. It was a really good scene, really dynamic between me and Jacob, and he goes, “Okay? I said, ‘Okay,’ and then I started feeding on it.”
Brolin had previously worked with Scott, on the 2007 films American gangsterbut the director’s lively multi-camera style still caught him off guard.
It took a day or two of adjustment, he said, before something clicked.
“I got really excited about it because it was stratospherically creative and stratospherically dangerous.”
He actively sought that kind of challenge, he noted, and quickly resisted it when it presented itself.
Ultimately, he said, “it became one of the most creative and satisfying projects I’ve ever been involved with.”
In The dog’s starsAdapted by Mark L. Smith from Peter Heller’s 2012 novel, Brolin plays ex-Marine Bangley alongside Elordi, who plays a civilian pilot navigating a brutal post-apocalyptic world until a mysterious radio transmission sends him searching for something to believe in.
The cast also includes Margaret Qualley, Guy Pearce, Benedict Wong and Allison Janney.
