Costco Connection - December 2012

Channeling Tommy Lee

Josh Brolin plays
the young Agent K
in Men in Black 3

By Nancy Mills

PLAYING THE YOUNGER version of Tommy Lee Jones’ Agent K in Men in Black 3 could have been a career killer for Josh Brolin, 44. The actor had recently nabbed his first Oscar nomination, for his performance in Milk as a gay-bashing murderer, and was on a roll.

Why risk it for a crazy idea? Men in Black director Barry Sonnenfeld wanted to breathe new life into his old sci-fi comedy series by adding a time-travel element. His plan was to show how Agents J (Will Smith) and K first met, in 1969, amidst the threat of an alien invasion, and he didn’t want to use Jones in youthful makeup.

He wanted Brolin. “The second I saw
Josh,” Sonnenfeld said at a press event in
Beverly Hills, “I said, ‘I can’t wait to see what
your head looks like in 3D.’ He has the largest
head in America, second only to Tommy.”
Brolin was horrified and intrigued. “It’s
one thing to be out having fun [offscreen] with
the Coen brothers by doing really bad versions
of Tommy,” he says. “But when somebody calls
and says, ‘Hey, you want to do this mega movie
and play a young K for a billion people to
judge?’ you’re putting your ass on the line. A
lot of hives started to happen. I still don’t know
if Tommy liked it or not.”
He did. “Josh seems to have done a fine
job,” Jones says in his trademark gruff tone.
“We didn’t talk much, if any, about this charac-
ter. You can’t learn more about [the young K]
by talking to me than you can by looking at
me. I don’t know if he did. I assume he did.”
Brolin did a lot more than look. “It was a

Tablet or smartphone? Watch a video clip of Josh Brolin playing Tommy Lee Jones on the digital newsstand version of The Connection.

torturous process,” the actor says. “I rented a
little motel room down in Mexico and kind of
went through it. I got totally frustrated and
wanted to quit.”
The key for Brolin was watching Men in
Black “about 50 times,” he says.

Something finally clicked into place. “I
started to go, ‘Oh my God, that’s one thing
that sounds good.’ ”
It wasn’t the first time Brolin had played a
real person. He successfully portrayed
President George W. Bush in the comedy W.
“With Bush, the U’s will all be alike or the
vowels will be alike,” he says. “Tommy’s all
over. It’s like he’s improvising his voice. For
me it was like learning to play an instrument
that’s played by nobody but Tommy.”
Sonnenfeld offered Brolin a key piece of
advice. “It can’t be an impersonation of
Tommy,” the director told him. “It has to be an
interpretation. It should be mainly like the old
Tommy but a little more optimistic—but not
like suddenly he’s Jerry Lewis.”
On the set, Brolin wore a prosthetic nose,
ears and brow. He also worked on emulating
Jones’ mannerisms.

“The intention was [that] within 10 min-
utes audiences [wouldn’t be] watching me
constantly doing some kind of caricature of
Tommy,” Brolin says. “It was really important
to allow the chemistry [with Will] to work
and not do too much makeup.”
Mimicking comes naturally to Brolin,
who grew up in the entertainment business

SPHE

Josh Brolin (upper left) plays a younger version of Tommy Lee Jones (lower right), Will Smith’s partner.

and is married to actress Diane Lane. His father, actor James Brolin, is married to Barbra Streisand. His late mother was a casting director.

Acting first became a reality for him
when he got into a fight at school. “My dad
told me, ‘If you want an inkling of how [other
people] feel, go take an acting class,’ ” he says.
“I got obsessed. I remember creating a char-
acter in an improv class in high school, and
everybody laughed. I was like, ‘Wow, making
people laugh is really fun. This feels right.’ ”
Brolin made his film debut in The Goonies
in 1985 and has worked steadily since. He has
two films opening next year: Gangster Squad
with Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling, and Labor
Day with Kate Winslet.

“My goal isn’t to do as many mega films as I possibly can,” Brolin says. “My goal is to be on my deathbed and look back and kind of chuckle. I’m starting to chuckle now. I’m the guy from No Country for Old Men who did Men in Black 3, Milk and W. That’s a really nice feeling.” C