Josh Brolin Talks Inherent Vice, Calls Experience "Absolute Fucking Chaos"

With the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival officially behind us, the swirl of press inevitably left in its wake is now slowly unfurling onto the internet for cinephiles worldwide to consume. As a consequence, David Poland, whose utterly invaluable "DP/30" series tracks down a major player from just about every significant film from these festivals and talks candidly on camera with them for a half hour, sat down with Inherent Vice-star Josh Brolin, who was there promoting his work in Jason Reitman's Labor Day. As you may have guessed would happen over the course of thirty minutes, the conversation meandered a bit toward Brolin's past, present, and future projects near the middle, and here's what he had the following to say about working with Paul Thomas Anderson around the 14:40 mark (transcribed (roughly) by yours truly):

[Reitman] always seems to get these performances out of people--

Which is incredible... Because I can't go back and say, "Oh Jason does this thing," whereas like Paul Thomas Anderson, having just worked with him... [it's like]  let's go this way, or let's whisper the lines, and let's actually take out all the lines and we'll do it like charades once. Or, you know, like, hold him -- put him on your shoulders and let's do the whole scene like that. He's all over the place. It's just absolute fucking chaos every day, all day. Which is great, 'cause you feel like you've done something. But, you know, we'll see how it turns out.

Do you have a preference for all of that --

No... they're isolated experiences. They just are what they are, you know? I appreciate Jason's just as much as I appreciate Paul's. I think I'm more attuned to Paul's...even though that was crazy and nuts and created insecurity and this and that, this created a different, very much deeper insecurity and vulnerability... 'cause you just wanna hide.

Later in the interview (around 17:40), Brolin brings it back to PTA.

I see Paul, after this movie that we just did, and he was just exhausted, man. Exhausted. Like, he just took off and died somewhere, you know? Not literally, but figuratively. 

Crawled into an editing room somewhere --

Crawled into an editing room. But he was into it. He called me in the middle of the night, goes, dude I'm working on this thing, it looks amazing, it's so cool. It's like a kid. It's like being around a bunch of kids. That's fun.

It's exciting that he's working so quickly.

Yeah.

For him, that's a big deal.

I know, right? It is a big deal. I know, I know. Yeah. No, it was a lot of fun. Joaquin's amazing. Amazing. I love him.

Damn skippy. Have a happy Monday, everybody.

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"The Master" is now available on Blu-ray and DVD. 

'The Master' Was Released 1 Year Ago Today

Paul Thomas Anderson's six feature-length motion picture The Master was formally released into the world one year ago today, on September 14th, 2012. Time flies, right? To commemorate this occasion, here's every available trailer for the film. Have a good weekend, everyone!

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"The Master" is now available on Blu-ray and DVD. 

Paul & Maya Welcome Fourth Child

Looks like some congratulations are in order for Paul Thomas Anderson and Maya Rudolph, who have reportedly welcomed their fourth child into the world. The baby joins sisters Pearl and Lucille, and brother Jack. Congratulations, guys!

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"The Master" is now available on Blu-ray and DVD. 

Actor Michael Cotter Talks "Inherent Vice"; Boogie Nights Script Read At TIFF

An interview over at examiner.com has been making rounds today, wherein actor Michael Cotter talks a bit about his experience working with Paul Thomas Anderson & co. on Inherent Vice, and here's the nitty gritty of it:

What can you tell us about your role in the upcoming Paul Thomas Anderson film "Inherent Vice"? 

I play A.D.A. Rhus Farthington and I work in the District Attorney's office in LA, where I am co-workers with Reese Witherspoon's character Penny. It is a period piece set in LA in 1969-1970, and it's always fun to be able to play in a different decade, especially for the wardrobe and set choices which were both great.

How was working with A-listers Reese Witherspoon, the always unpredictable Joaquin Phoenix and director Paul Thomas Anderson?

It was an amazing experience! I think all three of them are brilliant at what they do and I felt lucky to be able to play in the same game as them for a few days. Once the cameras started rolling, they all welcomed me into the fold and were all very generous in the moment.

Any interesting stories from the set you can share with us?

One of the coolest things that we did was for one of the scenes we shot, PTA ended up letting the three of us basically improv through this interview scene. And once we all started to improv together, it became this really fun game of finding our way through the scene together and just feeding off of each other. It was really fun to be able to do that with Reese and Joaquin and just trust that we would find our way to the end of the scene each time, but always find cool new moments on every take.

Among other things, this should finally help put to rest any lingering suspicions you may have had that Reese Witherspoon was somehow no longer involved in the film. It also fills in a couple casting gaps that were a bit more justifiably up in the air: that Witherspoon will be playing Penny Kimball, and that the role of Rhus Farthington has gone to Cotter. Our Inherent Vice page has been updated accordingly.

In other news, north of the border right now, the Toronto International Film Festival is in full swing, where just over a year ago The Master was having its North American premier. There with his new film Labor Day, filmmaker Jason Reitman hosted a special live reading of the Boogie Nights screenplay tonight, in the tradition of the live script readings he frequently directs at LACMA. The final casting breakdown is something to behold:

Marc-Andr� Grondin in the role of Scotty J, originated by Philip Seymour Hoffman

Dane Cook in the role of Reed Rothchild, originated by John C. Reilly

Jason Sudeikis in the role of Buck Swope, originated by Don Cheadle

Jarod Einsohn in the role of Todd Parker, originated by Thomas Jane

Jordan Hayes in the role of Jesse St. Vincent, originated by Melora Walters

Olivia Wilde in the role of Amber Waves, originated by Julianne Moore

Scott Thompson in the role of The Colonel, originated by Robert Ridgely

Dakota Fanning in the role of Rollergirl, originated by Heather Graham

Josh Brolin in the role of Jack Horner, originated by Burt Reynolds

Jesse Eisenberg in the role of Dirk Diggler, originated by Mark Wahlberg

So this is now the second PTA script that Josh Brolin (who stars in Reitman's new film) has performed from within a year. We are doing our damndest to get ahold of any video taken from the event (big or small), and will share it here if/when it materializes. In the meantime, there's a flourish of images from the event online now, so here's a low-quality one, as they all seem to be at the moment:

 

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