Before he was having his head hunted by Hailee Steinfeld, mentoring Timothée Chalamet on the unforgiving fundamentals of sci-fi combat, or plotting to wipe out half the universe, Josh Brolin took babysitting to a whole new level.
Indeed, it was just under 40 years ago that Brolin made his film debut in Richard Donner’s timeless Amblin classic The Goonies, where he portrayed teenager Brand, the older brother of Sean Astin’s protagonist Mikey who inadvertently gets roped into the shenanigans by way of personal responsibility.
And it was on the set of Richard Donner’s The Goonies that young Brolin received a piece of advice from Steven Spielberg—who was constantly present on set as a producer and as the one who conceived of The Goonies in the first place—that seems to have stayed with him throughout his career. Speaking recently in an interview with GQ, the actor recalled a time when, in the midst of trying to dive deep into Brand via Stanislavsky, the legendary filmmaker looked him right in the eye and said “just act.”
“…I said, “Hey, like, don’t you think these tunnels are like my mother’s womb, and that, like, that I’m scratching to get out of the womb, and that I need to be born again?” But it’s a different—whatever I said. And he looked at me, and he goes, “Just act.” And I was like, “I know, but—” And he wasn’t being rude, he was just like, “Don’t overcomplicate it. Just get in there, look around, listen to people, and just do your deal.”
Now, when the one and only Steven Spielberg tells you to “just act,” you take that advice and you run with it forever. So far, it seems to be doing Brolin all the justice in the world. The actor is an important cog in the new big critical and box office darling Dune: Part Two, where he reprises his aforementioned role of Gurney Halleck, the former military leader of the now-fallen House Atreides and ally to protagonist Paul. Such is the path one can find themselves on when armed with distinctly Spielbergian advice on your craft.
Dune: Part Two sifts into theaters on March 1.
(featured image: Warner Bros. Pictures)
