In an Esquire piece celebrating "The Casting Mistake of the Year," Joel and Ethan Coen explained how Josh Brolin wound up cast in one of No Country for Old Men's lead roles: "Our movie version of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men had Tommy Lee Jones in place -- no mistake there -- as a crusty west-Texas sheriff on the trail of a bad man to be played by four-time-Goya-winning Spanish sex symbol Javier Bardem. And to round out the cast we hired -- we thought -- rugged everyman Jim Brolin as Llewelyn Moss, the aging Vietnam vet caught in the middle. Well, there were some red faces on the set the first day of shooting when Jim Brolin's son Josh showed up to play the part ..." This, of course, is a joke, but Brolin's not hurt; in fact, as he explained to Cinematical, he helped the Coens write the very piece that mocked him. Brolin can afford to laugh; with 2007 roles in films like American Gangster, Planet Terror, In the Valley of Elah and No Country for Old Men, the veteran actor's proven it's his year to shine. Brolin spoke with Cinematical in San Francisco about how he really got the part that's made him an Oscar contender, working with the Coens, his admiration for Cormac McCarthy's original novel, and much more. You can download the entire podcast right here; those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.
