Josh Brolin interview

Looking at Josh Brolin in the flesh, it’s difficult to picture him as the now former leader of the free world, George W Bush. Happily, Oliver Stone was able to see beyond the rugged looks and cast Josh as the lead in W, his biopic. Stone’s logic was that ‘there’s something of the cowboy’ about Josh and that’s something that’s certainly clear. However, Josh is keen to repeal the myth that he was offended at the offer. "It’s getting so exaggerated that I was mortally offended," explains Josh in his London hotel. "I was more confused than anything. "Him coming to me, I didn’t understand why. I thought he’d focus on the last seven-and-a-half years, which he didn’t do. So, after my first cosmetic reaction, I stayed away from this until I read the script and I realised it offered one of the most terrifying prospects for being an actor, which was to follow someone from 21 years old to 58 years old. Usually in a biopic you cover something like 10 years of a person’s life. You don’t do nearly 40. So, then I went into massive fear and did as much research as I could do. Even though it was an incredibly collaborative effort, you want to do the best you can do to serve Oliver, because it’s his film." It certainly is Stone’s film and remarkably, it actually provides a strangely sympathetic portrayal of a man desperately trying to please his father. Even more remarkably, Josh remains believable, keeping his performance reined in so it doesn’t just become caricature. "Did I rein it in?" asks Josh, with a laugh. "To me, all I can see is a cartoon. Not truthfully, but almost truthfully. There are comedic aspects to this person that you can’t deny, that I got really sick of doing after a while. You want those comedic aspects to be there, but you can’t sustain them for two hours. "You watch [American impressionist] Frank Caliendo and he’s great for about 15 seconds and then you’re looking forward to the next impression. It’s really just looking for the human aspect." Mind you, given the parallels – Josh, of course, is also the son of a famous father – that human aspect should perhaps be easy to find. "I see the parallel," admits Josh, "and it’s an easy one to make. But… no. I mean, If I had to do exactly the same movies that my father did, then that would be more of a similarity. This guy has to end up in exactly the same chair as his father. I can’t imagine the weight of that. Especially when you have the convictions that he has and the emotional reaction he has to his father not dealing with Saddam head on. But it’s conjecture and you can only learn what you can learn and then you do your rendition of his life song. This is our rendition." So far critical reaction to Josh’s performance has been good – although according to one of the tabloids, his stepmother, the politically active Barbara Streisand, had thrown a fit and was snubbing Josh. Untrue but "I kind of liked that reaction," grins Josh. The most important reaction, that of Dubya himself, remains to be seen. Has he seen the film? "Nope. I’ve said that I can imagine at some point, after the lights go down and everyone else has gone to sleep on the ranch in Crawford, he’ll pop in the DVD and go [puts on the Bush voice]: 'I really liked your performance'. Maybe while eating a bowl of pretzels..." W is on general release from 7th November.