The Stories of Actor Josh Brolin (‘Weapons’)
Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso
Higher Ground
4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 17 August 2025
⏱️ 88 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With the arrival of Weapons in theaters, we return to our conversation with actor Josh Brolin.
Since the turn of the century, Brolin has had quite a run. From No Country for Old Men and Hail, Caesar! from the Coen Brothers, to Inherent Vice from Paul Thomas Anderson, to Sicario and the Dune films from Denis Villeneuve.
His memoir, From Under the Truck, contains stories about the life in between. We discuss his upbringing bouncing from Paso Robles to Santa Barbara (8:49), the influence of his mother (10:05), and his entry to writing (19:40). Then, Brolin reflects on his vivid early adulthood in the 80s (26:14), the power of a story (32:30), and what actor Anthony Hopkins illuminated about sobriety (34:35).
On the back-half, we get into his collaborations with the Coen Brothers (38:48), his challenging relationship to drinking (50:50), and why finally, after three decades of playing characters on screen, it was time to fill in some of the backstory (1:07:13).
This conversation was recorded at Spotify Studios. Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at mail@talkeasypod.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, everyone, it's Sam. If you like Talk Easy, there's another podcast I think you'll really enjoy. |
| 0:05.2 | It's called Death, Sex, and Money from the Good People at Slate, hosted by my friend and mentor, Anna Sale. |
| 0:12.2 | It's a show about all the things we think about a lot, but don't talk about enough. |
| 0:16.7 | From debt to breakups to grief, and it gets people to open up about the parts of life that can |
| 0:22.0 | feel really isolating and confusing. So my personal favorites include Jane Fonda, Miranda July, |
| 0:29.5 | Celine Song, which we dropped in this feed, and the late great Bill Withers. It's that episode |
| 0:35.3 | with Withers called How to Be a Man that served as a real true inspiration for Talk Easy. |
| 0:42.2 | I've said it before, but I'll say it again. |
| 0:44.2 | Without that episode, How to Be a Man with Bill Withers, just even now thinking about it, it gets me emotional. |
| 0:50.6 | Without that episode, I don't know. |
| 0:53.0 | I don't think Talk Easy would be what it is today. |
| 0:56.9 | And so before I get any more emotional than I already am, you can follow and listen to death, |
| 1:01.5 | sex, and money, wherever you listen to Easy. I'm Sando |
| 1:26.6 | This is Talk Easy. I'm Sam for Goso. Welcome to the show. |
| 1:49.4 | Today, my conversation with actor and author, Josh Brolin. |
| 1:52.8 | Since the turn of the century, he's been on quite a run. |
| 1:56.1 | No country for old men and Hail Caesar with the Coen brothers, |
| 1:58.5 | inherent vice with Paul Thomas Anderson, |
| 2:01.7 | Sicario and Dune with Deney Villeneuve. |
| 2:06.5 | That doesn't even mention his roles in Deadpool in the extended Marvel Universe. |
| 2:12.6 | Coming up later this year, he has two new movies from directors Edgar Wright and Ryan Johnson. |
| 2:16.0 | The Guardian has this line on Roland I really like. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Higher Ground, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Higher Ground and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.