“There’s nothing I would say no to,” Brolin said The Independent about working with the boys from Minnesota. “It could be terrible and I would still say yes. You could say, “We’re doing a Walt Disney story about pornography,” and I’d say, “Great, let’s do that.” I don’t care. I just get it, they’re fun to be around. And it’s not necessarily fun, I’m not on set laughing all the time, but I really appreciate how uncomfortable they are and what I think makes them great writers. That’s all they have, you know?

Given the Coen brothers’ penchant for pushing the envelope in their films, this isn’t out of the question. Steve Buscemi met a grisly end Fargo (Good luck putting him back together), John Goodman raged bloodily Barton Finkand then there is Burning after readingwhich is troubling in more ways than one. So far, Josh Brolin has managed to avoid anything truly brutal in his projects. As he meets his end in some of her films, he reveals which ones would spoil the experience for those who still want to see them.

One of the reasons Brolin is so loyal to Joel and Ethan is because of how straight they talk. “A lot of directors feed you a lot of stuff,” the veteran actor explained. “You’re either being yelled at or being manipulated into performing a certain way of what they’re trying to manipulate you into doing, which is over-acting. Or there are other people who don’t really know what they’re doing, or who give you a lot of compliments because they think it will help. But neither do Joel and Ethan. They are simply doing their job. They’re friendly about it, but many, many, many times I’ve finished a scene and then sought their approval, but they’re already moving on to the next set because we’re done. That’s the point, we’re done with this scene.”

The Coens have a reputation for being uncannily in sync on set, but according to Brolin, it’s all just hearsay. “We’re all playing with the thing about how strange and fucking strange they are, how quiet they are and all that stuff,” Brolin said of the Coen faithful. “But it really isn’t.”

“You tell the press things like, ‘They’re really weird and they’re like a ghost in two heads,’ and (the press) says, ‘A ghost in two heads, that’s a good comment,’ or whatever it is.” “he continued. “You just go for it and know that you’re doing it. I just caught myself dying in my own nonsense for a few seconds in an interview in front of millions of people.”

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