00:00Hi this is Mariah Gullow from The Hollywood Reporter and we're in studio
00:07today with James Brolin. Hi James. Hi Mariah. How are you? I'm okay. Yeah yeah
00:14you asked me what I was gonna do this weekend I'm not sure but I get to see
00:18Josh's movie Deadpool 2 you know so that's good that'll fill the weekend.
00:23You must be immensely proud of your son Josh Brolin right now. For a guy that
00:27said I would never go into your business for anything. He's doing pretty good.
00:32He's killing it. I mean it took him a while to get around to the idea I bet. Oh no
00:38no actually it was it was not too long after that when he said listen Pop I
00:44got this last year in high school right he says I got a three elective possible I
00:49got to take this other class. There's woodshop I said oh I love woodshop.
00:52There's a metal shop I said oh I made some great copper bowls and or there's this
00:57acting class and I said well it'll teach you why you get into fights with other
01:02people it'll it'll give you an ability to put yourself in other people's shoes.
01:06Right. And next thing I know he's in the acting class and yeah here we are yeah
01:14what is he proud of you for? Oh that's a good question we just get along so good I
01:21think you know he grew up and he was born into by the time let's see he was two
01:29years old yeah I was in a hit series we were number one on the air. Yeah. And
01:36Welby. Yeah. And so I that's a hard thing to answer because that was what he grew up in.
01:44He grew up in yeah yeah yeah and that's exactly why he said I would never go into
01:49your business because I think when he was young he got picked on at school and
01:53challenged you know like why you know Stallone is a good example he can't go
01:59into a bar if somebody tries to choose him off. Yeah that's true. Yeah. What about your
02:06directing career you started directing pretty early at the same time. Yeah actually I
02:10called myself a director I had a darkroom when I was 10 doing stills and at 15 I
02:16discovered the movie camera basically because my dad had a 16 millimeter movie
02:21camera and shot a lot of stuff and so I had the confidence to buy a straight eight
02:29and I always worked from the time I was 14 so so I bought this and I started
02:36shooting film with this fantasy that I love to go to the movies and in those
02:42days we were totally fascinated with the biggest screen possible you know which
02:46let's say the Fox Village in Westwood is really an ample screen there were a lot
02:51of those so that influenced me to see a Western in in 120 feet wide you know made
02:59me want to do this even more you know and and yet but previous to that I really had
03:07thought that films came out of golden eggs you know that they were from heaven or
03:11something and then when I found out that it was like a construction job and my dad
03:17was a contractor so I said oh there's a guy painting a sign that goes up on the
03:22saloon and there's a guy sawing wood then they got 10 minutes before they got to be
03:27ready and everybody's running land it's the same thing so anyway I had to answer
03:33your question I had it in my head to direct and make films and then when I was
03:3918 somebody pushed me in front of the camera which I was very uncomfortable in
03:44fact I said I don't have to talk in this job and they said no no you just drive
03:49this Dodge truck and look like a young cowboy and and that's all so they came back
03:55and they hired me for another one and then an agent came in and put me in a
04:01gala wine commercial as a young Prince eating food at a table with you know the
04:08turkey drumsticks and things still didn't have to talk right so you know but by
04:15then by force I had my Screen Actors Guild card and I said okay well but I want to
04:22direct and everybody now is saying oh no no we've got some interviews for you in
04:27front of the camera and I I went I started saying look if I want to stay in this game
04:31I better go to school so I had workshop every night of the week I'm I mean seven
04:35nights a week I was either rehearsing or on stage humiliating myself and you know it's like anything
04:45it gets easier the more you do it yeah and there's always anticipate the
04:50nervousness is what gives it life to me now yeah and I know that no matter every
04:56time in those days are all the way up to if I'm in an uncomfortable situation
05:01today you find out you lived through it yeah no you weren't dead at the end of the
05:07day so probably won't be dead tomorrow so I wanted to play a little game with you because
05:17I know that you're a bit of a driving enthusiast yeah and I wanted to tell you some of your
05:23career highlights and then ask you what you were driving at the time oh that's interesting for this I
05:30wish I had more photos of those cars I know or some some of those I don't have any picture of but
05:37you know yeah I got to go into Google yeah exactly okay the year is 1965 you taught Patty Duke about
05:46forest conservation on an episode of the Patty Duke show what were you driving is 65 of all things
05:55I went real Hollywood and I bought myself a 55 Cadillac convertible because I saw Marilyn Monroe
06:06in one on the 20th lot and I said now that's the kind of car that a movie star should drive
06:11so I figured it's the only way I'm going to become a movie star is by that car okay I'll do it
06:17but during those years actually the first car I ever bought was I bought a Model A Ford with
06:25no engine in it when I was 15 and I I figured I'd get an engine and then I bought one that actually
06:32had an engine in it and then my first real good car was a three-year-old Thunderbird which I rebuilt the
06:40engine out of a book you know and so I was you know always obviously interested in cars I was
06:48interested in the way cameras worked I was interested in gears and the way things I was especially
06:55in the entertainment area I was especially interested in the mechanics of that movies are
07:02nothing but a bunch of still pictures all glued together and when you run them past you they move
07:07it's like flipping through a book yeah yeah it is amazing so the mechanics of things always excited me
07:15and what really then excited me more was that you could make somebody cry with these mechanics
07:23or laugh you know yeah pretty cool all right here's another one the year is 1973 you play Chuck Brenner
07:31a divorcee who becomes stuck in a shopping mall fighting off rabid Dobermans in the movie Trapped
07:37that same year Yul Brenner shot you to death in the original Westworld movie what were you driving
07:43I think I had a used two-year-old no no I had a brand new Corvette I walked into a Chevy dealer I said
07:53how much is that including the tax and license they said 4,400 bucks and I said I'll take it
08:02I couldn't afford it but it all worked out you know sometimes you take a chance
08:08or you make a move or you quit and say I'm finished with you guys and start a new business or life
08:16I had very very few times does it not work out better yeah yeah okay the year is 1985 yeah you play
08:26yourself playing P.W. Herman in the movie within a movie in Pee-wee's Big Adventure what were you driving
08:33I was driving what what was it 85 85 I was driving a Lincoln Continental with a fake
08:42convertible roof on it in other words they took the canvas and they glued it over the top and it
08:49looked just like a convertible because they didn't make a convertible and I wanted a convertible so I
08:53said well I'll fake it you know yeah that's what I was driving okay last one okay the year is 2004
09:03you win your fifth Emmy playing Ronald Reagan in the TV movie movie The Reagans what were you driving
09:09uh Porsche Cabriolet yeah you're a classy man I do love Porsches I had one I went in and I bought a
09:22two-year-old Porsche uh pulled in saw it as I drove by and I went boy that's pretty and I had it for
09:3011 years I wouldn't give it up so I'm kind of a Porsche guy yeah nice uh let's talk a little bit
09:37about life and peace can I tell you what I drive now oh yes of course a Raptor the best vehicle I've
09:43ever I just saw one of those at the Roosevelt Hotel the other day you just need a second job to pay for
09:48the gas so I feel embarrassed about that but I also have a mini which sort of evens it out
09:53yeah that's great um okay let's talk about life in pieces um congratulations another season
10:01thank you ahead of you um you get some good one-liners I do you do I do yeah and sometimes
10:08I must say I'll read you know when I read the pilot I laughed the whole time uh sometimes I get my
10:15one-liners and I don't get them and I have to go to the writer and say what does this mean
10:20and uh okay okay and you know one one thing about we've got 11 really good actors on this show
10:28so no matter whether they truly understand the genre of the comedy they know how to make it work
10:36they know how to make it their own and to me if something is funny to you then it will be funny to
10:42the audience just because you're tickled yeah so a lot of those one-liners we just we kind of have to
10:49ring out a little bit but I do get the good ones yeah what I like about the the family dynamics is
10:56it's it's almost like you know the saying opposites attract between a man and a woman
11:01but it's opposites attract in a family as well do you think do you feel that way absolutely and it's
11:07true at home you know with us I mean my wife and I are very different and that's what makes it work
11:13yeah yeah yeah hey I got any tips out there for people with a a glamorous wife who's more of a
11:20cowboy um the more you look for it the less you'll find it just when you're not looking for love anymore
11:28and have no time for it that's when it's going to tap you on the shoulder oh nice very nice um so
11:35another thing about life in pieces is that the family has a lot of brunches
11:39do you have any tips for surviving a family brunch boy they're tedious you know table scenes are tedious
11:47and uh it's funny I don't really identify with it so much because um you know a lot of times we're
11:56more buffet style and everybody can kind of go their own way and and my own life to sit around that table
12:02and they have the camera pop in between two people because if you know about camera directions
12:09it's real easy to have let's say I'm talking to you but but I'm looking over here if you don't have
12:16the right camera so every time you pop in around that and every time you change the camera position
12:21that's new lighting those are long days yeah I I got no answer for that you bear with it um so one of
12:29the things that you're known for now is uh you're uh directing uh hallmark movies what are the essential
12:35ingredients to a good hallmark movie oh well not that I'm married to those essentials but a hallmark
12:43movie um has to have a lot of love and kindness and almost from the first scene everything's going all
12:52too well uh the difference in me is I love to have and and I've had a few arguments with him I love to
13:01have things not going well in the beginning of a movie and then as you see them work work I mean
13:07that's to me that's what movies are really um mostly useful as we learn to work out some of our own
13:14problems through watching films yeah and so as I say I have to wrestle with them and usually like if
13:22you look at the two movies I did in the last two years for them there's trouble in the beginning and
13:27um and uh there's love in the end you know yeah yeah but uh I've got a theatrical I'm trying to get
13:35financing for now and uh we've got three or four scripts in development and who knows what's next
13:42you know keeping yourself busy yeah yeah between the series and then having four and a half or five
13:48months off think can we fit a movie in there and do post on it and everything is but I'm quick
13:55James Brolin thank you so much for being here today and uh good luck on your future adventures
14:02thank you we'll be watching oh boy
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