(upbeat music)
- Hi, this is Marya Gullo from the Hollywood Reporter
and we're in studio today with James Brolin.
Hi James.
- Hi Marya.
- How are you?
- Oh, I'm okay.
- Yeah?
- Yeah, you asked me what I was gonna do this weekened
and I'm not sure
but I get to see Josh's movie
Deadpool 2 you know
so that's good, that'll fill the weekend.
- You must be immensely proud
of your son, Josh Brolin right now.
- For a guy that said,
"I would never go into your business for anything"
(Marya laughs)
he's doing pretty good.
- He's killin' it
(James laughs)
I mean, it took him awhile to get around
to the idea I bet.
- Oh no, no actually it was not too long after that
when he said, "listen pop I got a,"
this is the last year in high school right
and he says, "I got three electives possible
I gotta take this other class. Well there's woodshop"
I said, "Oh I love woodshop."
"There's metal shop"
I said, "Oh I made some great copper bowls."
"Or, there's this acting class."
I said, "well it'll teach you why you get
into fights with other people.
(Mayra laughs)
It will give you the ability to put yourself
in other peoples shoes."
- Right.
- And uh the next thing I know,
he's in the acting class.
- Yeah
- And here we are
- And there ya go
- Years later
- Yeah, what is he proud of you for?
- Oh, that's a good question
we just get along so good I think
you know he grew up
and he was born into
by the time, lets see
he was two years old,
yeah I was in a hit series
we were number one on the air.
- Yeah
- And wealthy
- Yeah
- You know
And so
its a hard thing to answer because that was
- He grew up with
- He grew up in.
Yeah, yeah and that's exactly why he said,
"I would never go into your business."
Because I think when he was young he got
picked on at school
- mmhmm
- challenged
you know, like why you know
Stallone is a good example, he can't go into a bar
somebody tries to chew him off.
(laughter)
- Yeah that's true
- Yeah
- What about your directing career,
you started directing pretty early at the same time.
- Yeah actually I called myself a director
I had a dark room when I was ten doing stills
and at 15 I discovered the movie camera
basically because my dad had a 16mm movie camera
and shot a lot of stuff
and so I had the
the confidence to buy a straight 8
and I always worked from the time I was 14
so I bought this and started shooting film
with this fantasy that
I love to go to the movies
and in those days we were totally fascinated
with the biggest screen possible you know.
Let say the Fox Village in Westwood
is really an ample screen, there were a lot of those.
So that influenced me,
to see a Western in
120 feet wide
you know
made me want to do this even more you know
and yeah, previous to that
I really had thought that films came out of golden eggs
you know, that they were from Heaven or something.
- Yeah
- And then when I found out that it was
like a construction job
and my dad was a contractor so I said,
"oh look it, there's a guy painting a sign
that goes up on the saloon
and there's a guy sawing wood
and they got 10 minutes before they gotta be ready
and everybody running late
its the same thing."
(Mayra laughs)
- So anyway I had, to answer your question
I had it in my head
to
direct and make films
and then when I was 18
somebody pushed me in front of the camera
which I was very uncomfortable
- [Mayra] Mmhmm.
- In fact I said, "I don't have to talk in this job."
and they said "No, you just drive this Dodge truck
and look like a young cowboy and that's all."
So they came back and they hired me for another one
and then an agent came in
and put me in a Gala Wine commercial as a young prince
- Mmhmm.
- Eating food at a table with you know,
turkey, drumsticks and things.
Still didn't have to talk right.
(laughter)
So you know, by then
by force I had my Screen Actors Guild card
and I said, "Okay well, but I want to direct."
and everybody now is saying, "no no, we got
some interviews for you in front of the camera
I went I started saying, "look if I want to stay
in this game I better go to school
so I had workshop every night of the week
I mean seven nights a week I was either rehearsing
or on stage
humiliating myself
(Mayra laughs)
and you know, its like anything
it gets easier the more you do it
- Yeah
- And there's always anticip...the nervousness
is what gives it life to me now.
- Mmhmm, Yeah
- And I know that no matter every time
in those days or all the way up to
if I'm in an uncomfortable situation today
you find out you live through it
- [Mayra] Yeah
- You know you weren't dead at the end of the day so
probably won't be dead tomorrow
- Mmhmm
it gets easier and easier
- That's deduction
(laughter)
- So I wanted to play a little game with you
Cuz I know that your a bit of a driving enthusiast
- Yeah
- And I wanted to tell you some of your career highlights
and then ask you what you were driving at the time
- Ooh, that's interesting
- Ready for this?
- I wish I had more photos of those cars
- I know
- Or some, you know some of those I don't have any
picture of but
you know
- yeah
- I gotta go into google to see em
- Yeah exactly
Okay the year is 1965 you taught
Patty Duke about forest conservation on an episode
of The Patty Duke Show, what were you driving?
- Eh, 65'
of all things
I went real Hollywood
and I bought myself a
55'
Cadillac convertible.
- Nice
- Cuz I saw Marilyn Monroe in one on the 20th lot
and I said, "now that's the kind of car
that a movie star should drive
(Mayra laughs)
so I figured its the only way I'm gonna
become a movie star
is buy that car okay ill do.
- That's perfect act as if
- But during those years I actually the first car
I ever bought was
I bought a Model A Ford
with no engine in it when I was 15
and I figured I'd get an engine
and then I bought one that actually had a engine in it
and then my first
real good car was a three year old Thunderbird
which I rebuilt the engine
out of book.
- Wow
- And so I was you know always obviously
interested in cars
I was interested in the way cameras worked
I was interested in gears and the way things
- Your a gear head
- And I was especially in the entertainment area
I was especially interested in the mechanics of
that movies are nothing but a bunch of still pictures
all glued together and when you run em' past you they move
its like flipping through a book
- It's pretty amazing
- Yeah it is amazing
- So the mechanics of things always excited me
and what really then excited me more was
that you could make somebody cry with these mechanics
or laugh you know
- Yeah
- Pretty cool
- All right here's another one
the year is 1973, you play Chuck Brenner
a divorcée who becomes stuck in a shopping mall
fighting off rabid dobermans in the movie, Trapped
that same year Yul Brynner shot you to death
in the original Westworld movie
What were you driving?
- I think I had a used 2 year old
no, no I had a brand new Corvette
I walked into a Chevy dealer
I said, "How much is that including the tax and license"
they said "4,400 bucks"
and I said, "I'll take it"
(laughter)
- I couldn't afford it but it all worked out you know
- Yeah
- Sometimes you take a chance or you make a move
or you quite and say, "I'm finished with you guys."
and start a new business or life.
I had very
very few times has it not worked out better
- Yeah, yeah.
Okay the year is 1985
- Yeah
- You play yourself playing P W Herman
in the movie within a movie in Pee-wees Big Adventure
- What were you driving
- I was driving, what was it?
- [Marya] 85'
- 85' I was driving a Lincoln
Continental
with a fake
convertible roof on it
in other words they took the canvas
and they glued it over the top
and it looked just like a convertible because
they didn't make a convertible
and I wanted a convertible
(laughter)
so I said, "Well I'll fake it" you know.
(Marya laughs)
- Excellent
- Yeah that's what I was driving
- Okay last one
- Okay
- The year is 2004 you win your 5th Emmy
playing Ronald Reagan in the TV movie, The Reagans
- Mmhmm
- What were you driving?
- Porsche Cabriolet, yeah
- Your a classy man
(laughter)
- I do love Porsches.
I had one I went in and bought a 2 year old Porsche
pulled in so as I drove by and I went,
"hmm boy that's pretty"
and I had it for 11 years I wouldn't give it up
so I'm kind of a Porsche guy.
- Nice
Lets talk a little bit about Life in Pieces
- Can I tell you what I drive now?
- Oh, yes of course
- A Raptor
the best vehicle I've ever
- I just saw one of those
- Ever been in
- at the Roosevelt Hotel the other day
- Well you just need a second job to pay for the gas
(laughter)
so I feel embarrassed about that
but I also have a mini which sorta evens it out.
- (laughing) yeah that's great
Lets talk about Life in Pieces
- Mmhmm
- Congratulations another season ahead of you
- Mmhmm
- You get some good one liners
- I do
- You do
- I do, yeah
and sometimes I must say I'll read
you know when I read the pilot I laughed the whole time
sometimes I get my one liners
and I don't get em' and I have to go to the writers
and say, "what is this mean?"
(Mayra laughs)
and okay, okay.
And you know one thing about,
we've got 11 really good actors on this show so
no matter whether
they truly understand
the genre of a comedy they know how to make it work
they know how to make it their own
and to me if something is funny to you
then it will be funny to the audience
just because your tickled.
- Yeah
- So a lot of those one liners we just
we kinda have to ring out a little bit
but I do get the good ones.
- Yeah
what I like about the family dynamics
- Yeah
- Its almost like the saying you know "opposites attract"
between a man and a woman but its "opposites attract"
in a family as well. Do you think that way?
- Absolutely and its true at home you know with us
I mean my wife and I are very different
and that's what makes it work
- Yeah
Got any tips out there for people with a glamorous wife
whose more of a cowboy?
- The more you look for it, the less you'll find it
just when your not looking for love anymore
and have no time for it
that's when its gonna tap you on the shoulder
- Ah that's nice very nice
so another thing about Life in Pieces is that the family
has a lot of brunches.
- Mmhmm
- Do you have any tips for surviving a family brunch?
- Boy their tedious
(Mayra laughs)
you know table scenes are tedious and its funny
I don't really identify with it so much because
(James clears throat)
you know a lot of times were more buffet style
and everybody can kinda go their own way in my own life
to sit around that table and have the camera
pop in
between two people because if you know
about camera directions its easy
to have lets say I'm talking to you
but I'm looking over here
if you don't have the right camera
so every time you pop in around the
and every time you change the camera position
is new lighting
those are long days.
- Yeah
- I got no answer for that
(laughter)
you bare with it
- So one of the things that yor known for now
is your
directing Hallmark movies
- Mmhmm
- What are the essential ingredients
to a good Hallmark movie?
- Oh well, not that I'm married to those essentials
but a Hallmark movie has to have a lot of love
and kindness
and
almost
from the first scene
everything is going all too well
the difference in me is
I love to have
and I've had a few arguments with them
I love to have things not going well
in the beginning of a movie
and then as you see them work
I mean to me that's what
movies are
really
mostly used for
is we learn to work out some of our own problems
through watching films.
- Yeah
- And so as I say, I have to wrestle with them
and usually like if you look at the two movies I did
in the last two years for them
there's trouble in the beginning
and then
and there's love in the end you know
- Yeah
- But I've got a theatrical I'm trying
to get financing for now
and we've got three or four scripts in development
- [Marya] Excellent
- And who knows what's next
- Keeping yourself busy
- Yeah, between the series
and having four and a half or five months off
think,"can we fit a movie in there
and do post on it and everything?" is
but
I'm quick
(Marya laughs)
- James Brolin, thank you so much for being here today
and good luck on your future adventures
- Mmhmm thank you
- Well we'll be watchin'
- Oh boy