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Mr President...
Hot off films like No Country For Old Men and Milk, Josh Brolin takes centre stage as former US President George W. Bush in Oliver Stone’s surprising biopic W.
"Josh Brolin gives a great performance as George W. Bush," says W. director Oliver Stone. "This is the greatest performance of his life. It would be a mistake to define this as a comedy. Most drama has moments of comedy. It could have been a parody, but Josh Brolin gives it credibility. Josh was a surprise for me, whether he knows it or not. He's a wonderful actor."
Josh Brolin is obviously of towering, central importance to W. The charismatic actor continues to ride a mid-career renaissance on the back of his beautifully laconic performance in The Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men, a scene-stealing supporting role in Ridley Scott's American Gangster, and his Oscar nominated turn in Gus Van Sant's Milk. Brolin finds the required complexity and humour in the on-screen "character" of George W. Bush, never stooping to mere mimicry. Despite being such a good fit for the role, Brolin initially rejected Oliver Stone's offer. "Oliver has a very controversial reputation, which I found out later is just superficial," the actor says. "So my perception about him and, as it turned out, about the movie, was totally wrong.
"Initially, I said no," Brolin continues. "I told Oliver that I'd love to work with him, but I just had no interest in going there. The fact that Oliver was even seeing any kind of connection between me and Bush was slightly insulting. Oliver, instead of being put off by that, was intrigued. He said, ‘Just read it'. Once I read the script, I was amazed. Usually when you do a biopic, you cover about ten years of their life. Here, we go from the age of 21 to 58. So I went from thinking, ‘Why would you want to do a movie about this?' to thinking, ‘This is the greatest job an actor could ever have. Can I live up to it?' So, if anything, it was based on a fear of pulling it off. I was taken aback by the script, and moved by it. I was even saddened by it. Above all, I identified with it. I asked my son if he would read it because I respect his opinion a lot. He did, and his response was, ‘You cannot not do this'," says Brolin, who eventually accepted the role despite several loudly voiced objections from his famously liberal stepmother Barbra Streisand.
“The fact that Oliver [Stone] was even seeing any kind of connection between me and George W. Bush was slightly insulting.”
"Ultimately, I spring-boarded from a lot of fear, and the thought that I wouldn't be able to do it. When Oliver first approached me, I thought, ‘Why would you want to do a movie about that, when you can watch this guy on CNN?' I had a very cosmetic view of Bush, and also of Oliver Stone. You know, we actually asked George W. Bush to be a technical advisor on the film, and he declined."
Which, of course, is hardly surprising. While he is certainly not sandbagged in the film, W. is no glowing cinematic portrait of the recently retired US President. With a wealth of material available, Brolin had a ready-made starting-off point. "I felt like I knew everything I needed to know about W. and his administration," Brolin says. "We played with the idea of, ‘Well, what was he like as a young man? Was all the stuttering and breathiness caused by tension? Did it increase in office? How much is too much?' This is our version of George W. Bush and his life. It's worth doing, especially considering the impact that he's had on the world."
The Texas drawl, the squint, the malapropisms, and the permanent look of utter puzzlement have made the 43rd President such an easy target that many talk show hosts have admitted that they'll miss their favourite whipping boy in the dawn of freshly inaugurated Barack Obama's hopeful new Presidency.
"The thing about this President is that he's an exaggeration," says Brolin. "What we've tried to do is create a drama with the realities of those exaggerations; we didn't want to make it just buffoonery. I don't think we did. George W. Bush may have done that himself, but we haven't."
W. is available on DVD now.