In Weapons, Josh Brolin plays Archer Graff: a father who has seen his entire life upended by the disappearance of his son. It’s all he can think about, and it has not only distracted him from his work as a contractor, but he spends his nights sleeping in his child’s bed. There are multiple scenes with Archer cocooned in the boy’s Batman sheets, and while there is a darkness and sadness to the behavior, it did lead to a funny incident on set: Brolin actually fell asleep for real in the midst of a take.
The actor made this confession to me when I spoke with him late last month during the Los Angeles press day for Weapons – as captured in the video above. I opened the interview asking for his analysis of the symbol-filled dream that Archer has during the character’s segment of the movie, and he laughed as he told me how he accidentally took a nap while cameras were rolling. Said Brolin,
There was a shot that goes from one side and goes over me and goes... Yeah, I fell asleep during that. I was supposed to be dreaming, and maybe I was dreaming. I was just probably not dreaming the dream in the movie. Yeah. But I fell asleep.
I followed up asking if it had been a particularly long day of filming, and he explained that it didn’t have anything specifically to do with the day, and it instead is just part of his life while he is working. If Josh Brolin is working, he apparently isn’t getting the CDC-recommended seven hours of sleep that an adult needs.
He was tired, and he was in a comfy bed, and that equation equaled “sleep” for his brain. A lot of us can probably relate… though most of us probably don’t have cameras filming the moment. Fortunately, writer/director Zach Cregger had a sense of humor about it:
When I work, I don't sleep. I just sleep four or five hours a night. And after two-and-a-half months of that and going from job to job yeah, it was a good opportunity. He laughed. He thought it was funny.
I know that special features are more and more becoming the exclusive domain of boutique home video distributors instead of major studios, but I am very much hoping that there is at least a short blooper real included on the eventual 4K UHD/Blu-ray release of Weapons with the footage from the camera arcing over Josh Brolin’s torso and landing on his face in mid-slumber. The actor can obviously laugh it off, and Zach Cregger evidently enjoyed it in the moment, and it would probably be pretty funny to watch. Had I interviewed the filmmaker during the press day after talking with Brolin instead of before, I definitely would have asked about it.
Co-starring Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong, and Amy Madigan, Weapons is now playing in theaters everywhere, and it’s the buzziest film around – following weeks of excited hype with a bigger-than-expected performance at the box office during its opening weekend. If you haven’t seen it yet, I would highly recommend that you do so soon, as the ending is exceptionally wild, and you should see it for yourself before getting spoiled.
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