For well over two decades, we’ve come to know Josh Brolin as a powerhouse through his best movies. From staring in some of the best films of the 2000s – No Country for Old Men – to playing the MCU’s big bad Thanos, he’s cemented himself as a movie star. Now, he’s showing a different side of himself and his art in Amazon Prime’s Outer Range, as he stars in the show as the lead, Royal Abbott, and serves as an executive producer and director.
With Season 2 of Brolin’s sci-fi Western swiftly approaching on the 2024 TV schedule, CinemaBlend had the chance to chat with the beloved actor about taking on more responsibility behind the scenes on Outer Range. And by talking with him about directing the penultimate episode of the show’s sophomore season and casting his younger self in the series, it became abundantly clear that he cares immensely about all this work and this story. Essentially, what it boils down to is that by taking on new responsibilities on this project his “obsession with storytelling just grew.”
Josh Brolin Opens Up About Directing An Episode Of Outer Range
Outer Range is a thought-provoking project that Josh Brolin has seemingly put his heart and soul into. The project marks his first time as a regular on a show in over 20 years, and he’s more than just the star. He’s also been an executive producer since Season 1, and in Season 2 he decided to direct an episode.
Speaking to CinemaBlend about helming Episode 6 of Outer Range’s sophomore season, Brolin started by posing questions about why he wanted to do this in the first place. He told me:
I did SNL recently, and I didn't, you know, you don't at this point, this doesn't have to do with status or anything, but there's no reason for me to do it. You know, if I'm trying to promote something, I guess, but for me personally, it's like, ‘Am I getting lazy? What kind of energy am I bringing? Do I still have the engine that I had, and all that kind of stuff?’
Outer Range: What To Watch If You Like Amazon Prime's Sci-Fi Neo-Western
Josh Brolin didn’t decide to direct to raise his own status, he did it because he wanted to push himself as a creative. He told me that when he’s worked with other directors he’s appreciated the ones who have “the least amount of pretense and the least amount of ego,” and that’s what he wanted to bring to Outer Range.
His passion for creating this show was palpable during our conversation, especially when he started telling me about what excited him most about directing. Speaking about getting to work with all the departments on the show as well as the stellar Outer Range cast, the Dune actor explained:
I got super excited about other actors. It was really fun not having to focus on ‘Well, what am I doing in the scene? And what am I this, and how are they directing? And are they fucking it up? Are they, you know, enhancing it or whatever?’ And it was really fun to get into the behavioral architecture of it, and then also be able to work with DPs and production designers and wardrobe and all that kind of stuff.
Later in the interview, Brolin recalled a scene he filmed with Imogen Poots, who plays Autumn. Without giving any plot points away, the scene in question sees Autumn in a very vulnerable and intense place, and it requires Poots to give a very committed performance. He told me that it was very meaningful to see her put “an incredible amount of trust” into the show and him while shooting it. The actor said his co-star really pushed herself, and they trusted each other and moved egos out of the way. As he said they “put it all out there,” and that’s what he wants as a director.
Overall, being able to direct helped emphasize Josh Brolin’s love for filmmaking, as he told me:
It was just more fun… My interest and my obsession with storytelling just grew.
Along with directing, Brolin also has a hand in a lot of the creative decisions made in the show, from the story to the casting, since he’s also an executive producer. To that point, we chatted about what it was like casting his younger self in Outer Range, and what that meant to him.
Josh Brolin Told Me What It Was Like Casting A Younger Version Of Royal Abbott
Another fun element of figuring out how to tell Outer Range’s story in Season 2 came when they needed to cast the younger version of Josh Brolin’s Royal Abbott. In the very first scene of this season, we meet a version of the Abbott patriarch when he’s in his late 20s to early 30s, and he’s played by Christian James. Casting him turned out to be a reflective experience for Brolin as he told me this about what he was looking for when they were trying to find their young Royal:
I mean, yeah, you're looking for a sense, but then you're also looking at your past self, where, like I said, I mean, not that he has a big ego, because he was so wonderful, and he was so into it, but, you know, a younger version of you, you're gonna get those adolescent add ons that you've let go of since. I'm a 56-year-old guy, he's in his 30s. It's a different thing. So, you know, he's me and No Country [For Old Men] or before.
Brolin went on to say that while he loved working with James, he also might have been “too hard” on him in the beginning, just because it’s in his nature to “poke and prod.” To that point, he told me that seeing the young Royal thrive on set and handle his poking and prodding showed him that he was perfect for the show:
It was really fun. I think that I hit him too hard in the beginning, where I was like, ‘What are you doing? I don't understand.’ But I think that that's just my nature to kind of poke and prod. Once I felt like he could deal with it, he was one of us, and it was okay.
Along with James having the right attitude, he also feels like a younger version of Josh Brolin’s Royal Abbott. The No Country for Old Men star told me that the reason the younger actor was great for the role came down to his body language and overall energy, he said:
But there was a sense about him that I really liked. I think he was trying to get a voice thing down. I think he did a really good job at it. But it was more his body language and the way he kind of held himself that I think made it work well. I thought he did great, though. It was a very strange thing to be able to do which is why I’m having trouble talking about it. It was so weird.
Much like talking about directing his first episode, Josh Brolin was candid about casting young Royal and his responsibilities as the show’s star and executive producer.
The amount of love and care Brolin and his team put into this show is unmistakable, and it feels like Season 2 has the potential to make Outer Range one of Amazon Prime’s best shows. To see how the actor’s “obsession” with storytelling manifested itself on screen, you can stream the second installment of Outer Range with an Amazon Prime subscription starting May 16.
