Whalefall's Josh Brolin Cried So Hard Reading The Book That It Changed His Performance [Exclusive]

By any measure, making "Whalefall" was not an easy or simple task for its cast and crew. For the latter, creating the various interior spaces of a whale in which Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams) has found himself trapped inside required a lot. For the former, in addition to Abrams having to convey the reality of being trained as a deep sea diver while also using his wits and knowledge to escape the whale, he and Josh Brolin (who plays Mitt, Jay's late father) had to create characters that were are remarkably nuanced and human as they appear in co-screenwriter Daniel Kraus' source novel. Director and co-writer Brian Duffield could provide some guidance to them, of course, yet it was up to Abrams and Brolin to not fall into any traps of making these men cliched or simple.

I had the opportunity to speak with Josh Brolin on the eve of the release of "Whalefall," and he revealed to me that it was in fact Kraus' work which acted as the true North Star for his performance. More specifically, his profound emotional reaction to the novel's depiction of a father and son who had as many deep-seated issues as they do love between them is what inspired him to make Mitt more than just a standard abusive and problematic father figure. Brolin told me he was "so moved by the book" that it ended up changing his performance for the better. As a result, his work in "Whalefall" became more personal, and that's why his Mitt is a remarkably effective and effecting character.

Josh Brolin's reliability as an actor is likely a large reason why he was cast as Mitt Gardiner. He's instantly believable as a gruff, roughneck fisherman and deep sea diver. His no-nonsense quality also lends itself to Mitt's more distasteful aspects; he even recently played a similar prickly father figure in Ridley Scott's "The Dog Stars." So Brolin could've played Mitt without having to dig too deep, yet his reaction to Daniel Kraus' novel meant that he dedicated a lot of himself to "Whalefall." As he explained to me, he sees Mitt as more than merely complex:

"I mean, complexity, I don't know if I can use that word, but I know that I thought I don't want to rest on any just kind of angry or rageful laurels. I want to open this guy up as much as possible and I want to understand how much he loves his son, as opposed to just tries to fit him into a little design of his own. But I know that I went further with this role in prep, and I was so moved by the book when I read the book that that always came back up. I said, 'Don't forget how much you sobbed at the end of this book and what that is.' So obviously it was personal for me in some form."

Indeed, one of the joys of "Whalefall" lies in the way it examines various shades of masculinity, and doesn't lazily regurgitate empty platitudes or resort to archetypes. Mitt is many things at once (even, after a fashion, something wholly unexpected), and Brolin delivers a special performance he should be proud of.

"Whalefall" is in theaters everywhere.