Brolin Hints at Plot of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice

Thanks to reader Bryce for point us to the news that Josh Brolin has let slip a few interesting tidbits from Anderson’s new film. The Film Stage got the story from Cigs & Red Vines, which got the story from The Independent. Here are a few choice quotes:

“I just did a movie for P T Anderson that I didn’t understand. The writing of Thomas Pynchon is so Shakespearean. It was crazy, chaotic but really, really gratifying.” He added, “We took it I think in a direction that the book doesn’t necessarily go, hoping it will work.” A hint at what direction that may be comes from a Cigs’ source, who notes that Jonny Greenwood, having completed the score, reveals that it’s “more romantic” than his last two collaborations with Anderson, There Will Be Blood and The Master.

That’s not all Brolin revealed regarding the production, as he goes on to tell Yahoo, “More than any woman I’ve ever worked with, I absolutely fell in love with Joaquin Phoenix. [He’s] the most wonderful human being and actor.” Diving into an example, he says, “Joaquin and I would do these scenes together and Paul would say, ‘This time do it with the table upside down, and you guys get under the table and I’m going to put a blanket over you, and I want you to whisper your lines. And now this time, no lines and no dialogue at all, and I want you to just dance your dialogue. Whatever that next line is, I want you to create a movement that’s going to be what that line of dialogue was going to be if you spoke it.’ It was just craziness, you know, but really fun. After that, we’d go back to the scene and it would be fed by all those other things that you can create something magical. But you have to do some pretty weird things.”