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Josh Brolin is opening up about how his "crazy" upbringing influenced his acting career.
The Dune actor recently appeared on the Talk Easy podcast for a lengthy chat with host Sam Fragoso that covered everything from his "feral" childhood working on a ranch in Paso Robles and complex family life to his sobriety journey and his new memoir From Under the Truck.
Brolin explained how his complicated family life, especially his relationship with his mother as well as his father James Brolin, also a famous actor, and the people he surrounded himself with during his youth impacted his desire to become an actor. While some may see fame as a positive aspect of the job, that wasn't his main motivating factor.
"I was somebody who was not interested in acting as a celebrity, as a conduit to celebrity-ism," he said. "I was interested in behavior because it was curious to me, because I grew up around a f---ing bunch of crazy people that I couldn't figure out. And then I had my guys, and even then, behaviorally, they were all over the place."
He continued, "Acting to me was absolutely f---ing useless if we didn't get into inside the behavior of what people do and why they do it, and how curious and how chaotic and how nutty it is, which I think is the manifestation of [his memoir]."
According to the podcast description, "Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso is a weekly series of intimate conversations with artists, activists, and politicians. Where people sound like people." Past guests of the podcast include Jesse Eisenberg, Anna Kendrick, Francis Ford Coppola and Joaquin Phoenix to name a few.
Follow along with new episodes of Talk Easy every Sunday at iHeart.com.