MODERN RENAISSANCE MAN
Few actors have truly done it all the way James Brolin has. One of Hollywood’s most eminent figures, the actor, director, and producer has been a force to be reckoned with in the film industry for over six decades. And he has no intention of slowing down anytime soon.
Growing up with an engineer father and an inherently creative mother, James’s own creativity was nurtured throughout his childhood. As he recalls, at the age of 10, “my grandmother gave me a Brownie camera—those little black square ones you’ll see. I started being fascinated with not only that, but making my own cameras out of tape and cardboard.” He goes on to add, “I had a darkroom when I was 10 years old and then by 15 I graduated to film.” It was then that James started shooting films and realized that he wanted to be a filmmaker.
Musical arts were one of his earliest affinities. “I took up musical instruments, starting at seven.” However, “I never could remember if I didn’t play them all the time,” even if it was merely weeks later. “Same with languages,” he adds, “both of which I just love. And I hate my brain for not being able to retain music and languages better because I learn them quickly and I forget them just as quick and always have.” However, he seems to have always been a fast learner—a skill that has served him especially well in terms of retaining new material, such as lines.
Already possessing a flair for acting, when James “was alone with my buddies, I would play Quasimodo and I would do characters and things in private, but that was all private.” In fact, for James, being in the presence of an unfamiliar audience was an entirely different story. In junior high and high school, if he was asked to present a book report in front of his class, paralyzing stage fright would leave him shaking in his seat, unable to complete the task at hand. It wasn’t memorizing lines that was an issue for him—it was getting the words out that left James stumped.
The opportunity to break that silence literally walked up to him one day. “It had to be somewhere near South West Hollywood or Beverly Hills where somebody stopped me,” recollects James. “Said, ‘Would you be interested in being in a commercial?’ And I said, ‘Um, would I have to talk?’” he chuckles at this recollection. “‘Matter of fact, no. We just need you in a chambray shirt and cowboy hat driving a Dodge truck,’” the passerby responded. And this is how James went to work for BBD Commercial—he did two commercials for them and later one for Gallo wine. “All, basically, extemporaneous and not having to talk,” or, at least, nothing that made talking as issue.
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Having already gotten his foot in the door, “I was about 18 when I started Santa Monica City College as a theater arts major.” Being able to choose a variety of classes across an array of subjects catered to his personality perfectly. “I was very fickle in my interests,” he admits. “I know a little bit about a lot of things, and I’m master at absolutely nothing.” James left city college and was able to start at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the second year. “After a while, I was so bored,” confesses James. It didn’t help that UCLA only offered theater. There was no film department, and James couldn’t get into University of Southern California’s film program.
Eventually, he wound up leaving UCLA. “My parents were starting to travel, and I went and followed them because there was a movie.” He is referring to the production of the 1962 remake of Mutiny on the Bounty, which was filmed in Tahiti. A connection through his parents landed James the role of Marlon Brando’s son in the prologue and epilogue. “I was late 18 years old,” James recollects of what would go on to be his first, very memorable, major acting gig. “They changed directors three times. They got there in the middle of the monsoon season, so the town, everything was flooded. They had two barges that went 3,500 miles from MGM, with cameras and booms and stuff, all the way to Tahiti, which all just sat there for three months till the rain stopped. So, I waited and had a really good time in Tahiti!”
But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. “I had one year of fun, and I came home and started parking cars at Dino’s on the strip,” James says, referring to the Sunset Boulevard institution. He parked cars there for $42 a week and one meal a night out of the backdoor. This went on until an agent connection he’d made on the set of that Dodge commercial contacted him and sent James over to Fox. Although that gig didn’t manifest much, it did give James a means to pay for acting workshops. “I was literally at one almost five nights a week, a different one.” Just as the Outliers’ rule states, “I got my 10,000 hours in on stage, being humiliated, over and over, every night. Just humiliated! But I would do it, and I found out I didn’t die, you know?”
James was finally shaking off the stage fright. “And the more I did it, not only the more proficient I got at it, but the more that horrible feeling started to go away.” Even nowadays, “when I start a new project, the first day is difficult, and after that, it just all goes away because I know what I do.” This seems to be especially true if the job still holds interest for him the next day. After all, the success of a project often lies in the harmonious collaboration of all those involved. “That’s kind of why I love this business,” he divulges. “Because with the right crew and the right cast, it’s just amazing how giving and willing these people are.”
Initially, the set of Bus Stop didn’t exactly follow the nurturing directing style that James has honed over the years. “That first job was so difficult for me … I was used to being humiliated and then getting a check on Friday for it,” he laughs. There are many effective, tough directors out there, James acknowledges, but “I could never do anything but nurture the best out of people—I don’t have to demand it. I don’t think you get the best by demand, but sometimes you can get some pretty odd performances that film pretty well. It’s just not my way of doing it.”
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James’s roles in Bus Stop and Follow the Sun, both in 1961, were only the beginning of an acting career that has been thriving practically non-stop since then, such that it spans across both the big screen and television. In 1970, he was recognized with the honor of Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Drama Emmy® for his performance as Dr. Steven Kiley in the pilot episode of Marcus Welby, M.D. The show also earned him two Golden Globe® awards for Best Supporting Actor in 1971 and 1973. Adding to that, The Amityville Horror in 1979, 1973’s Westworld, and Traffic in 2000 are just a few of the most memorable movie performances of his career.
In fact, The Amityville Horror was quite the turning point for James’s career. “Then when I played the crazy guy, I mean, the nice family guy, who went nuts in Amityville, nobody knew what to do with me!” The movie was the highest grossing independent of all time back then, but the subsequent roles offered to him were, for the most part, not worthwhile—until the most prolific producer in television history got in touch.
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“Aaron Spelling called and said, ‘We’ll give him anything, whatever he desires, to be in Hotel.’ And I took it.” But, as it turned out, there was a contingency. “Part of my request was, ‘I want to direct.’ And he said, ‘Well after you’ve been here a year, we know we’re successful, you know the ropes. We’re going to do 22 shows this year, then at the start of next year, I’ll give you a chance to direct.’” James spent that entire year watching every director, taking notes, doing director’s breakdowns, and observing the skilled actors and movie stars Spelling was known to cast.
He called me the second year … and said, ‘Okay, all right, your year’s up. You want to direct? We got three scripts already. Pick the one you like.’” The studio had been on the crew because they were spending too much time and, incidentally, money on long shooting days. James remembers that they’d start at 6:30 in the morning and go until 8:30 at night, sometimes even 10 or 10:30. “So, I picked one and I broke it down so well and the first day of shooting,” he fondly reminisces, “I sent everybody home at 3:00, saying I got everything I need.”
What’s more? “Nobody got bored because we were always moving fast.” As a director, he is keenly aware about not wasting anyone’s time and always finds ways to keep people interested and engaged. James immediately got several more assignments directing shows for Spelling and eventually jumped over to Pensacola: Wings of Gold. This also went on to become his most prolific producing job—he’s credited as the executive producer for over 60 episodes from 1997 through 2000.
Having a career that has touched on so many different aspects of the film industry, it’s easier to list what James hasn’t done. While he has done roughly 40 to 50 voice sample tapes, over just as many years, that were submitted for narration parts, the Netflix/DC Comics series Sweet Tooth is his first official credit in that realm. James stars as the integral narrator for the show, which also stars Will Forte and is produced by Robert Downey, Jr. “Robert Downey and Susan Downey called and said, ‘We decided that you are narrating Sweet Tooth.’ And I said, ‘Really? What is it about?’ And they said, ‘We can’t tell you.’ We couldn’t go down to the studio because of COVID, so they set up a portastudio, delivered outside. I set it up myself with the visual and earphone.” The only thing he knew about the show came from seeing short clips on an iPad that was sent to him, and he actually watched the premiere alongside the rest of the world. The show has made it to Netflix’s top-ten most-watched English language originals list.
In a world altered by sickness, a newly emerged human-animal hybrid race takes center stage in Sweet Tooth, now in its second season. In many ways, Sweet Tooth alludes to the struggles of living in a pandemic-stricken world, the kind everyone is living in today. “Nobody wants to watch normal, really. They want to get rocked a little bit and so every movie starts with, ‘What if?’ And this is the artistic value in a creator or a director,” professes James. “‘How would each one of them resolve their differences or the decisions with the world or whatever?’ And, to me, every movie should start with just that, and then it can morph into whatever. But it should start with that notion: ‘What if?’”
When we used to leave the theater, on the way home in the car, we’d discuss the film all the way home. Now, you call your buddy and say, ‘I just saw a movie on HBO Max that you ought to see’ or you don’t.” This is how, James explains, the interactive element of moviegoing becomes somewhat lost. “Generally, everybody wants a real problem that gets resolved, and it has a happy ending, and you do understand what transpired, and that the characters grew up, and maybe you even grew up just watching it. I feel like movies are the best free shrink you can buy,” he believes. “A lot of people, and couples, won’t go to shrinks … But if they go to a movie that explains their situation,” James reasons, oftentimes, “suddenly their marriage is starting to get cohesive.” Considering that James and Barbra Streisand have been married for 23 years, it’s difficult to dispute his rationale. Truly a modern Renaissance man, and contrary to what he may believe, Brolin is a Jack, ahem, James of all trades and, indeed, a master of Hollywood.
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Features Editor Elisabeth Ross
Photographer, Creative Director, Stylist & Groomer Jim Jordan
Location White Cross Studios
Producer White Cross Productions
