The Real Reason Josh Brolin Agreed To Play Thanos In The MCU
As the Marvel Cinematic Universe's biggest and baddest threat to the Avengers within the pop culture phenomenon that was "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame," it's difficult to imagine anyone other than Josh Brolin as the smooth voice and purple face of the "Mad Titan," Thanos. However, as the actor recently shared with ACE Universe, he might have never taken on the role if not for one key factor.
Brolin talked about a lot of his past, present and future roles during the interview, including his upcoming role in "Dune," his work ethic as an actor and his interest in producing and directing more. However, the conversation turned to his iconic role as Thanos, where he opened up about how Marvel reached out to him and what exactly they had to say in order for him to accept the role. Before you say "money," Brolin says that's not the only reason he signed up for the gig.
Being the nemesis to all the Avengers, not just one, was what won Josh Brolin over
Josh Brolin shared how those at Marvel Studios and Disney pitched the role to him, and how he first agreed to do a cameo for "Guardians of the Galaxy" before doing another for the post-credits scene of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" and ultimately entering the spotlight in "Infinity War" and "Endgame."
"When I said yes to Thanos, they'd given me a big bible and really talked me up," Brolin told ACE Universe. "But it wasn't for a massive, massive part in two final films of a 10-year span. It was meant more as a cameo. So it was never the size of the role that was like, 'Oh, I want to do that because it's going to push me further up into that fame or stardom' or whatever. It was like, 'What's the role?'"
When Brolin heard that the role wasn't the typical nemesis to one Avenger but "all the Avengers," that's when Brolin said, "I'm in. That's me. I can do that!"
Josh Brolin said that doing motion capture for Thanos took him back to his early acting days
Even when they told him he would have to look silly in the ping-pong ball motion capture suit, he said, "I don't care! It's all acting." When asked if it was less about acting than being "practical" with another actor onstage, Brolin objected, "No, it's all acting. If you don't have somebody there to bounce something off of, you're left more to your imagination."
He compared the role to his early theater performances in the '70s, where his theater wouldn't have the budget for a realistic-looking gun as a prop and thus they made do with whatever they had. "If you believe it's a gun, [the audience] will believe it's a gun. And [playing Thanos] goes back to that, which was really, really fun."
Speaking of fun, Brolin reprises his role of Thanos during the second episode of the Disney+ series "What If...?", where he plays an alternate universe version of the character where the late, great Chadwick Boseman's Star-Lord is able to talk the Mad Titan out of snapping away half the universe, instead joining his merry band of honorable thieves.