Josh Brolin
Destined for a life in solitude, Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) is a scarred Civil War veteran turned bounty hunter who barely survived death, and now exists with one foot in the real world, one in the supernatural one. His sole human connection is with Lilah (Megan Fox), whose life in a brothel has left her with scars of her own. Drawn by his past, Jonah stumbles on an offer he can’t refuse – revenge upon his number one enemy Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich), the man who killed his family and branded his face with an iron.
Read on as Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, director Jimmy Hayward and producer Andrew Lazar talk about the making of
Jonah Hex.
Q: Josh, what was it like to create a superhero from scratch, whose reputation didn’t precede him? And Megan, what was it like to work on this action movie?
Josh Brolin: [This was] stemming from a comic book that has had three lives and that wasn’t necessarily very successful, but I loved the idea that it refused to die. It allowed us to take luxuries and do what we wanted to do as long as we had the blessing of the comic book artists. The core of the characters is there, but we go off on all these different tangents – we’re allowed to.
Megan Fox: I like working on action films, and I like working on movies that are comic book based, or that have this theme, because they’re things I watched or loved as a kid.
Q: Megan, why did you decide to be a part of this film?
Fox: I felt like it was an amazing opportunity for me to be involved in a project with Josh, and John Malkovich, and Fassbender, and I just wanted to be a part of it any way that I could. I don’t really feel like she’s that stereotypical. But it’s something completely different from anything I’ve done, and no one can accuse me of doing the same thing twice, which I’m proud of.
Q: Having done other action movies in the past, what was more challenging: doing the action scenes in this movie, or squeezing into that corset everyday?
Fox: Actually, there was one gunfight scene they had been choreographing for a couple of weeks, and I had minutes to get it down and rehearse it. It was really difficult for me to shoot the old-style gunslinger guns, because I have tiny little baby hands, and they’re really large and really heavy.
I loved the corset. When I showed up for camera tests, everyone thought I was in pain, or hurting, that something was wrong with me, because my waist was so small, but I enjoyed it, and I wish they’d come back into style.
Q: How did you two come up with any character back story?
Fox: Well, Josh and I had a conversation about what their past relationship could have been, and why she would be so dedicated and so in love with someone who treated her the way that he did, and was not able to love, and we came up with a back story between the two of us, what things had gone on in the past, and why she was so dedicated and loyal to him.
Brolin: It’s a Beauty and the Beast thing, physically, cosmetically. But then, I think the parallel and the kinetic connection is because they’re equally broken. Then there’s also – I mean, I hate saying this, but I will – an older-younger type of thing.
Q: What about the villain being a “terrorist”?
Jimmy Hayward: As the Quentin Turnbull [plot] developed, he turned into a secessionist kind of guy. Then we added the dynamite vests, and as we continued to develop it…we weren’t drawing direct parallels, but it’s impossible not to, in that he’d be like the first American terrorist.
Andrew Lazar: I think we did make a decision once we saw the dynamite vest that this is a guy who’s willing to exact terror. This was a guy who was willing to destroy institutions and innocent people in order to get exactly what he wanted. I think it’s topical, and makes it a little different than just a regular Civil War/western film.
Q: Can you talk about the casting of Josh and Megan?
Lazar: Josh Brolin was our first choice for Jonah Hex. He turned us down a few times. We just wouldn’t say no, we just kept going back and we wore him down. As for Megan, the role of Lilah actually has some depth to it as well. We really felt that there’s an edge that Megan has as an actress.
Hayward: Ninety percent of the great casting choices for this movie go to Josh. Josh was leading the film in the beginning, and brought in his friends. That’s the reason why people like Michael Fassbender, Megan and John Malkovich were in the movie, because Josh is friends with them.
Q: Josh, what’s your favorite John Malkovich moment?
Brolin: The great thing about John is he’s so in character, but he doesn’t stay in character. There was one take that we did, and John says, “Josh, can you come here for a second?” And I said, “Yeah, John, what’s up?” and he says, “Um, can you pull my finger?” And I said, “Seriously?” And he says, “Yeah, just grab my finger, and just pull it.” And I pulled his finger, and I heard a crack, and I go, “Oh f**k, man. Are you alright?” And he goes, “Yeah, I think you broke it. But I’m fine.” That’s my best John Malkovich.
Q: Can you comment on the challenges of the makeup and prosthetics, and what it was like dealing with that on a daily basis?
Brolin: A pain in the ass. We did three hours of makeup a day. It was very tough, there were many different layers: I had a mouthpiece that held my mouth all the way back and that was attached to the back of my neck, and then we did three more layers on top of that, and then I walked around with half a mustache and half a beard in New Orleans for three months. So there was nothing attractive.
Hayward: We actually talked about him going further with the eye.
Brolin: Yeah, we actually had the eye, which is in the comic book, and I started to get an infection like within the hour, and I’m not that dedicated [laughs]. But to be honest with you, I think – it sounds like bullsh*t, but it’s not – it lent to the curmudgeon-y feel of the character itself. We actually worked fourteen, sixteen hours a day, so I couldn’t eat that whole time. I would stuff myself in the morning, and then just drink water throughout the whole day, and it was a hundred degrees. So it was a pain. Would I do it again? Yeah. Because it’s like having a baby; now I look at the end result and go, “that’s pretty cool.”
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