The Ride OF His Life

Josh BROLIN is full-throttle this year. In the fall, he stars in the heartbreaking TRUE STORY of nineteen elite FIREFIGHTERS who died battling a wildfire that threatened their town. After that comes his widely anticipated follow-up to the drug-war thriller SICARIO. Maximillian Potter meets up with the forty-nine year-old actor in California and hears about his IMPROBABLE journey to the TOP.

- Maximillian Potter

LATE in the afternoon on June 5, 2016, Josh Brolin walked onto the deck of the house he was renting in the hills outside Santa Fe. There was something he needed to do. In a few short days, the Oscar-nominated actor would start filming Only the Brave, the Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a drama based on the real-life story of nineteen elite wildland firefighters who died battling a blaze in Prescott, Arizona, in 2013. In the movie, which will be released this fall, Brolin is Eric Marsh, the gruff“Papa Bear” of the hotshot crew.

Brolin and his costars had just wrapped an intensive two-week wildland-firefighting training camp, and he wanted to mark his commitment to the film. So he walked onto that deck naked. Wearing nothing but thick socks and black leather work boots, he stood with his legs shoulder-width apart and his hands on his hips. He faced the hills where the movie would be shot, and he asked his wife, Kathryn, to position herself a few yards behind him and take his picture. He then posted the photo to his Instagram with the caption “Boots are broken in.” He stuck on hashtags: #letsdothis, #youknowwhoyouare, #respect.

Within days, Brolin and Only the Brave’s director, Joseph Kosinski, began to get texts and emails from the production company. The photo is disrespectful. Think of the men who died; think of the families. Please delete.

Brolin didn’t fault the production company for asking. He is a son of Hollywood—his father is actor James Brolin—so he knew what bad PR could mean. There was no way for the studio people to understand that a photo of himself in the buffin those boots was exactly the tribute the firefighters’ families would appreciate—a tribute to their crazy bravery, their willingness to hump into hills of hellfire and lay it all on the line.