By now it's no secret that while Will Smith's charisma wins over audiences in "Men in Black 3," it's Josh Brolin's performance that has everybody talking. He's able to completely personify Agent K in a way that tricks us into thinking a younger Tommy Lee Jones is actually on the screen.
When MTV News sat down and asked the actor how he was able to take on such a challenging role, he said he embraced "total fear."
"[The movie's] a great concept, I think. The story's fantastic. I really loved the idea of working with Will," he explained. "I've known Tommy for a long time, so to be able to [portray] Tommy is probably either the worst decision I've ever made or a great decision...I've heard he really likes it a lot, but I don't know. I know I'll never hear it from him, which I think is appropriate. I think with him not saying anything will keep it elusive and keep it fun."
We know one person who certainly liked his performance, director Barry Sonnenfeld. He told us that it was his idea to hire Brolin because he knew how "fantastic" he was at portraying other people. "When I read the script and saw that we needed someone to play young Tommy Lee Jones, I said to the studio, 'It's gotta be Brolin.' Brolin walked into the room to have a meeting, I looked at him and I said, 'I cannot wait to see your head in 3-D.'"
In fact, Brolin's head may be a little too dimensional. Sonnenfeld told us a little secret: "The first day we shot with Josh was the scene where [he's] interviewing Will Smith at MIB headquarters in 1969. When you see the film, maybe others won't notice this, but I felt that every close up of Josh is too close and it's my fault because I knew he had a big head and I forgot to back the camera up enough."
But his big head aside, Brolin revealed that the best part of playing a younger Agent K is viewing the film to see if he pulled it off.
"The favorite element is watching the movie and realizing that it may have worked or it didn't get in the way of a really fun story, you know, and eventually an emotional story, which I like most about this movie," he said. "Just doing it—the process of getting into it and watching films that Tommy is in and things that I had never seen before. I had always been a huge fan."
There are some people Brolin's portrayed that he wasn't fond of getting into character for (a former president is among them), but he said he enjoyed getting to know Jones. "It's very interesting to get into [his life] and go, 'God, really? That was him when he was a kid, and that's how he acted, and that was his first part, and that was a commercial he did?' I really liked spending time with Tommy even though it's not with Tommy," he laughed.
Do you think Brolin pulled off playing a younger Jones? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter!
