Josh Brolin and Julia Garner have a lot of friends in common, so when they found their way to lead roles in Zach Cregger’s Weapons, those pals whispered all good things in their ears.
“People kept saying, ‘You guys are going to love each other and it’s going to be great,’” Brolin explained to The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s Los Angeles premiere last Thursday. “I got nervous then because I kept thinking, well, what if it’s not great? I’m not going to agree to work with someone just because another person tells me that I’m going to like ‘em.”
Spoiler alert: They loved each other.
“We just hit it off immediately,” Brolin said with a smile. “Like immediate cellular, sibling shit.”
Brolin and Garner at a Weapons screening at New York’s AMC Empire.
(Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Pictures)
When they got to Cregger’s Atlanta set, the bond formed instantly, despite the fact that their characters spend a chunk of time locking horns on screen. The horror thriller from Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line casts Garner as Justine Gandy, a teacher who awakens to learn that 17 of the 18 children in her classroom simultaneously got out of bed and ran off into the night, all at the same time of 2:17 a.m. Brolin plays Archer Graff, a grieving father intent on finding his missing child and suspicious that Gandy had something to do with it.
If you’ve seen the trailer or the newest scene released by the studio last week, then you know that Brolin and Garner were tasked with some intense exchanges in front of cameras, but that mood didn’t bleed into their trailers. “We hung out a lot, which never happens,” continued Brolin about his co-star, who also just so happens to be a fellow alum of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (He starred as Thanos in the Avengers franchise, while she’s still on screen playing Silver Surfer in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.)“I like my own space and she likes her own space but we spent a lot of time together.”
Same with Amy Madigan. “I’ve known Amy for a long time, and I’d come out of the [soundstage] and there she was with all this makeup on and it scared the shit out of me,” Brolin admitted. “I’d want to stay away from her but at the same time, it was Amy and she’s so sweet. Everybody was great on this movie, man. It was just one of those communal experiences that you hope to always have when you’re working.”
Garner and Brolin in Weapons.
Quantrell Colbert/Warner Bros.
Garner confirmed the love-fest.
“Working with this guy was amazing,” she said with Brolin over her shoulder on the red carpet inside the Broadway Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles. “We had so much fun. We spent every day giggling and laughing. He’s one of my favorite actors and he’s just the best. Getting to meet him was incredible, and then working with him was incredible because of who he is as a person. He’s so present as an actor. It really was a truly remarkable experience all around.”
Cregger called them both “exceptional” talents, and credited their versatility. “The reason I love them both is that they are dramatic actors who are incredible at comedy so they can live in the same kind of tone,” he detailed. “The horror genre sometimes gets a little sidelined in terms of talent. It’s been doing a lot better lately but you don’t usually get to attract people of their caliber to projects like this one. I feel really fortunate to have them and the entire cast.”
Alden Ehrenreich, Austin Abrams, Cary Christopher, June Diane Raphael, Luke Speakman, Benedict Wong, Clayton Ferris, Toby Huss and Whitmer Thomas round out the cast. Weapons opens Aug. 8.
Austin Abrams, Benedict Wong, Garner, Cregger, Brolin, Cary Christopher, Alden Ehrenreich, June Diane Raphael and Amy Madigan at the L.A. premiere. “It’s a really great cast,” Ehrenreich told THR. “It was one of the best scripts that I’ve ever read, and then I met Zach and he explained where it was coming from, it all made it make perfect sense because he’s writing about real human experience. He’s not just writing fanfare for people to digest as entertainment. When you’re working on something that’s from someone’s vision, it just makes it all so much better. I just loved it. It’s one of my favorite films I’ve worked on.”
(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)