Josh Brolin lost his virginity at age 11, admits heroin use around ‘Goonies’ phase

Josh Brolin

Josh Brolin covers the February issue of Men’s Journal to promote Gangster Squad, which has performed rather poorly at the box office this past weekend with an estimated $16.7 million in ticket sales. Of course, some people might say that people just aren’t in the mood for a violent movie these days (due to recent tragedies), but Django Unchained has performed exceptionally well and earned $100 million in less than 10 days (and now it’s up to $126 million). The problem with Gangster Squad is that it just looked like a ridiculous movie that was trying but failing to be the next Chinatown or L.A. Confidential.

Regardless, Josh Brolin will continue to be in demand in Hollywood — a fact which is also at odds with his reputation as a bar brawler whose antics are so pronounced that he just got arrested for public intoxication on New Year’s Eve. I think we all know that if an actress was pulling this nonsense, she would be considered unemployable, right? But Josh is just coasting through gigs like crazy these days, and now the 44-year-old, petulant brat is bragging to a magazine about his early “drug- and alcohol-fueled days as a young star,” which are still continuing to this date. Well, all except for the heroin, probably. Here are some excerpts:

Josh Brolin

The sex: Josh — who lost his virginity at age 11 to a girl named Greta — says he became an “intimidator” and a “goon” as the years went on.

The drugs: “I was the last [gang member] to get into heroin — I smoked it — and the first to get out. I was around 16 or 17, so it was around the time of The Goonies. But I liked working and learning, so it was very difficult for me to lend myself to that drug completely.”

The rock ‘n’ roll: “I stole a lot of radios from cars. I could pop the detail with a coat hanger real easy. I got very good at it. I can still do it today.” Josh sold the stolen car parts to buy “drums and drugs,” he explains. “What else was there?”

His first arrest (aww) was a memorable one: “When I was 19 a fight broke out, and when the police came, I fought the police. I was pretty drunk. To this day, I have no idea what the fight was about. I woke up in jail. The police were very angry with me. Very angry. They kicked my ass really well. I was looking at a long time in prison. So, basically, I put everything I had — everything I had earned from a TV series I did — into lawyer. I did a bit of jail time. Not much, but a little bit.”

He’s an incorrigible mess: In 2006, for instance, two weeks before filming started on No Country for Old Men — the movie that made him more than just a great character actor — Brolin was zipping around L.A. on his Ducati when he collided with a car, looped through the air, and broke his collarbone, putting himself in the position of having to lie to the Coen brothers about his health in order to keep the job. At the time, his wife, the actress Diane Lane, said to him, “Why do you always make it so difficult for yourself?” as if he brought on the accident himself, like maybe it was no accident at all. Brolin thinks about this now, the unexpected possibility of that being true. He kind of grimaces. “It does seem that way,” is all he can think to say.

[From Men’s Journal

Josh’s recent career resurgence of the past handful of years can be traced directly back to No Country for Old Men, but the amusing aspect of that casting decision is that Josh actually won the role of Llewelyn Moss by mistake. Joel and Ethan Coen thought they were scoring James Brolin (Josh’s dad), but somehow wires got crossed, and they just decided to go with it, thereby turning the movie into a 1980s period piece. Sure, Josh was good enough in the movie, but I don’t get why directors are continuing to hand him tons of roles when he’s such a drunken, unrepentant, violent mess. The only really smart thing the guy has ever done is to say no to Scientology, but I guess he probably just did that so he could still have his liquor.

Josh Brolin

Josh Brolin

Photos courtesy of WENN

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35 Responses to “Josh Brolin lost his virginity at age 11, admits heroin use around ‘Goonies’ phase”

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  1. Elceibeno says:

    I’m glad he stopped using drugs before it ruined his life. Why can’t Lindsey Lohan do the same?

  2. MoxyLady007 says:

    Supposedly he harrassed Emma Stone horribly on the making of this movie.

  3. Hakura says:

    He…sounds like an idiot. =\ Did it at age 11? The only reason I even knew what ‘it’ was at that age was because I’d started my period at that (rather young) age. (Granted my coworker’s daughter started at 8, so I don’t feel that young anymore.)

    Something about him just rubs me the wrong way. He obviously has no remorse for anything he’s done, Nor does it appear he’s learned anything from it. I agree the movie is probably not doing very well because of recent violent tragedies. Django had the advantage of having… just enough things different from ‘modern’ society for people not to consider it ‘too realistic’.

  4. Amy625 says:

    Josh gets roles because he’s a good actor and does his job. It’s not a Lindsay Lohan situation where he doesn’t show up and is destructive on set. It’s a mystery why she gets roles. Unless he was molested at 11 I doubt he had sex. Most likely childhood experimentation.

    • T.C. says:

      +1
      Josh is a screwup in his personal life but not on set. He is a very good actor and shows up on time. LILO is a screwup in every area of life.

    • Migdalia says:

      +1 +1 yes he is a very good actor and like with any job unless its interfering while you’re at work or you’re being unprofessional then what he does in his personal life is his business.

  5. mkyarwood says:

    11 is the magic number, isn’t it? Drew Barrymore is infamous for all sorts of things at 11.

  6. RuddyZooKeeper says:

    Please God tell me he wasn’t bragging about eleven freaking years old. I have a boy who’s ten and huge for his age. People gasp when he tells them how old he is. We are by no means prudes or a purposely sheltered household, but no effing way girls are on the radar in that way — and we have the Internet these days! I don’t even want to know how old the other side of this tryst was. Gag.

    • Loira says:

      i am a teacher ia middle school. 3 or 4 year ago, just starting the school year, one of the 7th graders, quite innocent one, went back to his home with a bunch of hickies a 9th grader gave to him after the bell rang. His mom was very angry, but it was after school. The girl was called out on that, but nothing more.
      He had started out very motivated at school and after that it was very hard for him to focus, he was always distracted and he was kind of chased by thegirls at school after that incident.
      That is just an anecdote, there are sooo many!

  7. carrie says:

    he just won “the awful photoshop award of the day” thanks to the cover

    • Amilu says:

      Really? It looks pretty (mostly) natural to me. Although…his arms do look like they’re a normal length here.*

      *Ever since a commenter on this site mentioned his T-Rex arms (and baby legs), it’s all I see now. On the Golden Globes stage last night, it was all I could see — He’s 5’10” with a 4′ torso.

  8. Enny says:

    Bedhead, you forgot about how he beats the crap out of Diane. A real winner, this one.

  9. Ranunculus says:

    I wouldn’t necessary call his performance in No Country For Old Men a great character performance. Javier’s was, both Brolin and T L Jones were OK, but not great.

    • Zen Arcade says:

      Wow, aren’t you full of it.

      Their performances were better than “good”. Josh played the “straight man” so Javier could play a more distinct personality. Certainly, their performances justified the hype for the best movie of 2007.

      • Ranunculus says:

        So everybody who doesn’t have the same opinion than you is “full of it”? Sorry, but both Brolin and Jones were just meh in that movie.

  10. Kimbob says:

    A jackass plain & simple. I know his Dad is probably a very old man now, but James Brolin would’ve been even better than Josh in No Country For Old Men….wait a minute…I just realized the irony of my statement here…but I’m sticking to it because I truly believe his father would’ve been “classic” in that film in that role.

  11. Ms Kay says:

    Well…that goes with gangster squad life indeed!

  12. mln76 says:

    He is a creep with charisma and has benefited from nepotism. He is totally protected by the Hollywood boys club just like Charlie Sheen, and Sean Penn.

  13. normades says:

    Diane is like Robin Wright. She needs to get away from this abusive man and get herself a young hottie.

  14. Sparkly says:

    I can’t help but sadly laugh at a lot of these comments. Make sure you talk to your kids, folks! I’m in my 30s, and half of my friends in school lost their virginity at 11 or 12, and that was decades ago. I held out til a week away from 17, and I was the last one of anyone I knew.

    • Lucinda says:

      I doubt “half” the people you knew lost their virginity at that age. But there were certainly some. As a mother of an eleven-year old and a former junior high teacher, I can tell you, many, many kids at that age are still barely talking to the opposite sex. Those that are engaging in sexual activity usually had pretty messed up home lives. Now, 13 or 14? Yeah. That I buy. Many kids are starting to get active by that age which is still damn frightening.

      • Sparkly says:

        Doubt all you want. I said half of my friends, not half of everyone I knew, so I wasn’t talking about the whole school whose names I could recognize or anything. But, yes, over half. 6 out of 11 of us. It’s extremely common. As I was one of those extremely shy folks around the opposite sex, I was pretty shocked myself. But it was true – and only two of those friends were with kids in higher grades, so they lost theirs to 11/12 year olds as well.

        I also went to 13 different schools. This was not a fluke in only one area. Way more common than I ever expected. The ‘normal’ age seemed to be 12-14, but I knew a great many who lost their virginity at 11. It broke my heart then as it probably does yours, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

        Edited to add: I’m the mother of a 10 yo and used to teach Sunday School to middle school-aged children if that makes a difference. I’m pretty familiar with kids myself.

  15. Hannah says:

    11? I didn’t know that was even possible.

    • Zen Arcade says:

      Yes…Hannah, it’s possible. Even an eleven year old male has a penis.

      What’s impressive is that he knew where to stick it.

  16. JPC says:

    He would probably be well-served to go to AA.

  17. Chris says:

    I would still hit it though. Like it was my job. Is anybody old enough to remember when he was on The Young Riders in the early 90’s? I had it bad for him them, and I can’t shake it. (hides face in shame). I don’t envy Diane Lane though. He’s not the kind you marry. He’s the kind you have one great night with then get the hell out of there.

  18. Jo 'Mama' Besser says:

    Loved the moment on Daily Show when Jon Stewart was fumbling around with some of the cast names and Brolin semi-jokingly asked him what he does know. He knew that Brolin got arrested less than two weeks ago (at the time). Checkmate.

  19. thebutlerdidit says:

    I guess being on movie sets keeps him from being home abusing Diane Lane all day, so there’s that.

  20. Brittney says:

    I know I should take blind items with the proverbial grain of salt, but I read an AWFUL one recently that was pretty transparently about him and Sean Penn sexually harassing Emma Stone (and, to a lesser extent, Eva Mendes) left and right. Apparently Ryan Gosling got some hell from them too just for shielding her from their disgusting antics and for refusing to get hookers with them.

    If it’s true, I wish he’d go away for good and never come back… Sean too. I’m sure there are plenty of misogynistic, abusive devils in Hollywood, but if he really made Emma’s life hell for the entire shoot and publicity tour, I think it should be exposed. I also think I should finally jump on the Gosling bandwagon.