"It all seems random" to Josh Brolin

Once you've seen Josh Brolin in the new Coen brothers thriller, "No Country for Old Men" (opening Friday), it's hard to imagine anyone else in his role.

As the laconic Texan Llewelyn Moss, who finds $2 million in drug money and becomes the target of a ruthless killer, Brolin is note-perfect in the best role of his underrated career. And while Brolin is clearly on a roll (he also has a juicy villain role in Ridley Scott's "American Gangster"), his collaboration with the Coens almost didn't happen.

"I didn't think I was out, I was out," said Brolin during a recent interview in Seattle, referring to the Coens initially rejecting him. "They'd offered the role to Heath Ledger, but he turned it down, maybe because he'd just become a father or thought the character was too similar to his role in 'Brokeback Mountain.' Things just turn out the way they turn out."

While working on "Grindhouse" with directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, Brolin got a tip about "No Country" from actor Skeet Ulrich, who'd appeared with Brolin in the TNT miniseries "Into the West" and was in the early running for the Moss role. Brolin recruited Tarantino to direct an audition tape, but the Coens weren't convinced. Brolin's agent persisted, and the Coens wisely reconsidered.

Closely but not slavishly adapted from Cormac McCarthy's acclaimed novel, "No Country for Old Men" is receiving critical raves, and Brolin, 39, is enjoying the kind of career buzz that's eluded him since his screen debut in "The Goonies" in 1985. Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg recently called to seek his services.

"It's all because of my agent," said Brolin, a former student of legendary acting teacher Stella Adler who understands that family ties (he's the son of James Brolin and stepson of Barbra Streisand) are no guarantee of showbiz success. "I'd come to him anxious for work and he'd say, 'Calm down, we're looking for good material, good directors.' It's because of him that I was able to get into a room with the Coens."

Brolin downplays his own considerable talent, which has been squandered in mainstream fare such as "Into the Blue" and well-used in indie films such as "Flirting with Disaster" and "Coastlines."

"I don't think my current run can be attributed to anything specific," Brolin said. "I read a comment somewhere that I'd been doing C+ work and now I'm doing A work, and my wife [actress Diane Lane, whom Brolin married in 2004] got really upset about that. She knows that I lend myself to the work the same way I always have. But I know a lot of great actors who never got a break, and a lot of bad actors who've appeared in really big films. It all seems random to me."

One thing that wasn't random was Brolin's approach to working with the Coens, who are well-known for their meticulous preparation.

"They're eccentric in the sense that they're totally consumed by the process," Brolin said. "They don't pet their actors, and they don't need ego-stroking. Everything they do is intensely purposeful."

For his part, Brolin said, "I do a lot of research, ask a lot of questions, but all I'm doing is trying to find the hook — the thing I need to click into the role. That's where my anxiety comes in ... until then I don't know what I'm doing."

Brolin had completed rehearsals on "No Country" when he found his "hook" for the role of Llewelyn Moss. It came from an employee at a pizza joint in Marfa, Texas, a legendary location (made famous by George Stevens' "Giant") where part of "No Country" was filmed.

"I heard this guy telling a story, and he gave me that extra something that I needed to understand Llewelyn. Later I spoke with him on the phone, and I recorded the call and put it on my iPod. But it wasn't just the guy's voice. It was the way he carried himself."

The biggest challenge for Brolin was playing a role that required long stretches of silence. "No Country for Old Men" is an intensely nonverbal film, and Brolin had to express his character through subtle nuances of behavior.

"In this case," Brolin said, "every grunt, groan and inhale has weight and meaning, as opposed to doing a dialogue scene with a beginning, middle and end. You're putting everything across through idiosyncrasies on a very minor scale."

An established playwright and co-founder of the Hollywood-based Tramp Art Theatre Club, Brolin is currently mulling over a choice of future film roles, and recently completed a short film that writer/director Paul Haggis (who directed Brolin in "In the Valley of Elah") has encouraged him to expand as a feature-length project.

Just days after he was cast in "No Country," Brolin broke his collarbone in a motorcycle accident that wasn't his fault ("There's no way I'd have lived without my helmet"), so he's not taking good fortune for granted. In Seattle on the last day of a grueling promotional tour, he's ready to relax.

"Doing a lot of interviews can be rough," Brolin said, "but with this film it's great to be able to talk about something good."

Jeff Shannon: j.sh@verizon.net