‘Deadpool’ felt like business transaction, playing Thanos gave more freedom to Josh Brolin

During an interview with James and Roger Deakins on this week’s episode of the “Team Deakins” podcast, Brolin said acting in “Deadpool 2” felt like “more of a business transaction” as he had to tailor his performance to suit the specific comedic tone of the franchise.

Thanos, with his obsession for balance in the universe, on the other hand, gave him more room to experiment.

“I mentioned Brando in ‘Apocalypse Now,’ this guy who is very elusive and insane but what he is saying makes sense and is poetical,” Brolin said.

“I started seeing the parallel which I liked for me. I loved being able to resort to a film like ‘Apocalypse Now’ when I was doing something like ‘Avengers.''”

Though Brolin’s Thanos was created with the help of the motion capture technology, to the actor it felt like he was tapping into someone who felt like a “real guy”.

“This is not a big purple guy this is a guy with insides and cells and feelings. Then it became fun. To me, it was like going to do 1970s black box theater in New York. You totally resort to your imagination. It is absolutely behavioral, if not more than other movies,” the actor said.

“‘Deadpool’ was hard. Even though it was funny, it was harder. That was more of a business transaction, it was more, ‘We need to make this like this,’ which I didn’t feel that way with ‘Avengers.’ With those directors, they would constantly go back and reference ‘Scarface’ or ‘Dog Day Afternoon.’ Whether or not it was a manipulation, they knew what to throw out there to bring it back into something inspired.”

Brolin’s Thanos was killed off at the end of “Avengers: Endgame” but the actor has expressed in the past that he would love to revive Cable in a third “Deadpool” movie if it is made.

Ryan Reynolds plays the titular foul-mouthed superhero in the movie franchise at the Fox Studios, which is now owned by Disney.