Josh Brolin Says He Had 350 Auditions Before He Landed ‘Goonies’ at 16

Many actors go on many auditions before they find a part that helps them stand out in Hollywood. Josh Brolin went on more than you might realize.

When Brolin, 57, sat down recently with his The Running Man costars Glen Powell and Lee Pace to promote their new movie with Entertainment Tonight, the actor remembered going on as many as 350 auditions as a teenager before landing his first movie role in the 1985 classic The Goonies.

“First movie, accidental,” Brolin told Powell, 37, and Pace, 46, after Powell mentioned the classic ’80s adventure. “I mean totally, 350 auditions—do you remember the days when you would audition like three times a day? Oh, yeah. You’d go to that and then you’d rush to that office and then you’d rush to [another audition] and you’d see the same people in the hallway.”

“350 auditions before I got Goonies,” he added.

Josh is the son of legendary actor James Brolin, but as he told Powell during their conversation with Entertainment Tonight, he “had no idea what a big movie was” before signing on to star in The Goonies because he lived with his mother, Jane Cameron Agee, in central California, away from his father’s life in Los Angeles. (Jane died in a car crash at 55 in 1995, and James, now 85, married Barbra Streisand in 1998.)

“I didn’t grow up in L.A.; I didn’t grow up around my dad. I think I went to one of his sets,” Brolin said. “So I didn’t know what that whole thing was, and then I got there and I ruined the first half-day of filming because I was laughing so hard, I guess out of nerves. Every time they yelled, ‘Action!’ I just laughed, and [Steven] Spielberg finally came up to me and said, ‘We gotta—this costs money.’ ” 

Earlier this year, Brolin also said that he auditioned for the movie — he played the character Brandon “Brand” Walsh among an ensemble that included Corey Feldman, Ke Huy Quan, Jeff Cohen, Astin, Martha Plimpton and Kerri Green — six times during an appearance on Literally! With Rob Lowe.

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“You look at Sean Astin, you look at the type of movie it is. I looked like a bit of a bad boy, but sort of a jock, and I was in good shape, so they were like, that’s the guy,” Brolin said at the time. “I went back six times, just so they could make sure, and then I did it.”

The Running Man is in theaters Nov. 14.