Smackdown! Josh Brolin Takes on New York Times Critic Ben Brantley

Josh Brolin has become a hot Hollywood commodity, with star turns as both President George W. Bush in Oliver Stone’s W and Harvey Milk’s murderer Dan White in Gus Van Sant’s Milk, but he hasn’t forgotten the bad review New York Times critic Ben Brantley gave him in July 2000 in the Broadway revival of Sam Shepard’s True West—a review so scathing, the show posted a closing notice the same day.

In his acceptance speech for the Best Supporting Actor award at the New York Film Critics Circle on January 5, Brolin said, “As much as actors like to say they don’t read reviews, I do,” then proceeded to tell the crowd, “Ben Brantley—honestly I hate that motherfucker. And I don’t think he’s a good writer.” After the ceremony, Brolin elaborated to a New York magazine reporter on his response to the review at the time: “I was onstage [at Circle in the Square] and I had somebody take a picture of me with my pants down and my ass out for Ben Brantley.”

Brolin and Elias Koteas replaced lauded original stars John C. Reilly and Philip Seymour Hoffman in director Matthew Warchus’ revival of True West, and the first lines of Brantley’s review signaled his overall reaction: “You’ve seen the play. Now see the cartoon!” Calling Brolin as straight-arrow screenwriter Austin and Koteas as his slovenly brother Lee “as unmixable as oil and water,” Brantley went on to say, “When Mr. Brolin anxiously hitches up his pants or compulsively dries a dish, it is with the conscientious air of someone who has remembered to do so.” He was even more harsh about Koteas, comparing him at one point in the review to “a hillbilly clown.” Ouch!

Reached by the New York Post after Brolin’s diatribe, Brantley said, "For what it's worth, I have really admired Josh Brolin's work in movies in recent years—in No Country for Old Men and as the man who killed Harvey Milk. He sure knows how to tap into angry characters.”