Josh Brolin Found Deadpool's Cable Harder To Play Than Thanos

Josh Brolin says that despite the role of Cable being funny, he found the Deadpool 2 character harder to play than The Avengers' archvillain Thanos. Brolin's two iconic Marvel roles couldn't have been more different, with Cable trading barbs with Ryan Reynolds'quick-talking, wise-cracking Merc With A Mouth, while Thanos was a much more contemplative, emotional role. Brolin had been lined up to play Thanos ever since the character first appeared, played by someone else, in the post-credits scene of The Avengers, and made his debut in the role in 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy.

But it was Avengers: Infinity War where he was really unleashed in the role, bring pathos and depth to what could have been a standard big superhero movie bad guy. Brolin's role in Infinity War was essentially the lead, propelling the plot forward and appearing in almost every scene. That same year, Brolin also appeared in Deadpool 2 as Cable, a decidedly less intense role, though still filled with smoldering rage. Due to the tone of the Deadpool movies, which are essentially action-comedies, Brolin was forced to be a lot more humorous. A task, he says, that was tougher than playing Thanos.

Speaking to Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins on Team Deakins, the podcast he hosts with his wife James, Brolin says that even though Cable was comedic he found the role harder to play than Thanos. Brolin calls his role as Cable more of a "business transaction", saying he was specifically told to play the role a certain way to fit in with the movies. Conversely, he says, he was allowed to bring his own interpretation to the role of Thanos on Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, comparing the motion capture experience to performing in experimental New York City in the 1970s. You can read his full comments below:

I mentioned Brando in Apocalypse Now, this guy who is very elusive and insane but what he is saying makes sense and is poetical. I started seeing the parallel [to Thanos] which I liked for me. I loved being able to resort to a film like Apocalypse Now when I was doing something like Avengers. The more I watched it, the more I realized this is 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. 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 comment echo what he said back in 2018 just before Infinity War was released, calling the role of Thanos more interesting from a technical standpoint. This time around he's referring to getting into the character's skin, something that he admittedly wasn't able to do with Cable, given the limitations of that film's very funny, but fairly superficial, script. Thanos, on the other hand, was a surprisingly three-dimensional character, written as a fully fleshed out villain with motivations, emotions and an interesting backstory in Infinity War.

From that perspective, then, it's no surprise that Brolin, who comes from an acting family, was more satisfied by the process of sinking his teeth into the role of Thanos. Especially since he refers to playing Cable as more of a business transaction, which doesn't sound very creative at all. Given his sentiments, one wonders if Brolin will take up any future offers to play Cable, or if he's decided to leave the role behind. With Deadpool 2 leaving things open for the character, there is potential for him to return, but it's unclear whether he would want to.

Next: Deadpool 2's Cable is Nothing Like The Comics (That's a Good Thing)

Source: Team Deakins