Josh Brolin reveals how Whalefall broke him emotionally as he opens up about Sicario 3 and Outer Range heartbreak

Josh Brolin's Whalefall premiered in theaters on October 16, 2026, telling the story of a son, Jay (played by Austin Abrams), who goes scuba diving into the Pacific Ocean, where his estranged father, Mitt (played by Josh Brolin), had committed suicide. Jay hopes to find Mitt's body that is yet to be discovered.

But Jay ends up in the stomach of a sperm whale and has to make it out using the survival skills he learned from his father. This experience forces him to confront the relationship he had with his father. While the film deals with heavy emotions, reading the book the film is based on, emotionally broke Josh Brolin.

Why Whalefall affected Josh Brolin deeply

Josh Brolin had once told The Hollywood Reporter's Brian Davids that reading the book Whalefall affected him so much that he sobbed after finishing the book. In a recent interview with THR, Davids asked Brolin why the book had brought him to tears. Brolin responded to him, saying:

"As a parent, to be serious for a second, you’re struggling, you’re improvising, you’re hoping, you’re projecting — and then you have to deal with real human beings. So it’s not just what you’re intending of them, and you realize how ridiculous that statement is. You can’t help but impart things that you think are important, and yet kids grow up and live their own lives. You have to allow them to make their own decisions and fall and skin their emotional and psychic knees."

Brolin then reflected on how becoming a parent soon after high school shaped his life, leaving him little time to explore his own identity. With children ranging from five to 38 years old, he feels proud of his older children and recognizes that he is experiencing parenthood at different stages of life.

He also discussed how his relationship with his father, James Brolin, has evolved. While he once resisted his father's influence during adolescence, he now appreciates the effort his father made and has developed a more understanding perspective on their relationship. The Whalefall book thus helped Brolin look at his relation with his children and his father in a way he hadn't before, which made the experience of reading it extremely emotional for him.

Josh Brolin also addressed the confirmation of Sicario 3. After Sicario (2015) and Sicario 2 (2018), Brolin, who starred as a lead in both films, wanted a third part to be made. After crossing several hurdles, the film is finally in development. In the THR interview, when asked how the film finally got greenlit, Brolin said:

"We were always looking at scripts. We always wanted to do it. We didn’t intend to wait this long, but you have Benny [del Toro], Emily [Blunt] and me looking at things and reacting to filmmakers or scripts differently. But then Steven Knight wrote a script that was incredible, and it was kind of undeniable. All of us reacted similarly. So we’re very excited about doing it. We’ll do it next year. We have a great filmmaker, Padraic McKinley, who we think is going to make a very good movie, and we’re excited."

While Josh Brolin's Whalefall has been praised by critics and Sicario 3 is in development, there's one project Brolin wanted to continue working on but couldn't. Brolin starred in Brian Watkin's Prime Video series, Outer Range, which got cancelled after 2 seasons.

Josh Brolin, anyway, had his reservations about working in television and wanted to work in one only if the project felt right. In the THR interview, he was thus asked if Outer Range's cancellation hurt more because he was already skeptical about television roles. Brolin responded by saying:

"I didn’t have a horrible experience [as a series lead two decades prior to Outer Range]. It was just too fast. There wasn’t enough care put into it. It was just like, Let’s get it out there. Overall, I was involved with some pretty good shows, at least shows that I liked. But Outer Range was heartbreaking. It was heartbreaking."

Josh Brolin was offered the role of Lanterns' Hal Jordan before Kyle Chandler, but he had refused. THR's Brian Davids then asked Josh Brolin if the unfortunate experience regarding Outer Range caused him to turn down the Lanterns role. To that, Josh Brolin said:

"But Lanterns, I don’t know, maybe it was too close [to Outer Range]. I really loved Outer Range, and seeing what those actors — Tom Pelphrey, Lewis Pullman, Imogen Poots — have done since then makes me very happy. To me, it’s a great middle finger to those people who canceled that show. It’s like, You had gold. So that’s how I perceive it."

Whalefall is playing in theaters now.