Josh Brolin has detailed a health challenge he faced after moving back to Montecito, a town near Santa Barbara, California, where the award-winning actor spent his turbulent teenage years.
“I got so stressed out about moving here because it represented something very specific to me that I ended up contracting a mild case of Bell’s palsy,” Brolin said after sharing excerpts from his 2024 memoir, “From Under the Truck.”
The exact cause of the neurological disorder remains unknown. However, potential triggers include viral infections, such as herpes simplex or chickenpox, as well as impaired immunity stemming from autoimmune issues, sleep deprivation, physical trauma, and stress.
When Lowe asked Brolin if he believed the condition had been brought on by stress, the “True Grit” star replied: “Absolutely, 100 percent. There’s nothing else to blame it on.”
“The last time I got Bell’s palsy—17 years ago—when I was thinking about moving back up here,” he said.
Road to Sobriety
Brolin is known for films such as “No Country for Old Men” (2007), “American Gangster” (2007), “Gangster Squad” (2013), and “Sicario” (2015).The son of Emmy Award-winning actor James Brolin and wildlife conservationist Jane Cameron Agee, the actor spent his early years on a ranch in Paso Robles, about two hours outside Montecito.
Now a ritzy celebrity enclave, Montecito was once notorious for its surf gang, the Cito Rats.
Brolin—who referred to the town as a “pretty severe place” in the 1970s and 1980s—recalled falling in with the gang and using drugs as a teen.
“This was the beginning of a whole new era of angry adolescent LSD explorers spearheaded locally by us. This was the beginning of the cocaine craze that none of us would be able to afford and all of us would steal [and] fight ... for,” Brolin said, reading an excerpt from his memoir.
“This was the time when the guys I hung out with didn’t run from cops but instead threw full bottles of cheap gin at their windshields,” he continued.
“A spray-painted middle-class home ripped of all its bourgeoisie and replaced with our rage, a rage fueled by all the self-absorbed parents who would rather chew their respective ice than bother themselves with children.”
At the age of 16, Brolin auditioned for and landed a role in the 1985 cult classic “The Goonies.”
Brolin went on to appear in a handful of other projects, including the 1986 film “Thrashin'” and the 1987 television series “21 Jump Street.”
After multiple relapses, Brolin finally achieved sobriety in 2013.
“Sobriety is finally loving without every thought being about how it affects only you. Sobriety is a moment of being able to love and be consumed by the glee it brings someone else,” he wrote in part.
“Sobriety is knowing that God is in everything and that it is made up of every color (and mixture of color) that exists,” he continued.
“Sobriety is about living better than your remembrance of what your greatest drunk ever was—an everyday malleability into gratitude for what is. None of this is deserved. All of it is perception. Thank you God, family, and friends for the most punk rock sobriety imaginable.”
