Josh Brolin's Heartbeat Became the Whale's in 'Whalefall'

By Daniel Okafor

Brian Duffield recorded Josh Brolin's actual heartbeat and used it as the pulse of the sperm whale in "Whalefall." The director revealed the trick at the film's premiere at the El Caprian Theatre on Tuesday, speaking to Variety.

The film stars Austin Abrams as Jay, a diver swallowed by a whale, and Brolin as Mitt Gardiner, Jay's late father. Jay communicates with his father's spirit, which doubles as the whale's spirit. That link made the heartbeat matter: the pulse triggers a specific lighting effect throughout the film.

Why record Brolin's pulse?

Because nobody had the real thing. "We obviously don't have a native sperm whale heartbeat recorded," Duffield told Variety. "It just became like, 'Well, we need to get a heartbeat. Where do we get the heartbeat?' And then it was, 'We have Josh!'"

The team then doubled Brolin's heartbeat to approximate the whale's slower rhythm. Practical problem, famous solution. The whale also carries facial scarring similar to Brolin's character, a subliminal visual tie that Duffield said was enough to mean something to both Abrams and the filmmakers.

"It's just whatever you can do to make it feel as personal as possible," the director said. "Even if it's something that no one will notice."

What else does Brolin have coming?

"Whalefall" is one of three Brolin films this year, alongside the third installment of the "Dune" franchise, set for release Dec. 18. While promoting "Whalefall," Brolin told Variety he welcomes the recent box-office jump for theatrical releases, including the re-release of "Avengers: Endgame," which he "didn't even know" had returned to the big screen.

"Going to the theaters on Sundays when I was in my early 20s and my late teens, and the lights would go down — it was just a heart-opening experience that I never wanted to let go," Brolin said.

Does he worry about flops?

Not visibly. His Ridley Scott-directed "The Dog Stars" earned just $8 million domestically on its opening weekend in August. Brolin said he wasn't fazed, arguing it's impossible to know "what's going to work."

"'Dog Stars' did an incredible marketing campaign, and then nobody saw it," he said, adding that box office failures can eventually find success via streaming.

He cited his 2017 film "Only the Brave," which initially bombed at the box office before becoming a streaming hit. "You don't know if you're going to be part of the zeitgeist or not," Brolin said.

The heartbeat anecdote may be the film's best marketing yet — a detail nobody would notice, from a star who insists nobody can predict what audiences will.