HEALTHJosh Brolin Is Certain Stress Led to 'Mild Case' of Bell's Palsy as He Faced His Childhood Trauma
Josh Brolin was worried about moving back to Southern California.
Josh Brolin is reflecting on what led to him experiencing facial paralysis while relocating to Montecito, Calif.
During a guest appearance on the Thursday, January 30, episode of SiriusXM's "Literally! With Rob Lowe" podcast, The Goonies actor opened up about having a flare-up of Bell's palsy after feeling extreme emotion toward moving back to the area near Santa Barbara, where his family used to live.
Josh Brolin suffered a 'mild case' of Bell's palsy due to extreme stress.
"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," shared Brolin, who grew up on a ranch in Paso Robles, Calif., before he moved to Santa Barbara at age 11 and started getting into trouble.
After podcast host Rob Lowe asked Brolin if his symptoms occurred from stress, the Sicario star declared: "Absolutely a hundred percent. There’s nothing else to blame it on."
Josh Brolin had a reckless childhood while growing up in California.
"The last time I got Bell’s palsy was 17 years ago when I was thinking about moving back up here," he said of the unexplained episode of facial muscle weakness or paralysis. "So the two times I’ve gotten Bell’s palsy are when I was thinking about moving up here. And then I moved up here and I was like, 'Oh! it’s all good.'"
Brolin's hesitation about heading back to his roots had to do with his reckless behavior as child and young adult.
Josh Brolin has been to jail nine times.
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The 56-year-old previously admitted he smoked weed for the first time at age 9, dabbled in LSD when he was 13 years old and has been to jail nine times.
Lowe, 60, then questioned whether Brolin was ever able to get to a point where old memories are not the "number one thing" on his mind when thinking about home.
"Not only that, all these good memories are starting to come up," he revealed. "I'm like, 'Wow, I remember when I was on Biltmore, we’re down in Butterfly. Was it Miramar? All these great things. So all these things are popping out of the ground."
"My childhood wasn’t as severe as I kind of illustrated it to be. Which we do anyway, as writers and storytellers, we make everything more dramatic and more severe. And not that it wasn’t, because I think it was. But, all the other stuff came too, and it’s been really nice," Brolin mentioned.
The actor first tried marijuana at age 9.
Brolin lives in Southern California with his third wife, Kathryn Boyd, 37, and their daughters, Westlyn, 6, and Chapel, 4.
The No Country for Old Men actor also shares his adult children, Trevor, 36, and Eden, 30, with ex-wife Alice Adair, 58. He never welcomed any kids with his second wife, Diane Lane.
This isn't the first time Brolin opened up about his experience with Bell's palsy.
While Speaking with The Times in November 2024, he admitted: "I was so afraid to move back [to California]. I was freaking out. I contracted a minor case of Bell’s palsy — I had paralysis in my face."
