Josh Brolin reveals why he thinks he developed facial paralysis twice
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Josh Brolin has suffered Bell’s Palsy twice in his life, and he now believes a stressful move may have been what triggered the facial paralysis both times.
The Marvel star, 56, revealed on an episode of the Sirius XM podcast Literally! With Rob Lowe, released on Thursday, January 30, that he got the medical condition after he recently moved back to Montecito, his childhood hometown on the Central Coast of California.
“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 told host Lowe, 60. “From the stress. Absolutely a hundred percent. There’s nothing else to blame it on.”
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According to Brolin, he was a teenager the last time he battled Bell’s Palsy. Johns Hopkins Medicine notes the condition can affect anyone of any age and is caused by facial nerve damage. It has no cure but is not considered permanent.
“The last time I got Bell’s Palsy was 17 years ago when I was thinking about moving back up here,” Brolin explained. “So the two times I’ve gotten Bell’s Palsy are when I was thinking about moving up here.”
Brolin said he was able to work through the memories that triggered him. Now, he added, “All these good memories are starting to come up” and “popping out of the ground.”
The Goonies star went into more detail about his “unconventional childhood” in Montecito with his actor dad, James Brolin, and casting director mom, Jane Cameron Agee, in his memoir, From Under the Truck, published in November 2024.
And during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live the following month, Brolin, who once struggled with addiction, revealed how he had a “great trip” after he tried LSD for the first time at 13 with friends.
“I had the most kind of amazing — 13 years old, your brain is still developing,” he said on the talk show. “It’s probably not the best time to start that drug, but I really had an amazing time. I saw a fireplace talking to me who said some nice things. I liked what he said. I didn’t dislike what he said. It was like caressing, it was wisdom.”
