Josh Brolin Explains Drunken New Year’s Day Arrest: ‘It Was A Fun Thing’

Josh Brolin is apparently really serious about his role in the upcoming “Gangster Squad,” in which he plays a vigilant 1940s LA cop. Unfortunately, the actor welcomed in the New Year from the wrong side of the cell wall after he was arrested for public intoxication on New Year’s Day.

Brolin has recently offered up an explanation for his public debauchery: “New Year’s, that’s what happened.”

The seemingly unapologetic actor appeared on “Good Morning America” with his take on the misdemeanor public intoxication charge. Officers reportedly found the 44-year-old actor “heavily intoxicated” on a Santa Monica sidewalk just shy of midnight on January 1. He was handcuffed and placed in a jail cell.

“I’m the one guy who’s out there and they go, ‘Hey, that’s Josh. Let’s grab him,’ ” Brolin recounts of his experience. The actor commented that the whole situation was “blown out of proportion.”

“It was New Year’s. It was a pretty innocent thing. It was a fun thing,” he added.

Brolin, who plays the leader of the 1940s LA police officers who attempt to take down gangster Mickey Cohen in “Gangster Squad,” notes that the real-life cops who arrested him were “very sweet.”

According to Brolin, the worst part about the whole experience wasn’t the $250 fine he had to pay, or the six hours he spent sobering up in jail. It was the mug shot. Brolin apparently wishes that police had chosen to release a better picture to the press.

“The most awful thing about it you see this shot of me like this and they don’t show you the other shot when I turn and have a huge smile on my face…. Whatever.”

Brolin will likely not go to court or face further charged for his behavior.