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. 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 LS.
