Josh Brolin said that he and Patricia Arquette have been friends for 10 years, but in "Nightwatch," their new film together, he may just be trying to kill her.

Of course in their last film together, "Flirting with Disaster," he licked her armpits on camera. Fans of Arquette might be curious as to what her pits taste like.

"Baby oil, I don't know. Dirt, all right," Brolin said.

The second-generation actor (His dad is James Brolin of "Hotel" and "Amityville Horror") is starting to get noticed in Hollywood. His turn as a police officer in "Flirting..." scored him praise, and now he has a high-profile role as the creepy James in the thriller "Nightwatch."

The much-delayed film from Dimension involves a young morgue security guard (Ewan McGregor), who gets involved a string of murders. Brolin is McGreggor's best friend, and possibly worst enemy. His character James is manipulative and cruel, and at times very mysterious.

"James is a type of character who wants to be noticed. He has no idea who he is. He's just one walking void. I'm sure he would totally embrace the idea that he is a killer," Brolin said.

Brolin has been acting on the screen for about fifteen years, and got his start in the Steven Spielberg-produced "The Goonies."

"I just saw him [Spielberg] a couple of weeks ago. The guy has the heart of a child, which is nice to be around when you're a kid, which I was," Brolin said. "I don't think I was in the position to be in awe yet. He would laugh at me because I would be reading all of these acting books and saying, 'Walking through the tunnel is like walking through your mother's womb.' He would just look at me and go, 'Whatever dude. Just shut up and act.'"

With acting being such a hard biz to break into, Brolin's father was a little worried about his son's career choice.

"Once I got into it, and once he saw me on the stage in New York, I think he realized, 'Wow, he can do this.' He's not like the Redgraves. I heard the Redgrave father went to see the daughter in Macbeth and walked out in the middle of it. I don't think my old man would do that," Brolin said.

Brolin was intrigued by the strange subject matter in "Nightwatch," since much of the film takes place in a morgue. "I think it's an interesting subject. We're one of the only societies that doesn't celebrate death," he said.

Although he's in the limelight now, Brolin may have to take a back seat to his father in the press soon. The elder Brolin is engaged to media mainstay Barbara Striesand. And how would Josh Brolin describe the perfect stepmother?

"She sings. The perfect stepmother is somebody who listens, and she definitely listens," Brolin said.