Last month, Adrien Brody and I entered New York Harbor on a ship called the Manhattan. Destination: Statue of Liberty. He had visited the landmark before, spending time there with his mother, an immigrant who came to the United States in 1958.
“My mother and grandparents fled Hungary during the revolution,” Brody said. “There was a lot of unknowns and a lot of loss. And all of those sacrifices kind of laid the foundation for who I am and what I have access to.”
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Brody’s immigrant roots make his latest film, The Brutalist, deeply personal. This is an epic story of love, ambition, and the complicated American dream spanning decades and centered around one man, Laslo Toth. “He is a Jewish-Hungarian architect who survived the horrors of World War II and is forced to struggle in poverty and rebuild,” Brody said.
Toth is hired by a wealthy businessman to build a large community center in his “Brutalist” style, a form of architecture that uses less decoration and more concrete.
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To get the toss right, Brody drew on memories of his Hungarian grandfather. “I remember my grandfather’s accent was very, very heavy,” he said.
“So, does this Laslow character have a bit of an old man’s voice?” I asked.
“Oh, sure, yeah, I came up with it. I knew all the bad Hungarian words when I was a kid, too. So I injected into it things that weren’t in the script!”
To watch the trailer for “The Brutalist,” click on the video player below.
The film has been nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards and is also in the running for an Oscar. However, it takes a lot of effort as it takes 3 and a half hours.
Asked if he was concerned about the film’s length, Broday said, “This is an event. Generations before us, you could expect to see a movie like this in a theater. But today… So that’s becoming much rarer. I think we all need to do that.” I fed nutritious meals and this is one of them. ”
Brody, 51, will play a man rebuilding his life after the war, a role he played more than 20 years ago, winning an Oscar for playing a man who endures the horrors of war in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist. It is an attractive work that contrasts with the role he played. ”
To play Wladyslaw Szpilman, a real-life pianist who survived the Nazi occupation of Poland, Brody virtually fasted and lost 30 pounds while learning to play the piano.
Learning to play Chopin, he said, quelled his hunger. “Because it was a kind of meditative, concentration-building, memorization activity. And I got pretty good at playing Chopin’s nocturnes and ballades for a few minutes. And I also learned how to write sheet music. I don’t even read it.”
At 29 years old, he became the youngest person ever to win the Best Actor Oscar. The son of immigrants was living his own American dream.
Adrien Brody grew up in Queens, New York, where his father Elliot is a retired teacher. His mother, Sylvia Plachy, is a photographer. “As an only child and the son of a photographer, I was her favorite subject,” he said. “So I was able to really feed myself and see it from an ever-present perspective, and I think that helped me as a movie actor as well.”
“Did your mother make you feel comfortable in front of the camera?” I asked.
“Yes. Thanks to my mother.”
He dabbled in magic, calling himself “Adrian the Wonder,” but by middle school he had settled into acting. At age 13, he landed the lead role as a rebellious orphan in the made-for-television movie Home at Last. “I remember thinking I never wanted this to end,” he said. “And the sense of joy you get from that immersion never goes away.”
Brody grew up to be a mohawked punk rocker in Spike Lee’s “Summer of Sam.” He has produced blockbusters like “King Kong” and shown his eccentric side in five films with director Wes Anderson, including “The Darjeeling Limited” and “The French Dispatch.”
Anderson said Brody “gave me a lot of opportunities to do comedic work, more overtly comedic work. I think when we started working together, people thought I was a serious actor.” spoke.
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‘The Brutalist’ is a return to his more serious side, and may serve as a reminder that as an artist, Adrien Brody is up to anything. “This is a great moment,” he said.
I asked, “What makes you happy when you’re not working?”
“There are a lot of things. I need to immerse myself creatively. So that might be fulfilled through cooking, painting, making music. I’m a pretty good cook.”
“What do you want to make?”
“I mean, hot dogs,” he laughed. “What do you like? Tell me what you want. I’ll make something. Come here sometime and see the artwork. I’ll make something to eat. A delicious cocktail I will make some.”
“Are you also a mixologist?”
“Oh, I can connect you.”
“Okay. What can’t you do?”
“Shut your mouth!” he laughed. “You have to learn that!”
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Story produced by Reid Olvedahl. Editor: George Pozderek.
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