Interview: How Adrien Brody Built a Monument to His Mother with ‘The Brutalist’
Adrien Brody has been waiting twenty years for The Brutalist. Well, not exactly waiting, moreso striving, yearning for a part as significant as that of László Tóth. At just 29 years old, Brody became the youngest person to win the Academy Award for Best Actor and one of only two Americans in history to win the César. His performance as Władysław Szpilman in The Pianist is vulnerable and haunting, with a sense of maturity and wisdom far beyond his young years. He had the role of a lifetime, and he wasn’t even 30 yet.
What followed was a string of projects and supporting roles in the early aughts, including The Village, Peter Jackson’s King Kong, and Hollywoodland. Naturally, these just didn’t measure up to the historical weight and the personal connections to his family history that he found in The Pianist. During this time, he also began his decades-long collaboration with Wes Anderson, working together first on The Darjeeling Limited and, shortly after, Fantastic Mr. Fox. While Brody had chosen a handful of unique projects and collaborators, it seemed like the industry didn’t really know what to do with him, his filmography filled with odd, eclectic roles that didn’t seem fitting of an actor who had just had a coronation. But over the past few years, it’s felt like Hollywood was teasing the possibility of an Adrien Brody-ssaince, especially with his role as Pat Riley in HBO’s Winning Time, his Emmy-nominated turn in Succession, and now, with Brady Corbet’s monumental epic, The Brutalist.
But what exactly is it about The Brutalist that stands apart from everything else he’s worked on over the past twenty-two years? In the film, Brody plays Lázsló Tóth, a brilliant Bauhaus architect who fled war-torn Hungary for America. Once in Philadelphia, he’s hired by Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pearce), a wicked, wealthy man, to construct a community center in Doylestown. Lázsló experiences the brutality of the American Dream firsthand, as if all of that luck and opportunity was really just a ruse, a specific feeling that Brody conjures up beautifully. In my review of the film out of New York Film Festival for AwardsWatch, I noted that viewers will naturally draw comparisons to his role in The Pianist, but shared that “his Lázsló is a richer, more mature rendering of a man struggling to find salvation in art. Instead, these two roles function as a beautiful pair of performances where Brody uses each character’s responses to physical and emotional violence to unlock each film’s deeper truths about the war and Jewish identity.” It’s a performance that doesn’t just stand alongside his work in The Pianist; it deepens it. It’s the best work of his career and, undoubtedly, the greatest performance of the year.
In addition to running away with The Brutalist, this Fall, he made his stage debut in Lindsay Ferrentino’s The Fear of 13 in the West End. There, he played Nick Yarris, an innocent man on death row who was incarcerated for twenty-two years before he was finally exonerated. It’s a raw, emotional performance demonstrating his knack for playing individuals who harness their unique power to survive within a society that will stop at nothing to spit them out.
I was thrilled to speak with Brody about the pride and responsibility that he felt in carrying the role of Lázsló and why his family history was so connected to The Brutalist. As I reflect on our conversation, I’m reminded of the scene in the film when László details his experience in the war back in Hungary and how, despite everything, his buildings remain. He tells Van Buren that his designs spark conversation and will certainly not please everyone but states, “A whole river of such frivolities may flow on down, but my buildings were devised to endure such erosion.” Now, as The Brutalist rolls out into theaters around the world, the art that Brody and his collaborators created is out of their hands, open to interpretation, and in the running for dozens of awards. But in time, these conversations will fade, and the film and Brody’s towering performance in it will remain, standing like one of László’s creations.
Sophia Ciminello: Hi, Adrien. It’s great to see you again. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me about your film today.
Adrien Brody: Hi, again, Sophia. Nice to see you too. I love your movie posters back there. Those are great.
SC: Oh, thank you! Two of my favorites: Barry Lyndon and Rebecca.
AB: Very good, very good.
SC: In an interview you did a few years ago, you spoke about how important your role in The Pianist was because–and I like how you described this–it was a role where “preparation met opportunity.” Did you feel similarly about László where you felt a sense of responsibility in carrying this role in this epic movie?
AB: Yes, very much so, and I guess as you get older in life you are more prepared, right? (laughs).
SC: (Laughs) I think so.
AB: I think when I spoke about that then, those were very unique circumstances. You know, I’ve been striving to find something of such significance for so long, and unfortunately, I’ve been trying for the past 20 years or so to find him (laughs). And really to find something on this level that speaks to so much, and that is both referencing many things that are meaningful to me and many other people. This film is something that has that historical significance and speaks to the journey of artists and the power of art to create extraordinary beauty in the midst of these darker chapters in human history. These are very meaningful endeavors and I don’t take that lightly.
(Pauses) I feel tremendously grateful for that. It really is a role that I’m fortunately prepared for, and it’s fortuitous because I am the right person to tell this story of this character, László. And Brady [Corbet] exceeded all of my expectations of what he would do with the material that he presented. That is another thing that is significant. Film is a collaborative medium, and it’s always a wonderful thing when your collaborators exceed your expectations.
SC: When you said you were the right person to tell this story, I can’t help but think about your mother [photographer Sylvia Plachy] and her experience immigrating to the U.S. and her journey as an artist. How did that inform your interpretation of László?
AB: Thank you for that. She is such an inspiration and guiding light for me in my life and in my work as an artist and my aspirations as an artist. You know, it’s all about the work, the work and a curiosity and an enthusiasm and a tireless commitment to the work. I have that and I inherited that from her. I grew up steeped in her imagery that is told through her beautiful eyes that have seen so much in this world. They are incredibly empathetic, and they are incredibly humorous, and have a great capacity to witness and hold up those who suffer, whether it’s an animal or a person or a set of circumstances in society or the complexity of life, and she captures that. I grew up with all of that, and that’s made me who I am today—including my father’s guidance and support in my journey as an artist.
SC: That’s a really beautiful way to describe her influence on you and your work.
AB: Thank you. I really owe all of that to her and to her journey and, within that, her own sacrifices and suffering along the way that she’s had to overcome to become a great artist. She fled Hungary with her parents in 1956 during the Revolution. She experienced war, losing her friends at thirteen and starting again, learning a new language and being a foreigner, putting herself through art school and debt and poverty, and all of these things that paved the way for her. And also my grandparents’ suffering and loss and endurance and good fortune to make it here so we can carry on. I’ve had such a beautiful life, and they’ve given me that potential. All of that speaks to László. It’s the immigrant experience that is relatable to people of all ethnicities and especially many people in this country who are still not treated with a level of equality and who know that and feel that. This is a film that talks about the past but is very relevant to what’s currently going on, and we all know that.
SC: And that relevance makes me think of the man you just played in your West End debut (The Fear of 13). We have these two characters, László Tóth and Nick Yarris, who are in completely different time periods and situations but experience great trauma because of the flaws within American systems and structures. What do you hope to communicate with audiences about our past and our current moment through your illustrations of these characters?
AB: Thank you for making that observation and for asking that. I have to tell you that I’m really appreciative of you making a parallel to a very contemporary man with a very different set of circumstances because people obviously make parallels with The Pianist. There are parallels there, of course, in the artist’s journey and even speaking to levels of hatred and intolerance that were perpetuated and that are also being carried on into the present.
SC: And I see those too, but what I was so struck by here is how intertwined these characters and their suffering felt–the literal and figurative imprisonment. It’s like you were alluding to earlier; nothing has really changed.
AB: Yes, and it’s that it’s also about injustice, and ironically, in doing this play, eight shows a week every night, and as I’m doing press supporting The Brutalist, I kept thinking, “How did I manage to pick two men who suffered such trauma in Pennsylvania?” (laughs).
SC: (Laughs) Yes, Pennsylvania! It’s ironic how important that state has been.
AB: Isn’t it? You know, poor Nick Yarris suffered such injustice in the same state where all of this suffering takes place for poor László. What spoke to me about these characters is that I felt so moved by the powerlessness in the script and the play. I think that’s what angers me the most about so many of these situations is how powerless so many of us are. You’re powerless because of impoverished circumstances or an upbringing where you’re not educated properly, or you encounter the wrong group of friends and fall into drugs or alcohol in a way where it has just caused irreparable circumstances and damage. The wrong place at the wrong time. (Pauses).
And you know I grew up in New York City and I’ve had a long life. I have a lot of friends, I’ve lost a lot, and I’ve witnessed a lot of hardship and have averted a lot of hardship narrowly, and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t have a sense of awareness and gratitude for that and respect and sympathy for those who have, like László and Nick, had to get by in spite of those circumstances. It’s why I made The Brutalist. It’s why I did Detachment. It’s why I made Clean. It’s hard enough…(pauses). It’s hard enough for people in a setting where circumstances are tough enough to find your way through that and to be your own person and find some sense of purpose and to get through all of the trauma of just family life without vicious abuse. And yet there’s all of that to contend with. And, with our film, I think if you can tell stories that have humor and joy and life and tragedy within that, you’re doing something really special.
SC: I’m sadly getting the signal to wrap, but I do have to tell you that the combination that you just mentioned and your performance style in The Brutalist reminded me a lot of how I felt watching The Godfather Part II for the first time, which was such a refreshing feeling to have now with a new movie.
AB: Oh, wow. I have to ask, who? De Niro or Pacino?
SC: Oh, I would have to say De Niro for sure.
AB: Yay! That is amazing! I… (pauses) That’s my favorite performance. That’s the biggest compliment you could ever say. Thank you, thank you!
SC: Of course! There is this quiet power to you both and in how they find community or don’t when they come to America…
AB: Yes, exactly right, and that movie…him in that movie…it’s just epic. I just love him in that. How wonderful. Thank you!
SC: I’m always going to think of these two performances together now. Thank you so much for speaking with me today, Adrien, and congratulations again on the film.
AB: Hey, thank you so much, Sophia.
The Brutalist begins a limited release in theaters and IMAX from A24 on December 20.
- Interview: How Adrien Brody Built a Monument to His Mother with ‘The Brutalist’ - December 19, 2024
- Interview: Guy Pearce on the Beauty and Violence of ‘The Brutalist’ and Van Buren’s Call to His Therapist - December 18, 2024
- Interview: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor on the Camera Being a Proxy For Her Grandson in ‘Nickel Boys’ - December 13, 2024
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