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Adrien Brody: “In the face of growing anti-Semitism, we must again find a way to learn from our past” | Culture

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Adrien Brody (New York, 51 years old) finds it painful to act. And he likes it. He enters the Madrid hotel room with a cold face, clutching the coat that covers his shirt. He will only smile when talking about the legendary basketball coach Pat Riley, leader of the Los Angeles Lakers of the showtime and the one he played in the Max series Victory time: the Lakers dynasty.

But this Friday afternoon it is time to reveal another character, that of the Hungarian architect László Tóth, master of brutalism and survivor of a concentration camp, who stars in a painful life journey in The Brutalist —which opens in Spain next Friday— by Brady Corbet, and which could earn Brody his second Oscar. The New Yorker is still the youngest actor to win the Hollywood statuette as a male lead: when he won it with The pianist I was 29 years old. Given the awards season, it can now make room for the couple. “I am very selective, it is true. To do something I have to feel that it is worth committing to it. So I had to wait. I have a great time working with Wes Anderson or painting at home,” he explains.

For seven years, for example, he preferred to focus on the restoration of a building, the Stone Barn Castle, which he purchased in 2007 in upstate New York. “Now I paint, and, meanwhile, I search. Luckily, I have had very profound artistic experiences with great actors and directors (he has worked with Spike Lee, Francis Ford Coppola – with whom he made his film debut -, Terrence Malick, Anderson, Peter Jackson, Woody Allen and Ken Loach). Many were secondary characters, although with substance,” he reflects, looking into infinity, a gesture he repeats every so often.

Adrien Brody and director Brady Corbet, yesterday Friday morning at the presentation of ‘The Brutalist’.
Daniel Gonzalez (EFE)

However, Brody was not Brady Corbet’s first choice: they met in 2019 and the director opted for Joel Edgerton. “Actually, I couldn’t even do a test. As an actor you have to get used to this. It is a brutally competitive job and there are very few of those jobs that will remember you for your entire life. Sometimes you can’t even access them. When I read the script by Brady and Mona (Fastvold) I understood its meaning. So when they called me again after confinement, of course I accepted.”

There is another detail that Brody explains in the following answer that prompted him to fight for that character: László Tóth could have been Brody’s family. The actor’s roots are rooted in the Central European Jewish tradition. On his father’s side he comes from Polish Judaism; His maternal grandparents (Jewish and Catholic) emigrated to the United States after the entry of the USSR into Hungary in 1956. In addition, Brody has relatives who died in Nazi extermination camps. “Of course, the resilience of my maternal grandparents resonates, it meant representing on screen all that struggle for survival. My parents were very happy the day I won the Golden Globe. But my main intention was not to pay tribute to them, but rather to feel the complexity of the protagonist on screen,” he breaks down.

Adrien Brody, en 'The Brutalist'
Adrien Brody, en ‘The Brutalist’

Y The Brutalist has found other echoes today. For example, it portrays all those people who are forced to leave their homes and must earn a hard living in other countries. Even renouncing their roots, their culture, assuming and hiding that pain. “Unfortunately, it is not something that is new to humanity, is it? It has been a tragedy that has been repeated throughout history, of generations fleeing oppression and violence. For centuries, many people have had to rethink the meaning of their lives and recover from the pain of the past.”

Thus, the talk reaches The pianist, with which The Brutalist shares much more than Brody’s face. “It may be, but you have to have perspective. I have been in London this autumn performing the play The Fear of 13, in which I played Nick Yarris, who was on death row, unjustly convicted for decades. It is a true fact, another example of injustice. And that’s not why I was going to reject it, but rather I assumed it as another service to an artistic cause, and to a message much more important than oneself.” By the way, when he picked up the Oscar for The pianist, Roman Polanski could no longer enter the United States due to the risk that the authorities would arrest him for having fled the country after being accused of sexual abuse. Today, would Brody work with Polanski again? The actor’s publicist interrupts the interview and reprimands the journalist: the questions, which are limited to The Brutalist.

Adrien Brody, in 'The Pianist'.
Adrien Brody, in ‘The Pianist’.Focus Features (©Focus Features)

About the growing anti-Semitism that is sweeping the world, Brody does want to talk, despite the publicist raising her eyebrows, although she denies telling if she has suffered it in person. “I think the movie makes it clear, right? It exists, it has always been there, and now it increases. In the face of this anti-Semitism, we must again find a way to learn from our past and at the same time leave it behind.”

The Brutalist It lasts almost four hours, which includes a 15-minute intermission, which cuts through the footage. If in the first part Corbet uses a tone close to the epic cinema of David Lean, to great passions and humanist adventures, in the second the plot explodes into the air and oozes violence close to that of the New Hollywood of the seventies. As an actor, how much can you contribute to such a measured project? “Very much, and I feel like an integral part of their project and their tone. However, there was a script and an idea. Brady is like an open book ready to communicate, and for you to read and join the journey. And here the complexity of what is narrated has mattered to us,” explains its protagonist. The process was feverish, which helped Brody as an actor: The Brutalist, Incredibly seen on screen, it was filmed in VistaVision to be released in the width of 70 millimeters, and although it reproduces the United States of the 1950s, it was filmed in 34 days from March to May 2023 with a budget of 9. 3 million euros.

Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, in an image from 'The Brutalist', by Brady Corbet.
Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones, in an image from ‘The Brutalist’, by Brady Corbet.Guadalupe Rodríguez Rubio

Brody admits that he enjoyed playing Pat Riley in Victory time. “What hurts me is that I faced it thinking about the entire journey. I prepared the third season of the series knowing that it would portray his explosion as a coach, I built him up little by little and now, with the series cancelled, we will be left without seeing his personal triumph in the Lakers.” Perhaps that is why, in search of greater creative control, the actor assures that his future will involve projects such as Clean (2021), which he co-wrote, starred in and in which he even composed the soundtrack: “I poured my own worries and anger into it. It pains me how poverty and despair is increasing in the world, especially among children. I feel like an artist, and I want to develop my own material more often, or support the creators with whom I collaborate. “I am evolving in this sense.”

The last question takes Brody back to his Spanish past: what does he remember about such a bitter artistic experience as Manolete, Where did the legendary bullfighter give life? “What do you mean by bitter?” It took six years to finish, the reviews were devastating, up to seven different productions were released around the world… The publicist jumps out for the second time, and now blurts out “time is up”, although Brody, before closing his mouth by superior orders, has blurted out: “Well, I’m just an actor.”

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