Adrien Brody is once again receiving multiple awards, including the Golden Globe, for his role as a Holocaust survivor. Twenty-two years after he won an Academy Award for his role as Wladyslaw Szpilman in The Pianist, his performance as László Tóth, a Jewish-Hungarian architect who comes to America to start a new life, is reminding people of Brody’s immense talent.
InSession Film‘s Nadine Whitney spoke with Brody in a group interview and found out what attracts him to roles, the universal humanity of The Brutalist, and how his family history informs him.

Nadine Whitney: You have a very distinctive face, but you are somewhat of a chameleon as an actor. You’ve played a punk, you’ve played a hardened soldier, Salvador Dali, a con man, a detective— so many kinds of characters. What attracts you to a particular role? What is it that gets you interested in a role?
Adrian Brody: I think the beauty of being an actor is to have the opportunity to inhabit many different people. [We can] step into the shoes of others and represent things and times in our history and eras we can learn from. [We can] speak to hardships and speak to things that are beautiful, and that we all share.
I just look for anything that moves me or feels that it’s a journey that I’d like to discover and immerse myself in, and that can be anything. As you mentioned, a punk rock character, Richie in Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam. I grew up in New York, very much into hip-hop music. So punk music, for instance, was something I was not intimately connected to or related to. But then I found a lot of elements within that culture that I did relate to, and I learned a lot about music and structure. I got to perform at CBGBs and all these things, which have been so enriching in my life. I just gravitate to things that provide an opportunity for exploration.
Did you use any of your experience filming The Pianist in The Brutalist?
Adrian Brody: Yes, definitely. The Brutalist is a very different movie. It is about a man who emigrates to America and leaves behind a lot of the hardships and horrors of World War II. The research necessary to inhabit Wladyslaw Szpilman and represent those hardships had a tremendous impact on me.
I think that research was invaluable in understanding the back story of László and what he’s leaving behind. It’s a remarkable thing how an experience like working on The Pianist can inform work to come. It speaks to what the movie speaks to, which is how understanding through hardship and loss and an understanding of those experiences guide you as an artist. So much of László Tóth’s work is about finding a way to make peace with some of that suffering and incorporate it into his work. Another parallel is the power of creativity and art that can be created through darker times and to bring lightness.
It has been a long road between Wladyslaw and László. I am very grateful. I’ve had many, many blessings, and I’ve learned so much over the past 22 years. I’ve grown a lot as an actor, a man, and a human being. All those life experiences and the characters that I’ve been fortunate to play have paved the way for me to be able to do work like this with Brady [Corbet] and support a vision with complexity and nuance.
I’m grateful to still have the same love and enthusiasm for the work that I began as a boy. And for that to be received by so many with love and appreciation. I knock on wood and count my blessings every day. I really do.
László Tóth is a character whose life spans some of the biggest changes in European and American culture. How did it feel being given the script and role?
Adrian Brody: Unfortunately, it’s a rarity to find a role with this much complexity, where a filmmaker and a writer can infuse so much humanity and frailty and flaws in a protagonist, especially over three decades. Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet did that.
Reading the script was so exciting in the sense of being given the opportunity to delve into those specific moments and feelings, the triumphs and failures. It’s riveting and relatable. What gripped me was the parallels with my own ancestral journey. In emigrating to the United States, my mother and my grandparents fled Hungary in the 1950s during the Hungarian Revolution, essentially leaving everything behind; that hardship and beginning again in New York as foreigners with a limited vocabulary in English and a strong accent. The sacrifice and resilience that they endured has always been a part of my journey and a part of my understanding. I had an opportunity to honor them and my mother’s journey as an artist. The immigrant experience and the complexity of the American dream are intimately intertwined through my own familial experience.
I think primarily, ‘The American Dream’ for an immigrant is to be included and freed of persecution and oppression in the hope of assimilating to be treated as an equal. To be treated as a fellow American with access to the opportunities that exist. I think that varies for individuals in their hopes, dreams, and ambitions, but I think primarily it’s a sense of ‘making it’ and ‘making it’ is subjective. ‘Making it’ can be simply a roof over your and your family’s head. Sufficient comfort, food, freedom from persecution, and not constantly feeling like an outsider. I think that is something that is very much achievable. It’s something that we all must work together to make a reality for that sense of hope to translate into something that is honored in this country. It should be a universal dream and something that should hopefully be afforded to individuals.
What was it like working with Guy Pearce as Harrison van Buren?
Adrian Brody: He’s a wonderful human being. He’s a gifted actor. He’s very thoughtful. I love his work in the film and collaborating with him. Like our characters, we had many intellectually stimulating conversations.
I am very happy for him to receive recognition for his contribution to The Brutalist and, overall, [his] wonderful career. I’d welcome any opportunity to work with him again. He’s an exemplary person.