February 12, 2025 • 48 mins
Adrien Brody readily admits that the New York City he grew up in was rough around the edges. A native of Jackson Heights, Queens, he says the years he spent there in the '70s and '80s toughened him, but also made him empathetic—in other words, it gave him the ammunition he needed to become an actor. It wasn’t long into Brody's career that minor successes became major ones. Early roles in Restaurant and Summer of Sam in the late 1990s led to Roman Polanski’s The Pianist in 2002, a part that made the 29-year old the youngest to ever win the Academy Award for Best Actor. And while Brody’s career hasn’t slowed in the intervening decades, his latest performance, in The Brutalist, has drawn the same type of rare, unanimous acclaim that his breakthrough in The Pianist did. On this episode of Table for Two, Brody joins host Bruce Bozzi to discuss what drew him to the performing arts, the mental toll of method acting, and his perspective on this year’s Oscars, which take place March 2nd.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, everyone, thanks for pulling up a chair today on
table for two, on this beautiful sunny Sunday. I might
add as we sit at the Sunset Tower here in
Los Angeles on what could be considered Hollywood's fifth season. Yes,
that's right. LA has five seasons and we are currently
in award season.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
How are you Yeah, I'm pretty good.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah, you're holding out?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, I'm great juggling which is nice.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Joining me at the table. We have a beautiful man,
an extremely talented actor, a fellow New Yorker, and the
youngest male lead to win an Oscar at the age
of twenty nine, and the front runner to take home
the gold this year for his role in the incredible
film The Brutalist, the story of an influential architect escaping
(00:55):
war torn Europe. Last low tos you hungry? Do you
want something to You.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Could eat something? How are we going to eat and talk?
I don't think well, you'd be surprised. It does entel
interesting curveball. No, No, I like Betel.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yes, that is correct, mister Adrienne Brody. So sit back, enjoy,
and as always, thank you for joining me. I'm Bruce
Bozzi and you're listening to table for two. Adriane, thank
(01:32):
you for joining us today and.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Table for two.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Thank you many people pulling up a chair and having
lunch with us.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
My pleasure for those of you listening.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I ran into Adriane last night at the Producer's Guild Awards,
and when we were leaving, you were speaking with Brian,
and I looked in your eyes. And then when I
walked away from you, and I said to Brian, I said,
do you see Adriane's eyes? The emotion that you live
in is very to the surface. And I thought to myself,
and then he thought, how difficult is that to be
(02:01):
so present to your emotional life.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
That's a lovely observation. Really. It's funny, you know, people
make flippant comments or something on which I don't take personally,
but like on Instagram or they'll say, why do you
always look so sad or why do you always it's
misrepresented And I do see photos of me like, go boy,
I do look kind of sad there. And it's not
that I'm sad or upset or angry about something, but
(02:30):
I am. I'm very sensitive and very conscious of so
many layers in a moment, if that makes sense. Yes,
and it makes me a perfect candidate to be an actor,
because you do need a certain sensitivity and consciousness and
(02:50):
empathetic nature. And I'm quite an introspective and introverted person,
which is incongruous to most people's perception of an actor
in general at all, and they expect, oh, well, you
should be comfortable being up on stage or speaking to things,
(03:12):
and I am in a way comfortable that I've grown
accustomed to that aspect of my work. But I'm so
full of gratitude in this moment. I think what you
experienced is a sense of it's been a very long journey.
I began when I was twelve. It's almost four decades
of doing what I love and still loving what I do,
(03:35):
and seeing Brian and you. Brian's been in my corner
for a long time, and it's been very supportive of
me along the way in many ways as a friend,
as a representative, and so seeing him, I was a
bit extra grateful. And there were many people in that
(03:55):
room that, whether they've employed me directly or not, make
such a difference in a work that I've been so
fortunate to do for so many years, and so just
stepping out and seeing it I was on the stage,
and I tried to acknowledge the many contributions and the
tenacity it takes to be a producer and how hard
(04:17):
it is in this in this world to keep this
industry moving. And I don't know, it felt connected to
it all.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, you saw it.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I felt connected to it. And there are days I
just feel connected to nature and I'm equally as moved
and I'm away from all of this, and I'm so
grateful for being present in that moment and encountering some
animal or whatever it is that and I tend to
live like that. Which it's interesting because I I did
the I received an award at AARP earlier that day.
(04:49):
It's also was a very long day. It was. It
was like a twelve hour day. So at noon I
was on stage receiving.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
The night before recognition.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Was that the night before. I'm still reeling from that.
I've already forgotten how the proximity of that. Yes, I'm
still reeling from that, which was quite wonderful and unexpected.
But AARP was remarkably moving to me in many ways,
and Lev Shreiver was very generous. He introduced me. It
(05:20):
was incredibly generous in his remarks, and he spoke about
how the film touched many things about his own grandparents' journey,
as it clearly did my own. And he spoke about
having son, he's asking him about the work that he
does and everything, and he said he was so grateful
(05:41):
for me and this film and what it speaks to
for our work and what we are striving to do,
and to be able to give some context. I thought
it was such a generous statement to make, and so
then by the time I got on stage, I was
already pretty moved, and I started speaking about my grandparents
and how they've influenced me, and how my mother's work
(06:05):
has influenced me, and and that I had recalled something
that I hadn't thought of in many, many years, which was,
as this was, we were aarp and there's a lot
of reference about grown ups and being an adult and
being mature and growing.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
So jarring when you get that first, it's not.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
So jarring anymore. It's jarring the.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
First piece of material you get in the mail. Oh yeah, here,
I am.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Oh, that's good for my earthritis. But I, as a boy,
recalled that I prayed God to be a grown up.
I wanted to grow up so that I would have
some sense of control and a voice, and a voice
to not only advocate for myself but for others and
(06:55):
all that I saw that was uninjust in the world
as a boy, as a very little child, seven or eight. Wow.
And so that really struck me. So yesterday is kind
of reeling with that and the fact that those prayers
have been answered to my work because I do get
to speak. I do get to speak for all that
yearning inside of me and that yearning in others, and
(07:18):
so much that isn't right in the world that can
be discussed and contemplated in film. And so that yesterday
I was really kind of living through a moment of
real gratitude and awareness and you know, sensitivity to everyone
around me as well.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You know, one of the things that we shares. We
both grew up in New York, which I'm very proud
of coming from that place. And you talked about your
mother's the influence and your mother who left hungry and
left at a time where you know, you needed to
get out and made a career as a photographer and
worked for the Village Voice, and for those of us
who grew up in New York, the village voice was
very specific, very downtown newspaper. How did her images inform
(08:14):
you growing up and influence you like you just alluded to.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Yeah, her imagery definitely affected me. And it's more than
just growing up around impeccably beautiful imagery and sensitivity in
an artistic work. It's an extension of her being and
her sensitivity and what as an only child and probably
(08:40):
her favorite subject as well. So I had that as well.
That's informed my work. I grew up with a camera
on me, ever present from a very safe and loving place,
also not encouraging me to do something or act or
put something on. So I became very comfortable with that,
which I think is very helpful for a film. But
(09:03):
her awareness of the world and the way she sees
things and the way it's quite beautiful and poetic and
very unique and funny and sad at times, and I
relate to all of that. And I am the result
of of all of those influences and probably genetically through
what her being.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Right, the nature nurture thing, and you do see it
in your work a lot, the humor, the mix of
the dance of the two, because I think it's like
an EmPATH as someone who grows up. You know, we
both and we dig we we both.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
It's so funny.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
You know, you gotta eat.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
It's part of the stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, you know we're having chopped out of a chicken.
It's it's a Sunday. And do you have a think
about I don't like.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Fen Oh so I do a dish that's primarily fennel,
which I which I encountered in Australia doing thin red line,
which is one of the few good memories left of it.
But I they did this thin slice fannel with parmesan
and olive oil and lemon, and it's just fantastic. And
so that is great.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
That is a delicious dish, thin slice fedel, parmesan.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Lemon and olive healthy, delicious.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
So growing up in New York and like as a
kid when you're you know, we were on the streets.
We're going to be independent, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Almost pretty independent.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
You know where you're like hopping on subway as you're
walking to school. You know what, when you kind of
think about how that informed you or the nostalgia is
there something because I think that leads to that which
leads to this.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
They all do. They all definitely very much shaped me.
I mean, I'm a bit nostalgic about those years just
because New York and it was deeply flawed and broken
in many ways, and it was terrible crime, and it
was very threatening at times, and I got jumped and
I would have to deal with all kinds of stuff
that I don't I'm glad I don't live through that
(10:57):
hardship now, but it didn't shake me and did give
me an edge and survival. Yeah, I mean, I've had
to work very hard to be less reactive and something
felt confrontational because you did have to react and respond
in a quite a powerful way in order to defend
yourself in the moment. That I think isn't healthy in
an adult life and healthy in other aspects. It was
(11:20):
necessary as a teenager. But I look back at the
beauty of being immersed in diversity and that cacophony of
it just being normal, that just chaos is going on,
and every kind of person and people helping one another,
(11:42):
people fighting, people alive and human and sneezing on you
on a train, and you know, every walk of life
on that in your frame in front of you. What
you're seeing every day is so vast and beautiful, and
(12:03):
it still exists, but it's different. I mean, the city's
changed a lot.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
The ability I think.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
I think most artistic people, not all artistic people, but
like artists who can't afford to live in a place
like that aren't. It's not attainable in the voice, so
they've moved out. In retrospect, if I said, I'm nostalgic
about because it was very hard, but those things shape
you and make things moving forward less hard. They have
the ability to anything that you know killed you makes
(12:31):
you stronger. It's very true. Hard hard work, experiences, hard
relationship experiences, hard upbringing all shapes who you become and
how you're able to deal with them, either gracefully or not.
And you can become if it's accessible to you and
you've learned from it. It's like a martial arts training
(12:51):
almost like the way I see it, It's like you've
practiced deflecting certain things so many times, and rather than
full on confrontation of going into battle, maybe deflect and
run or walk, deflect and protect yourself from those things.
Don't need to prove that you can annihilate your opponent,
but deflect the opposition in a way with grace, and
(13:15):
that's winning, not necessarily having to, you know, prove that
you are stronger or not. It's just a matter of
moving past it and carrying on with what's important. You
learn those through life, you.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Hope to because if not, you can't exist in a
state of rage about the way.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
People who have been through those things can stay in
that they didn't get the treated fairly and forever they
have to prove now you're going to have to treat
me extra fairly. And we see a lot of that,
and but that's that's that's a whole different But the
way you do feel that New York, it definitely gave
(13:55):
me all the ammunition I needed to be a great
actor because it was all accessible to me on my
own curiosity and I think coupled with my mother's curiosity
and visual nature brought it all in and then I retain.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
A Lotah, Welcome back to Table for two.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Today we're having lunch with Adrian Brodie and discussing his
new movie The Brutalist. I'm curious if his family's Hungarian
ancestry helped him or his co star Felicity Jones prepare
for their roles as a married couple escaping with the
Holocaust and war torn Europe hoping to find the American dream.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I saw some parallels, which is not something I discussed
with Felicia. But my grandmother was very bright and spoke
five languages, six including English, and that was very instrumental
and helpful for my grandfather and my mother, even for
them as a family unit to fill out the married
paperwork that was necessary, and as they were refugees in
(15:16):
Vienna and speaking German and then coming to America, and
it really was essential for them getting through. So Felicity
plays someone with a degree of language skills and understanding
and quite educated, and then she's not really able to
(15:36):
live up to her potential. She's there kind of supportive
of her partner my character, right, and they were parallels
of that. My grandmother actually was able to get work
in a way that my grandfather wasn't, unfortunately because of
his lack of clarity and eloquence with his own I'm
used of the English language, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I don't think many people realize the complexities when you
leave a life that you've built to begin a new life.
And you know, I always find it's so fascinating when
I get into a conversation with someone in New York
who might be driving a cab, but where they came from,
they were, you know, surgeons and doctors, and they just
it's the whole reinvention of what you have to become.
(16:20):
You know. I was able to go to Hungry in
the summer of eighty eight, and I did it. I
took you know, I graduated. I did a europass and
I did too, probably around the same time. No, I'm
like one hundred years older than you.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I did that when I graduated high school.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Okay, that's right.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
You got around them. I took a urorail by myself.
I was quite depressed, that's quite because I wasn't engaging
with people enough. I remember this euroail trip and I
went through Hungary.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Right, and it was right.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
It was still common, very different. Yeah, I remember the
story of war torn. There were the buildings, people hiding
under the train trying to get through either not, and
they caught them on my car right underneath it, and
the police came and they maced them and they pulled
them out from the train. And my mom was there
(17:12):
in Hungary before I started my trip throughout Europe, and
she was taking pictures and they started getting aggressive and
I had to leave watching all this, and I was like, Mom,
just just don't get into it with them and put
it down. But I remember sitting on that train leaving
that started my euroeal.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Train, my own that it was. Yeah, we came from
when I did it. I came from Austria into Hungary
and it was, you know, a big difference when you
went through, and it was the border and the passport.
And they stopped somebody in the car that I was
in because they had a VCR and they wanted to
know where they got that VCR eighty eight.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
You know, I believe it.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Wow. The and I stayed once a train station, rented
a room from an elderly Hungarian couple that didn't I
mean old. I mean I was twenty two. They might
have been my age. They were, you know, the home.
And so having been to Hungary and doing your thing,
(18:12):
what came up for you being immersed in the country
your character escaped and fled. Was there anything you drew from?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Sure? I mean it was a country that my mother
escaped and fled, and my grandparents escaped and fled, So
that resonates at any time. For sure. It was their
home that was lost and their sense of home, and
my mother as a twelve year old girl, to lose
her her friends and her sense of home, I think
(18:44):
has been very disruptive and hard for her. And I
remember she wasn't able to say goodbye to her best girlfriend.
Their parents only told her they were leaving twenty four
hours before they were leaving. Today they told her, and
she wanted to say goodbye to her friend and they said,
you can't tell her. So she went and saw her
(19:05):
friend just to see her and spend time with her,
but not say it. And my mom kind of gave
a very meaningful farewell, and her friend was like, well,
i'll see you. I'll see you tomorrow, and she goes,
I hope so or something. And it's so heartbreaking to
think about her having to let all that go for
(19:26):
these circumstances that are beyond you. So all of that
comes back when I go there and think about it.
But it's, you know, it's it's been a big, long
life and it's remarkable that she's begun a life again
and it's had a wonderful creative existence. And my dad,
(19:48):
who she met in New York, has been great to her.
And me, and all those hardships and sacrifice and her
own resilience have paved the way for me to have
this beautiful life to be born as an American actor,
and even all her encounters that helped me discover this
path and life's given us this journey, her own ways
(20:11):
of finding creative fulfillment and what that's afforded for me,
which is such a remarkable thing.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
The way to that trauma that it puts on a person,
it's hard to imagine how to deal with that trauma.
I mean, how do you think, I mean, you saw
how you've been the recipient of watching your mother sort
of deal with that trauma and create a life for
herself and hence create life here. You know, when you
(20:49):
go to talk his trauma and the ownership of that,
you know, how do you think he claimed how to
deal with that oppression of that trauma.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
It's a very good question. I mean, I think you know,
there's been tremendous suffering ancestrally, but just in the world
that is it's unfathomable, but it's comprehendible, and in my way, so.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Well said, it's unfathomable, but it's comprehendible.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
And my work in The Pianist many years ago, in
my efforts to honor of a lot of slaves Spielman's
memoirs and portray a man who survived the very circumstances
that this character Loslow Toov is trying to come to
terms with. Right gave me a lot of deep insight
(21:39):
into a specificity of that time and those hardships. And
did a starvation diet. I did all these things. I
kind of isolated myself in many ways. I left my
sense of home. I put everything in storage, I disconnected
my phone, I stopped listening to contemporary music. I learned
(22:02):
to play chopin. I hid in my room and with
a piano and practiced hours and hours on end, and
had pano lessons for hours every day. And I felt
a profound shift as a person after that experience. So
before the movie was released, before I knew how or
what its response would be in the world, I was
(22:23):
a different person from that experience, and that never really left.
I was much younger than I thought I was then,
and I realized also how much I had taken for
granted in that in that by experiencing those moments and
that understanding, my relationship to even the freedom of having
(22:44):
food accessible to me, the awakening of an understanding of
hunger and the desperation that can immediately ensue with hunger,
and God forbid if your children are going hungry or
that changes everything, and the stakes of that let alone
shelter or other horrendous layers of persecution and violence. All
(23:09):
of that gave me the insight needed to portray this character,
in addition to the many conversations and memories that I've
had a chance to recollect with my mother and that
I remember even with discussing with my grandmother. And that's
the beauty of this work is that you can find purpose.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
It's a beauty of how you choose to work, I
think as well. I mean, it makes complete sense that
when you choose to based on the work you're about
to do, make the choices to really go there what
you did, which it makes sense that you never come
back the same person. It's a gift.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
I think it is a gift. It is it is
a privilege, you know, and it's it's part. It's like, look,
I did not seek out to find a role that
would require a great deal of discomfort and uncovering these
things or I wasn't actively looking for that. It found me.
(24:13):
And I understand my responsibility anyway. I understand what I
have to do, and also for my own way of
working to feel authentic in my work. I don't like,
you know, acting, The term acting is kind of a
terrible reference of what the job is. It's worse when
(24:34):
they call you talent or celebrity, God forbid. But you
know they're all intertwined. But to be great at acting,
you have to make contact with things and connect on
a level that requires a lot of work and sensitivity
and instinct. And it is a joy even when it's painful.
(24:56):
It's really a joyous thing. It's almost kind of spiritual
to have this finite window of where and when and
how you must connect to something so different to your
own set of circumstances, and you you're inevitably going to
convey it more the more you're experiencing emotionally, as as
(25:22):
that individual.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Never once when I was watching your film did I
think I was watching you great?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
You know what, that's the objective, But you.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Know that doesn't often happen. No, especially when you're at
the level of success that you're at. Were you you
know you're not as a Yes.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
It gets harder when you're seen, thank you. So it's
harder when you've seen Is that mean's mom? Yeah, it's
on silent, but my mom has the breakthrough really, yeah,
just in case, I love that. Yeah, my mom can
wake me up if need be. Yeah, I know, especially
if you see an actor work a lot, you've seen
the number of their films, it's important to really you know,
(26:15):
there are going to be qualities. I mean, you know,
you can change certain qualities about yourself and the way
convey things, but there should be a real shift.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
In those characters, so to me, and I understand how
the brutals came to you and also sort of you've
discussed how you were really waiting for this, this opportunity.
You know. One thing that a couple of things stood
out for me in the film that I thought was
really interesting and tough was to me, you know, he's
very shrewd, very intense. You know, I found him to
be very direct, very honest in a way. Obviously you
(26:47):
had to submerge yourself, as you just said, and you
see example for when you were in the Pianists and
when you look at tot you can actually understand why
he needed drugs to sort of escape. You know, did
you have, like the filming of it, was there something
that you had to do to separate yourself when the
day was wrapped? And also in the brody world when
(27:09):
you're not is there something that you do to separate.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
I've thought about it a lot. It's funny. I have
all these techniques to go in and it don't really
have a bag of tricks to get out. It's a
very strange thing. And partially the easiest way out is
to get another job and then have to jump into
the shoes of another person, because then you just purge
(27:35):
you have no space for this guy anymore. You've got
to start doing a whole bunch of research and work
to find what is it to key into that individual's
set of circumstances, and then there's less time to start
either wallowing in whatever residual elements are left that you
don't like. But I am very deeply immersed in my work,
(27:59):
and I'm very serious about that my work. But I'm
not ever at a loss to where I am within
my world. And yeah, and I you know, I think
there is some this connective. People think, oh, you're a
method actor. You come home and you're in shambles and
your nightmare to be around, and that you may be
(28:20):
I may be a nightmare to be around. There may
be other circumstances for that, and but and there may
be residual hardships that linger and require a bit of
space or solitude that you expect your family to understand.
And they do for the most part, but it dissipates
well enough. I think there are long term things that stay,
(28:45):
but I don't look at them. It's like I don't
I'm not afraid of ghosts. I'm not really afraid. It's
just like you've had relationships that were terrible, but there
they were full of beautiful moments and the person wasn't
right for you or you weren't right for them, And
sometimes we force it all out. Sometimes life just helps
(29:06):
us forget. But sometimes there are moments that come back
and you go that was really special. And those moments,
as complex as they were, really gave me understanding about
life and having a partner or my own growth one.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Hundred per you know, I mean one without the other.
It keeps you going forward. So like those bad.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Relationships and certain bad relationships with another character. You push
away the stuff that isn't pleasant. I mean, you know,
I can relate, like, for instance, playing a character with
an addiction, I don't need to. I've been addicted cigarettes.
So I actually got hooked doing a movie when I
was really teen. Either they were giving me packs and
(29:48):
packs of cigarettes back in the day when you didn't smoke.
Before that, I didn't I played around with a cigarette
and my girlfriend, or go with my friends and out
drinking and have cigarette. I was never buying packs of
cigarettes and I wasn't definitely not home, and then I
was smoking packs of non filtered packs packs. My dad
smoke eight cigarettes in one scene because you'd do six takes,
(30:10):
you'd light one beforehand to kind of not have a
head rush at nineteen puffing down a non filtered camera
or lucky, And by the time that film was over,
I was deeply hooked on smoking. And I felt at
that age it's very interesting because I felt, oh, I'm
I don't have an addictive personality. And my dad smoked
(30:32):
when he was younger. My mom smoked when she was younger,
and they both had quit and my dad, I remember
wisely advising me, don't play around with it. You don't
want to play around with it. You don't need that
additional burden in your life. Trust me, And I didn't
trust him. I didn't believe it. And it was also
an awakening from me because of the pain of suffering,
of trying to quit and eventually quitting. I remember acknowledging
(30:57):
that my dad was right at those early nineteen twenty
the recognition that I'm not quite as in the know
as I thought I am. I'm not quite the man
that I thought I am at that time. And it's good, humbling,
it is good, and but my point is that I
understand the suffering that comes with that. I also have
(31:19):
had many friends in New York who have succumb to
real drug addiction. I've lost friends through that. And the
more you live, the more you encounter this communal suffering
and within the community, and see how the blight of
drugs and hardship have affected families and loved ones. And
(31:39):
it's horrible, it is, and so and the need for
people to self medicate, and we all do in certain ways.
I it's great to have a drink, and that's what
I understood in the pianist, even having a piece of
sweets or having some caffeine or having a piece of
bread and butter is filling a void. You're not necessarily hungry,
but you are yearning for something that is empty. And
(32:02):
when you pull all that out for an extended period
of time, the depth of that hollowness and loss and
emptiness is much like the loss of a loved one
or the loss of a drug or substance that you're
physically craving. And they're all very powerful, and I have
(32:25):
an ability to pull it back. I know how to
that they don't really go, the great things don't really
go entirely, the painful things are ready go and I
and I can use those experiences to inform the need
for the complexity of addiction and the need to self
medicate through traumas and current pains.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
And it's funny you say the examples you use. I
remember when I eventually did quit smoking, because it took
several times. Then all of a sudden, I kept thinking
like I was missing something in my day, like I
had lost a friend, Like I was like a lost love. Yeah,
I was like, oh that. And then of course the
amount of time you get back in your day, because
you know all the time you're like, I'll be right back.
(33:05):
You go outside smoke a cigarette, because eventually cigarette smoking
became just not popular. So when we grew up, you
could smoke in bars.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
In La specifically, I was living in La at the time,
and I remember La was one of the first places
that you had to go outside. I remember feeling so
kind of ostracience eppisode outside. It wasn't quite like a
you're the cool kids. At that point, societal people were judged.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Yeah, thanks for joining us for Table for two. The
(33:51):
authenticity that Adrian Brody brings to his roles can be
quite captivating, especially when he is playing complex, flawed care characters.
How did he approach some of the most intimate and
tough moments of the brutalist as this character Laslo tough.
One of the things that I was really riveted to
(34:11):
Adrian with in your film of Many was the the
sexiness of you, especially in the first scene, that scene
when you're at the you know you're with the woman's
I guess it's a and you know you're the curve
of your body. The whole thing was very sexy how
it was shot. And then when you your hands, because
(34:35):
I find hands to be very just interesting, beautiful hands.
And then you you look at her and you talk
about the symmetrical piece between her eyebrows, which was so perfect,
I thought, and you do it also taught you have a.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
Way having getting you know, fellatio like great.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
And then and it's a very seductive scene because then
Loslow says that, and then your friends like can you
just get on with it? But you don't. And then
the woman comes out and she's like, well do you
there's these two beautiful brothers and even that doesn't affect
a lot tough in a way that was like there's
almost like a smile like no, there's no That was very.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
No, there's no judjudge or anything. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
And then there was the rape which happens, and then
when your wife and you connect physically, which is quite
a powerful scene because there's so much so all that
was just all very riveting to me, and in this
particular like what are the significances of those moments and
did they help you understand Loaslow? And what did you
learn or need from that? And to mix it in
(35:47):
just when you and Brady who directed with the rape scene,
how was how to approach that you approach it very delicately.
It's like, how did that all kind of play into
the significance.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Of Well, there there are many intimate, for lack of
a better word, aspects of the character, and they reveal
so much and they and speak to so much Above
those moments, the relationship with sex worker, his personality that
is kind of being formed in that exchange, him not
(36:21):
feeling attractive, her saying well, you're ugly and he goes,
I know, I am. And his inability to be aroused
even though he's yearning for some kind of fix, it's
not quite working everything else in the chaos of it,
but it's a normal yearning, and that's you know, he's
(36:41):
just arrived and he's with a friend who's probably like
they're having something to drink or everything, bro, let's go,
and they find himself in a situation where he's like,
this isn't what I need to be doing. And so
I think all of that's quite wonderful and expressive and human.
I did to lawsy laws of these characters are quite
eloquently unveiled for us all. And then the reconnecting with
(37:05):
his wife, which I felt were the quite beautiful and
sensual and beautifully filmed, and the kind of veil of
pulling her stress over her face and keeping it there
in this kind of seductive moment, and even her pain
and his ability to help fix her pain with his
narcotics that he's been hiding from her is so profound
(37:33):
because it's also a confession. And to have this partner there,
your loved one now in with you in this is
also a very real thing, very real for someone who's
afflicted with addiction and concealing that for the world, So
that too is quite powerful and again very human. And
(37:56):
the scene at the end is a It was a
complex thing to do. We shot it in a much
more graphic way as well. Really, yes, I I was
portraying it also quite sick because the character was literally
practically oding and being taken advantage of in that moment,
(38:18):
and I think probably was too aggressive to show, but
we shot that as well. They ultimately you saw both.
I didn't see it. They didn't. They didn't make an
edit of it, but I experience and portrayed it with
literally like a great deal of with a close up
and a great deal of agony and a great deal
(38:40):
of illness amidst the moment and it was you know,
it's fine, it's representing what those circumstances were, and they
can make I think they handled it quite, it was well,
and yeah, they kind of were back.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Do you think it was his wanting to have you
submit to him, to recognize him. You have a lot
of power over this.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Yeah, I think it's a number of things. I mean,
I'm I didn't write the scene, and I'm just an actor,
but you know, I do interpret that. I have the ability,
and I think that the the beauty of something and
maybe I shouldn't even say what my subjective perceptions were
on it, but the beauty of of any creative work
is it's open to interpretation. And I think there are
(39:23):
bigger issues at play of hatred and dominating and resentment
that go beyond just a sense of control or it's personal,
But it's much bigger than that, and it's I think
in the storytelling, I would imagine it is referencing something
(39:45):
much greater about systemic dominance or overpowering of someone less powerful,
and also a hatred of others or people who are different,
and that kind of degree of darkness that goes beyond
any kind of other sexual urge or any other implied
(40:07):
in the kind of actual act of exactly.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
What will you take with TAF Is there something from
this character that you know, as we've talked about in
relationships and in life, is there something that you feel
that will be with you?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
I see there are qualities that I do relate to
that I respect, which is a yearning and a need
to tenaciously pursue your work in an artistic capacity. And
what that work must be in a sense of leaving
(40:50):
behind something of greatness. It's working and using your efforts
to leave behind something of lasting meaning and significance that
outlives you. And much like an architectural work, film is
a tangible creation that carries on. It's the permanence of
film is part of its beauty and the part of
(41:12):
the pressure and responsibility of being an actor in film
is that that performance and that participation lives on. And
we will fade away, and you know, we look back
and we see amazing things from work from other eras
of great filmmakers and artists and writers. Their work lives on.
(41:35):
They're long gone and they don't know or care at
this point, but they've left something in this world. They've
left the world a better place than it was without that,
and I yearned for that, and I'm working to try.
And you know, this is a business and you as
an actor have to work within. You know, that is
(41:57):
part of an aspect of the storytelling also where commerce
and art intertwined, and it is a little more complex
as an actor than a filmmaker. But even so the filmmaker,
if he wants to have an enduring career, those films
have to perform, meaning make money for the investors and
distributors and studios or else. They might think you're very
talented and interesting and creative, but they won't keep giving
(42:19):
you work. And I'm very conscious of those things and
have made choices in an experimental manner to be true
to me that I think have impeded my ability to
get more overtly commercial work because I think it makes
people not understand clearly what my motivation was in that
they just think it as a miss. But it's not
(42:40):
a miss. It's a choice to do something with a
degree of risk and is an opportunity for me to
grow and explore different things without those expectations. But then
if this subjective expectation is implied on everything that you do,
it removes some of those creative freedoms, and that was
something to learn after becoming weren't known as an actor
(43:01):
because earlier in my career I had much more freedom
to do that because people would see something and they say, oh,
that was really great. It may not see another thing
was relatively obscure. But then everybody kind of weighs in
on everything. Once you're somewhat there.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
How does it feel being in this position right now
as you're on the journey to Oscar twenty twenty five
and having been the youngest male lee to win. Is
the process different? Is the journey different? Does it feel
different in any way?
Speaker 2 (43:38):
It's different. I think it's a different time. I think
the whole everything is very different. I think, first of all,
it was a long time ago, but as I recall,
it was quite grassroots what we were doing, and there
were no cell phones and no social media and none
of the noise or extra commentary. Some of it's quite
good and propels actors forward, or visibility of a film forward.
(44:01):
And part of the beauty of this whole campaign season
is for people to see the work, right, you really
want to have people see it, and we all of
course would love to receive recognition, and I already feel
that I am a recipient of that, not just of
the past, but currently, because I think this film and
(44:21):
my work in this film has realigned people's way of
seeing me and my creative work and the way I
apply my creative work and have been kind of steadily
keeping my head down and trying to do my work.
And you know, it's very hard to have all of
these elements work together and blossom into something as such
(44:45):
a triumph as this, and that's not from a lack
of want or hard work from anyone's party. It's just
very challenging. And so this moment, I think I'm a
bit older and wiser and very firmly planted on the ground,
and I really appreciate the opportunities it's brought again and
(45:06):
the awareness of that work. And I don't know how
it was then and in the past. Actually I just
was very I think excited. It was much more of
a whirlwind. But that only ensued at the Academy Awards
and after because I had been nominated for every category
leading up to it and didn't win one. I didn't
realize that not one. I didn't win a SAG award
(45:29):
where I thought, oh, actors would understand this journey at least,
right right, you know, and all the way through the process,
and I was still very grateful to be considered and
in the conversation with all these tremendous, wonderful actors who
I admired, and then the fact that I was so
young and the youngest and all that it really was
(45:51):
a remarkable moment and very unexpected.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
And there's something beautiful in that too. There's something really
beautiful in that process. No, no, no, no, and then yes,
we're gonna.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Do it, yes, yes, yes, no, which is anything possible.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
I'm just saying, but I'm right, all right, right, It's
such an honor to avalanche with you. I have been
around you a few times. We share people that we
love together, and consistently, the one thing that is always
said when I have talked about you and talked about
today is the value that I find the most treasured
(46:33):
for me is kind. And that's everyone who has said
one thing about you said, oh, he's so kind. And
this is an incredible movie. I am quite confident that
things are going to go in the direction that they're
supposed to go this next month, for you and well deserved.
Thank you, so thank you for joining me today. Thank you,
(46:57):
thank you for pulling up a chair.
Speaker 5 (46:59):
I love our launches and never forget the romance of
a meal. If you enjoy the show, please tell a
friend and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Table
for two with Bruce Bosi is produced by iHeartRadio seven
three seven Park and Airmail. Our executive producers are Bruce
Bosi and Nathan King. Our supervising producer is Dylan Fagan.
(47:22):
Our editors are Vincent to Johnny and Cas b Bias.
Table for two is researched and written by Jack Sullivan.
Our sound engineers are mel b Klein, Jess Krainich, Evan Taylor.
Speaker 4 (47:34):
And Jesse Funk. Our music supervisor is Randall Poster. Our
talent booking is done by Jane Sarkin. Table for two's
social media manager is Gracie Wiener. Special thanks to Amy Sugarman,
Uni Scherer, Kevin Yvane, Bobby Bauer, Alison Kanter Graber. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast,
(47:57):
or wherever you listen to your favorite show.
Hey, everyone, thanks for pulling up a chair today on
table for two, on this beautiful sunny Sunday. I might
add as we sit at the Sunset Tower here in
Los Angeles on what could be considered Hollywood's fifth season. Yes,
that's right. LA has five seasons and we are currently
in award season.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
How are you Yeah, I'm pretty good.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah, you're holding out?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, I'm great juggling which is nice.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Joining me at the table. We have a beautiful man,
an extremely talented actor, a fellow New Yorker, and the
youngest male lead to win an Oscar at the age
of twenty nine, and the front runner to take home
the gold this year for his role in the incredible
film The Brutalist, the story of an influential architect escaping
(00:55):
war torn Europe. Last low tos you hungry? Do you
want something to You.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Could eat something? How are we going to eat and talk?
I don't think well, you'd be surprised. It does entel
interesting curveball. No, No, I like Betel.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yes, that is correct, mister Adrienne Brody. So sit back, enjoy,
and as always, thank you for joining me. I'm Bruce
Bozzi and you're listening to table for two. Adriane, thank
(01:32):
you for joining us today and.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Table for two.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Thank you many people pulling up a chair and having
lunch with us.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
My pleasure for those of you listening.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I ran into Adriane last night at the Producer's Guild Awards,
and when we were leaving, you were speaking with Brian,
and I looked in your eyes. And then when I
walked away from you, and I said to Brian, I said,
do you see Adriane's eyes? The emotion that you live
in is very to the surface. And I thought to myself,
and then he thought, how difficult is that to be
(02:01):
so present to your emotional life.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
That's a lovely observation. Really. It's funny, you know, people
make flippant comments or something on which I don't take personally,
but like on Instagram or they'll say, why do you
always look so sad or why do you always it's
misrepresented And I do see photos of me like, go boy,
I do look kind of sad there. And it's not
that I'm sad or upset or angry about something, but
(02:30):
I am. I'm very sensitive and very conscious of so
many layers in a moment, if that makes sense. Yes,
and it makes me a perfect candidate to be an actor,
because you do need a certain sensitivity and consciousness and
(02:50):
empathetic nature. And I'm quite an introspective and introverted person,
which is incongruous to most people's perception of an actor
in general at all, and they expect, oh, well, you
should be comfortable being up on stage or speaking to things,
(03:12):
and I am in a way comfortable that I've grown
accustomed to that aspect of my work. But I'm so
full of gratitude in this moment. I think what you
experienced is a sense of it's been a very long journey.
I began when I was twelve. It's almost four decades
of doing what I love and still loving what I do,
(03:35):
and seeing Brian and you. Brian's been in my corner
for a long time, and it's been very supportive of
me along the way in many ways as a friend,
as a representative, and so seeing him, I was a
bit extra grateful. And there were many people in that
(03:55):
room that, whether they've employed me directly or not, make
such a difference in a work that I've been so
fortunate to do for so many years, and so just
stepping out and seeing it I was on the stage,
and I tried to acknowledge the many contributions and the
tenacity it takes to be a producer and how hard
(04:17):
it is in this in this world to keep this
industry moving. And I don't know, it felt connected to
it all.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, you saw it.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I felt connected to it. And there are days I
just feel connected to nature and I'm equally as moved
and I'm away from all of this, and I'm so
grateful for being present in that moment and encountering some
animal or whatever it is that and I tend to
live like that. Which it's interesting because I I did
the I received an award at AARP earlier that day.
(04:49):
It's also was a very long day. It was. It
was like a twelve hour day. So at noon I
was on stage receiving.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
The night before recognition.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Was that the night before. I'm still reeling from that.
I've already forgotten how the proximity of that. Yes, I'm
still reeling from that, which was quite wonderful and unexpected.
But AARP was remarkably moving to me in many ways,
and Lev Shreiver was very generous. He introduced me. It
(05:20):
was incredibly generous in his remarks, and he spoke about
how the film touched many things about his own grandparents' journey,
as it clearly did my own. And he spoke about
having son, he's asking him about the work that he
does and everything, and he said he was so grateful
(05:41):
for me and this film and what it speaks to
for our work and what we are striving to do,
and to be able to give some context. I thought
it was such a generous statement to make, and so
then by the time I got on stage, I was
already pretty moved, and I started speaking about my grandparents
and how they've influenced me, and how my mother's work
(06:05):
has influenced me, and and that I had recalled something
that I hadn't thought of in many, many years, which was,
as this was, we were aarp and there's a lot
of reference about grown ups and being an adult and
being mature and growing.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
So jarring when you get that first, it's not.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
So jarring anymore. It's jarring the.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
First piece of material you get in the mail. Oh yeah, here,
I am.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Oh, that's good for my earthritis. But I, as a boy,
recalled that I prayed God to be a grown up.
I wanted to grow up so that I would have
some sense of control and a voice, and a voice
to not only advocate for myself but for others and
(06:55):
all that I saw that was uninjust in the world
as a boy, as a very little child, seven or eight. Wow.
And so that really struck me. So yesterday is kind
of reeling with that and the fact that those prayers
have been answered to my work because I do get
to speak. I do get to speak for all that
yearning inside of me and that yearning in others, and
(07:18):
so much that isn't right in the world that can
be discussed and contemplated in film. And so that yesterday
I was really kind of living through a moment of
real gratitude and awareness and you know, sensitivity to everyone
around me as well.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You know, one of the things that we shares. We
both grew up in New York, which I'm very proud
of coming from that place. And you talked about your
mother's the influence and your mother who left hungry and
left at a time where you know, you needed to
get out and made a career as a photographer and
worked for the Village Voice, and for those of us
who grew up in New York, the village voice was
very specific, very downtown newspaper. How did her images inform
(08:14):
you growing up and influence you like you just alluded to.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Yeah, her imagery definitely affected me. And it's more than
just growing up around impeccably beautiful imagery and sensitivity in
an artistic work. It's an extension of her being and
her sensitivity and what as an only child and probably
(08:40):
her favorite subject as well. So I had that as well.
That's informed my work. I grew up with a camera
on me, ever present from a very safe and loving place,
also not encouraging me to do something or act or
put something on. So I became very comfortable with that,
which I think is very helpful for a film. But
(09:03):
her awareness of the world and the way she sees
things and the way it's quite beautiful and poetic and
very unique and funny and sad at times, and I
relate to all of that. And I am the result
of of all of those influences and probably genetically through
what her being.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Right, the nature nurture thing, and you do see it
in your work a lot, the humor, the mix of
the dance of the two, because I think it's like
an EmPATH as someone who grows up. You know, we
both and we dig we we both.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
It's so funny.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
You know, you gotta eat.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
It's part of the stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Yeah, you know we're having chopped out of a chicken.
It's it's a Sunday. And do you have a think
about I don't like.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Fen Oh so I do a dish that's primarily fennel,
which I which I encountered in Australia doing thin red line,
which is one of the few good memories left of it.
But I they did this thin slice fannel with parmesan
and olive oil and lemon, and it's just fantastic. And
so that is great.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
That is a delicious dish, thin slice fedel, parmesan.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Lemon and olive healthy, delicious.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
So growing up in New York and like as a
kid when you're you know, we were on the streets.
We're going to be independent, you know.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Almost pretty independent.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
You know where you're like hopping on subway as you're
walking to school. You know what, when you kind of
think about how that informed you or the nostalgia is
there something because I think that leads to that which
leads to this.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
They all do. They all definitely very much shaped me.
I mean, I'm a bit nostalgic about those years just
because New York and it was deeply flawed and broken
in many ways, and it was terrible crime, and it
was very threatening at times, and I got jumped and
I would have to deal with all kinds of stuff
that I don't I'm glad I don't live through that
(10:57):
hardship now, but it didn't shake me and did give
me an edge and survival. Yeah, I mean, I've had
to work very hard to be less reactive and something
felt confrontational because you did have to react and respond
in a quite a powerful way in order to defend
yourself in the moment. That I think isn't healthy in
an adult life and healthy in other aspects. It was
(11:20):
necessary as a teenager. But I look back at the
beauty of being immersed in diversity and that cacophony of
it just being normal, that just chaos is going on,
and every kind of person and people helping one another,
(11:42):
people fighting, people alive and human and sneezing on you
on a train, and you know, every walk of life
on that in your frame in front of you. What
you're seeing every day is so vast and beautiful, and
(12:03):
it still exists, but it's different. I mean, the city's
changed a lot.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
The ability I think.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
I think most artistic people, not all artistic people, but
like artists who can't afford to live in a place
like that aren't. It's not attainable in the voice, so
they've moved out. In retrospect, if I said, I'm nostalgic
about because it was very hard, but those things shape
you and make things moving forward less hard. They have
the ability to anything that you know killed you makes
(12:31):
you stronger. It's very true. Hard hard work, experiences, hard
relationship experiences, hard upbringing all shapes who you become and
how you're able to deal with them, either gracefully or not.
And you can become if it's accessible to you and
you've learned from it. It's like a martial arts training
(12:51):
almost like the way I see it, It's like you've
practiced deflecting certain things so many times, and rather than
full on confrontation of going into battle, maybe deflect and
run or walk, deflect and protect yourself from those things.
Don't need to prove that you can annihilate your opponent,
but deflect the opposition in a way with grace, and
(13:15):
that's winning, not necessarily having to, you know, prove that
you are stronger or not. It's just a matter of
moving past it and carrying on with what's important. You
learn those through life, you.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Hope to because if not, you can't exist in a
state of rage about the way.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
People who have been through those things can stay in
that they didn't get the treated fairly and forever they
have to prove now you're going to have to treat
me extra fairly. And we see a lot of that,
and but that's that's that's a whole different But the
way you do feel that New York, it definitely gave
(13:55):
me all the ammunition I needed to be a great
actor because it was all accessible to me on my
own curiosity and I think coupled with my mother's curiosity
and visual nature brought it all in and then I retain.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
A Lotah, Welcome back to Table for two.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Today we're having lunch with Adrian Brodie and discussing his
new movie The Brutalist. I'm curious if his family's Hungarian
ancestry helped him or his co star Felicity Jones prepare
for their roles as a married couple escaping with the
Holocaust and war torn Europe hoping to find the American dream.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
I saw some parallels, which is not something I discussed
with Felicia. But my grandmother was very bright and spoke
five languages, six including English, and that was very instrumental
and helpful for my grandfather and my mother, even for
them as a family unit to fill out the married
paperwork that was necessary, and as they were refugees in
(15:16):
Vienna and speaking German and then coming to America, and
it really was essential for them getting through. So Felicity
plays someone with a degree of language skills and understanding
and quite educated, and then she's not really able to
(15:36):
live up to her potential. She's there kind of supportive
of her partner my character, right, and they were parallels
of that. My grandmother actually was able to get work
in a way that my grandfather wasn't, unfortunately because of
his lack of clarity and eloquence with his own I'm
used of the English language, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I don't think many people realize the complexities when you
leave a life that you've built to begin a new life.
And you know, I always find it's so fascinating when
I get into a conversation with someone in New York
who might be driving a cab, but where they came from,
they were, you know, surgeons and doctors, and they just
it's the whole reinvention of what you have to become.
(16:20):
You know. I was able to go to Hungry in
the summer of eighty eight, and I did it. I
took you know, I graduated. I did a europass and
I did too, probably around the same time. No, I'm
like one hundred years older than you.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I did that when I graduated high school.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Okay, that's right.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
You got around them. I took a urorail by myself.
I was quite depressed, that's quite because I wasn't engaging
with people enough. I remember this euroail trip and I
went through Hungary.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Right, and it was right.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
It was still common, very different. Yeah, I remember the
story of war torn. There were the buildings, people hiding
under the train trying to get through either not, and
they caught them on my car right underneath it, and
the police came and they maced them and they pulled
them out from the train. And my mom was there
(17:12):
in Hungary before I started my trip throughout Europe, and
she was taking pictures and they started getting aggressive and
I had to leave watching all this, and I was like, Mom,
just just don't get into it with them and put
it down. But I remember sitting on that train leaving
that started my euroeal.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Train, my own that it was. Yeah, we came from
when I did it. I came from Austria into Hungary
and it was, you know, a big difference when you
went through, and it was the border and the passport.
And they stopped somebody in the car that I was
in because they had a VCR and they wanted to
know where they got that VCR eighty eight.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
You know, I believe it.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Wow. The and I stayed once a train station, rented
a room from an elderly Hungarian couple that didn't I
mean old. I mean I was twenty two. They might
have been my age. They were, you know, the home.
And so having been to Hungary and doing your thing,
(18:12):
what came up for you being immersed in the country
your character escaped and fled. Was there anything you drew from?
Speaker 2 (18:20):
Sure? I mean it was a country that my mother
escaped and fled, and my grandparents escaped and fled, So
that resonates at any time. For sure. It was their
home that was lost and their sense of home, and
my mother as a twelve year old girl, to lose
her her friends and her sense of home, I think
(18:44):
has been very disruptive and hard for her. And I
remember she wasn't able to say goodbye to her best girlfriend.
Their parents only told her they were leaving twenty four
hours before they were leaving. Today they told her, and
she wanted to say goodbye to her friend and they said,
you can't tell her. So she went and saw her
(19:05):
friend just to see her and spend time with her,
but not say it. And my mom kind of gave
a very meaningful farewell, and her friend was like, well,
i'll see you. I'll see you tomorrow, and she goes,
I hope so or something. And it's so heartbreaking to
think about her having to let all that go for
(19:26):
these circumstances that are beyond you. So all of that
comes back when I go there and think about it.
But it's, you know, it's it's been a big, long
life and it's remarkable that she's begun a life again
and it's had a wonderful creative existence. And my dad,
(19:48):
who she met in New York, has been great to her.
And me, and all those hardships and sacrifice and her
own resilience have paved the way for me to have
this beautiful life to be born as an American actor,
and even all her encounters that helped me discover this
path and life's given us this journey, her own ways
(20:11):
of finding creative fulfillment and what that's afforded for me,
which is such a remarkable thing.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
The way to that trauma that it puts on a person,
it's hard to imagine how to deal with that trauma.
I mean, how do you think, I mean, you saw
how you've been the recipient of watching your mother sort
of deal with that trauma and create a life for
herself and hence create life here. You know, when you
(20:49):
go to talk his trauma and the ownership of that,
you know, how do you think he claimed how to
deal with that oppression of that trauma.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
It's a very good question. I mean, I think you know,
there's been tremendous suffering ancestrally, but just in the world
that is it's unfathomable, but it's comprehendible, and in my way, so.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Well said, it's unfathomable, but it's comprehendible.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
And my work in The Pianist many years ago, in
my efforts to honor of a lot of slaves Spielman's
memoirs and portray a man who survived the very circumstances
that this character Loslow Toov is trying to come to
terms with. Right gave me a lot of deep insight
(21:39):
into a specificity of that time and those hardships. And
did a starvation diet. I did all these things. I
kind of isolated myself in many ways. I left my
sense of home. I put everything in storage, I disconnected
my phone, I stopped listening to contemporary music. I learned
(22:02):
to play chopin. I hid in my room and with
a piano and practiced hours and hours on end, and
had pano lessons for hours every day. And I felt
a profound shift as a person after that experience. So
before the movie was released, before I knew how or
what its response would be in the world, I was
(22:23):
a different person from that experience, and that never really left.
I was much younger than I thought I was then,
and I realized also how much I had taken for
granted in that in that by experiencing those moments and
that understanding, my relationship to even the freedom of having
(22:44):
food accessible to me, the awakening of an understanding of
hunger and the desperation that can immediately ensue with hunger,
and God forbid if your children are going hungry or
that changes everything, and the stakes of that let alone
shelter or other horrendous layers of persecution and violence. All
(23:09):
of that gave me the insight needed to portray this character,
in addition to the many conversations and memories that I've
had a chance to recollect with my mother and that
I remember even with discussing with my grandmother. And that's
the beauty of this work is that you can find purpose.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
It's a beauty of how you choose to work, I
think as well. I mean, it makes complete sense that
when you choose to based on the work you're about
to do, make the choices to really go there what
you did, which it makes sense that you never come
back the same person. It's a gift.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
I think it is a gift. It is it is
a privilege, you know, and it's it's part. It's like, look,
I did not seek out to find a role that
would require a great deal of discomfort and uncovering these
things or I wasn't actively looking for that. It found me.
(24:13):
And I understand my responsibility anyway. I understand what I
have to do, and also for my own way of
working to feel authentic in my work. I don't like,
you know, acting, The term acting is kind of a
terrible reference of what the job is. It's worse when
(24:34):
they call you talent or celebrity, God forbid. But you
know they're all intertwined. But to be great at acting,
you have to make contact with things and connect on
a level that requires a lot of work and sensitivity
and instinct. And it is a joy even when it's painful.
(24:56):
It's really a joyous thing. It's almost kind of spiritual
to have this finite window of where and when and
how you must connect to something so different to your
own set of circumstances, and you you're inevitably going to
convey it more the more you're experiencing emotionally, as as
(25:22):
that individual.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Never once when I was watching your film did I
think I was watching you great?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
You know what, that's the objective, But you.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Know that doesn't often happen. No, especially when you're at
the level of success that you're at. Were you you
know you're not as a Yes.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
It gets harder when you're seen, thank you. So it's
harder when you've seen Is that mean's mom? Yeah, it's
on silent, but my mom has the breakthrough really, yeah,
just in case, I love that. Yeah, my mom can
wake me up if need be. Yeah, I know, especially
if you see an actor work a lot, you've seen
the number of their films, it's important to really you know,
(26:15):
there are going to be qualities. I mean, you know,
you can change certain qualities about yourself and the way
convey things, but there should be a real shift.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
In those characters, so to me, and I understand how
the brutals came to you and also sort of you've
discussed how you were really waiting for this, this opportunity.
You know. One thing that a couple of things stood
out for me in the film that I thought was
really interesting and tough was to me, you know, he's
very shrewd, very intense. You know, I found him to
be very direct, very honest in a way. Obviously you
(26:47):
had to submerge yourself, as you just said, and you
see example for when you were in the Pianists and
when you look at tot you can actually understand why
he needed drugs to sort of escape. You know, did
you have, like the filming of it, was there something
that you had to do to separate yourself when the
day was wrapped? And also in the brody world when
(27:09):
you're not is there something that you do to separate.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
I've thought about it a lot. It's funny. I have
all these techniques to go in and it don't really
have a bag of tricks to get out. It's a
very strange thing. And partially the easiest way out is
to get another job and then have to jump into
the shoes of another person, because then you just purge
(27:35):
you have no space for this guy anymore. You've got
to start doing a whole bunch of research and work
to find what is it to key into that individual's
set of circumstances, and then there's less time to start
either wallowing in whatever residual elements are left that you
don't like. But I am very deeply immersed in my work,
(27:59):
and I'm very serious about that my work. But I'm
not ever at a loss to where I am within
my world. And yeah, and I you know, I think
there is some this connective. People think, oh, you're a
method actor. You come home and you're in shambles and
your nightmare to be around, and that you may be
(28:20):
I may be a nightmare to be around. There may
be other circumstances for that, and but and there may
be residual hardships that linger and require a bit of
space or solitude that you expect your family to understand.
And they do for the most part, but it dissipates
well enough. I think there are long term things that stay,
(28:45):
but I don't look at them. It's like I don't
I'm not afraid of ghosts. I'm not really afraid. It's
just like you've had relationships that were terrible, but there
they were full of beautiful moments and the person wasn't
right for you or you weren't right for them, And
sometimes we force it all out. Sometimes life just helps
(29:06):
us forget. But sometimes there are moments that come back
and you go that was really special. And those moments,
as complex as they were, really gave me understanding about
life and having a partner or my own growth one.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
Hundred per you know, I mean one without the other.
It keeps you going forward. So like those bad.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
Relationships and certain bad relationships with another character. You push
away the stuff that isn't pleasant. I mean, you know,
I can relate, like, for instance, playing a character with
an addiction, I don't need to. I've been addicted cigarettes.
So I actually got hooked doing a movie when I
was really teen. Either they were giving me packs and
(29:48):
packs of cigarettes back in the day when you didn't smoke.
Before that, I didn't I played around with a cigarette
and my girlfriend, or go with my friends and out
drinking and have cigarette. I was never buying packs of
cigarettes and I wasn't definitely not home, and then I
was smoking packs of non filtered packs packs. My dad
smoke eight cigarettes in one scene because you'd do six takes,
(30:10):
you'd light one beforehand to kind of not have a
head rush at nineteen puffing down a non filtered camera
or lucky, And by the time that film was over,
I was deeply hooked on smoking. And I felt at
that age it's very interesting because I felt, oh, I'm
I don't have an addictive personality. And my dad smoked
(30:32):
when he was younger. My mom smoked when she was younger,
and they both had quit and my dad, I remember
wisely advising me, don't play around with it. You don't
want to play around with it. You don't need that
additional burden in your life. Trust me, And I didn't
trust him. I didn't believe it. And it was also
an awakening from me because of the pain of suffering,
of trying to quit and eventually quitting. I remember acknowledging
(30:57):
that my dad was right at those early nineteen twenty
the recognition that I'm not quite as in the know
as I thought I am. I'm not quite the man
that I thought I am at that time. And it's good, humbling,
it is good, and but my point is that I
understand the suffering that comes with that. I also have
(31:19):
had many friends in New York who have succumb to
real drug addiction. I've lost friends through that. And the
more you live, the more you encounter this communal suffering
and within the community, and see how the blight of
drugs and hardship have affected families and loved ones. And
(31:39):
it's horrible, it is, and so and the need for
people to self medicate, and we all do in certain ways.
I it's great to have a drink, and that's what
I understood in the pianist, even having a piece of
sweets or having some caffeine or having a piece of
bread and butter is filling a void. You're not necessarily hungry,
but you are yearning for something that is empty. And
(32:02):
when you pull all that out for an extended period
of time, the depth of that hollowness and loss and
emptiness is much like the loss of a loved one
or the loss of a drug or substance that you're
physically craving. And they're all very powerful, and I have
(32:25):
an ability to pull it back. I know how to
that they don't really go, the great things don't really
go entirely, the painful things are ready go and I
and I can use those experiences to inform the need
for the complexity of addiction and the need to self
medicate through traumas and current pains.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
And it's funny you say the examples you use. I
remember when I eventually did quit smoking, because it took
several times. Then all of a sudden, I kept thinking
like I was missing something in my day, like I
had lost a friend, Like I was like a lost love. Yeah,
I was like, oh that. And then of course the
amount of time you get back in your day, because
you know all the time you're like, I'll be right back.
(33:05):
You go outside smoke a cigarette, because eventually cigarette smoking
became just not popular. So when we grew up, you
could smoke in bars.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
In La specifically, I was living in La at the time,
and I remember La was one of the first places
that you had to go outside. I remember feeling so
kind of ostracience eppisode outside. It wasn't quite like a
you're the cool kids. At that point, societal people were judged.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Yeah, thanks for joining us for Table for two. The
(33:51):
authenticity that Adrian Brody brings to his roles can be
quite captivating, especially when he is playing complex, flawed care characters.
How did he approach some of the most intimate and
tough moments of the brutalist as this character Laslo tough.
One of the things that I was really riveted to
(34:11):
Adrian with in your film of Many was the the
sexiness of you, especially in the first scene, that scene
when you're at the you know you're with the woman's
I guess it's a and you know you're the curve
of your body. The whole thing was very sexy how
it was shot. And then when you your hands, because
(34:35):
I find hands to be very just interesting, beautiful hands.
And then you you look at her and you talk
about the symmetrical piece between her eyebrows, which was so perfect,
I thought, and you do it also taught you have a.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
Way having getting you know, fellatio like great.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
And then and it's a very seductive scene because then
Loslow says that, and then your friends like can you
just get on with it? But you don't. And then
the woman comes out and she's like, well do you
there's these two beautiful brothers and even that doesn't affect
a lot tough in a way that was like there's
almost like a smile like no, there's no That was very.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
No, there's no judjudge or anything. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (35:23):
And then there was the rape which happens, and then
when your wife and you connect physically, which is quite
a powerful scene because there's so much so all that
was just all very riveting to me, and in this
particular like what are the significances of those moments and
did they help you understand Loaslow? And what did you
learn or need from that? And to mix it in
(35:47):
just when you and Brady who directed with the rape scene,
how was how to approach that you approach it very delicately.
It's like, how did that all kind of play into
the significance.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Of Well, there there are many intimate, for lack of
a better word, aspects of the character, and they reveal
so much and they and speak to so much Above
those moments, the relationship with sex worker, his personality that
is kind of being formed in that exchange, him not
(36:21):
feeling attractive, her saying well, you're ugly and he goes,
I know, I am. And his inability to be aroused
even though he's yearning for some kind of fix, it's
not quite working everything else in the chaos of it,
but it's a normal yearning, and that's you know, he's
(36:41):
just arrived and he's with a friend who's probably like
they're having something to drink or everything, bro, let's go,
and they find himself in a situation where he's like,
this isn't what I need to be doing. And so
I think all of that's quite wonderful and expressive and human.
I did to lawsy laws of these characters are quite
eloquently unveiled for us all. And then the reconnecting with
(37:05):
his wife, which I felt were the quite beautiful and
sensual and beautifully filmed, and the kind of veil of
pulling her stress over her face and keeping it there
in this kind of seductive moment, and even her pain
and his ability to help fix her pain with his
narcotics that he's been hiding from her is so profound
(37:33):
because it's also a confession. And to have this partner there,
your loved one now in with you in this is
also a very real thing, very real for someone who's
afflicted with addiction and concealing that for the world, So
that too is quite powerful and again very human. And
(37:56):
the scene at the end is a It was a
complex thing to do. We shot it in a much
more graphic way as well. Really, yes, I I was
portraying it also quite sick because the character was literally
practically oding and being taken advantage of in that moment,
(38:18):
and I think probably was too aggressive to show, but
we shot that as well. They ultimately you saw both.
I didn't see it. They didn't. They didn't make an
edit of it, but I experience and portrayed it with
literally like a great deal of with a close up
and a great deal of agony and a great deal
(38:40):
of illness amidst the moment and it was you know,
it's fine, it's representing what those circumstances were, and they
can make I think they handled it quite, it was well,
and yeah, they kind of were back.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
Do you think it was his wanting to have you
submit to him, to recognize him. You have a lot
of power over this.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Yeah, I think it's a number of things. I mean,
I'm I didn't write the scene, and I'm just an actor,
but you know, I do interpret that. I have the ability,
and I think that the the beauty of something and
maybe I shouldn't even say what my subjective perceptions were
on it, but the beauty of of any creative work
is it's open to interpretation. And I think there are
(39:23):
bigger issues at play of hatred and dominating and resentment
that go beyond just a sense of control or it's personal,
But it's much bigger than that, and it's I think
in the storytelling, I would imagine it is referencing something
(39:45):
much greater about systemic dominance or overpowering of someone less powerful,
and also a hatred of others or people who are different,
and that kind of degree of darkness that goes beyond
any kind of other sexual urge or any other implied
(40:07):
in the kind of actual act of exactly.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
What will you take with TAF Is there something from
this character that you know, as we've talked about in
relationships and in life, is there something that you feel
that will be with you?
Speaker 2 (40:30):
I see there are qualities that I do relate to
that I respect, which is a yearning and a need
to tenaciously pursue your work in an artistic capacity. And
what that work must be in a sense of leaving
(40:50):
behind something of greatness. It's working and using your efforts
to leave behind something of lasting meaning and significance that
outlives you. And much like an architectural work, film is
a tangible creation that carries on. It's the permanence of
film is part of its beauty and the part of
(41:12):
the pressure and responsibility of being an actor in film
is that that performance and that participation lives on. And
we will fade away, and you know, we look back
and we see amazing things from work from other eras
of great filmmakers and artists and writers. Their work lives on.
(41:35):
They're long gone and they don't know or care at
this point, but they've left something in this world. They've
left the world a better place than it was without that,
and I yearned for that, and I'm working to try.
And you know, this is a business and you as
an actor have to work within. You know, that is
(41:57):
part of an aspect of the storytelling also where commerce
and art intertwined, and it is a little more complex
as an actor than a filmmaker. But even so the filmmaker,
if he wants to have an enduring career, those films
have to perform, meaning make money for the investors and
distributors and studios or else. They might think you're very
talented and interesting and creative, but they won't keep giving
(42:19):
you work. And I'm very conscious of those things and
have made choices in an experimental manner to be true
to me that I think have impeded my ability to
get more overtly commercial work because I think it makes
people not understand clearly what my motivation was in that
they just think it as a miss. But it's not
(42:40):
a miss. It's a choice to do something with a
degree of risk and is an opportunity for me to
grow and explore different things without those expectations. But then
if this subjective expectation is implied on everything that you do,
it removes some of those creative freedoms, and that was
something to learn after becoming weren't known as an actor
(43:01):
because earlier in my career I had much more freedom
to do that because people would see something and they say, oh,
that was really great. It may not see another thing
was relatively obscure. But then everybody kind of weighs in
on everything. Once you're somewhat there.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
How does it feel being in this position right now
as you're on the journey to Oscar twenty twenty five
and having been the youngest male lee to win. Is
the process different? Is the journey different? Does it feel
different in any way?
Speaker 2 (43:38):
It's different. I think it's a different time. I think
the whole everything is very different. I think, first of all,
it was a long time ago, but as I recall,
it was quite grassroots what we were doing, and there
were no cell phones and no social media and none
of the noise or extra commentary. Some of it's quite
good and propels actors forward, or visibility of a film forward.
(44:01):
And part of the beauty of this whole campaign season
is for people to see the work, right, you really
want to have people see it, and we all of
course would love to receive recognition, and I already feel
that I am a recipient of that, not just of
the past, but currently, because I think this film and
(44:21):
my work in this film has realigned people's way of
seeing me and my creative work and the way I
apply my creative work and have been kind of steadily
keeping my head down and trying to do my work.
And you know, it's very hard to have all of
these elements work together and blossom into something as such
(44:45):
a triumph as this, and that's not from a lack
of want or hard work from anyone's party. It's just
very challenging. And so this moment, I think I'm a
bit older and wiser and very firmly planted on the ground,
and I really appreciate the opportunities it's brought again and
(45:06):
the awareness of that work. And I don't know how
it was then and in the past. Actually I just
was very I think excited. It was much more of
a whirlwind. But that only ensued at the Academy Awards
and after because I had been nominated for every category
leading up to it and didn't win one. I didn't
realize that not one. I didn't win a SAG award
(45:29):
where I thought, oh, actors would understand this journey at least,
right right, you know, and all the way through the process,
and I was still very grateful to be considered and
in the conversation with all these tremendous, wonderful actors who
I admired, and then the fact that I was so
young and the youngest and all that it really was
(45:51):
a remarkable moment and very unexpected.
Speaker 1 (45:55):
And there's something beautiful in that too. There's something really
beautiful in that process. No, no, no, no, and then yes,
we're gonna.
Speaker 2 (46:04):
Do it, yes, yes, yes, no, which is anything possible.
Speaker 1 (46:11):
I'm just saying, but I'm right, all right, right, It's
such an honor to avalanche with you. I have been
around you a few times. We share people that we
love together, and consistently, the one thing that is always
said when I have talked about you and talked about
today is the value that I find the most treasured
(46:33):
for me is kind. And that's everyone who has said
one thing about you said, oh, he's so kind. And
this is an incredible movie. I am quite confident that
things are going to go in the direction that they're
supposed to go this next month, for you and well deserved.
Thank you, so thank you for joining me today. Thank you,
(46:57):
thank you for pulling up a chair.
Speaker 5 (46:59):
I love our launches and never forget the romance of
a meal. If you enjoy the show, please tell a
friend and rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Table
for two with Bruce Bosi is produced by iHeartRadio seven
three seven Park and Airmail. Our executive producers are Bruce
Bosi and Nathan King. Our supervising producer is Dylan Fagan.
(47:22):
Our editors are Vincent to Johnny and Cas b Bias.
Table for two is researched and written by Jack Sullivan.
Our sound engineers are mel b Klein, Jess Krainich, Evan Taylor.
Speaker 4 (47:34):
And Jesse Funk. Our music supervisor is Randall Poster. Our
talent booking is done by Jane Sarkin. Table for two's
social media manager is Gracie Wiener. Special thanks to Amy Sugarman,
Uni Scherer, Kevin Yvane, Bobby Bauer, Alison Kanter Graber. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast,
(47:57):
or wherever you listen to your favorite show.
Host
Bruce Bozzi
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