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- [00:02]
Adrien Brody
Tetragrammaton. You have to come from a place of non judgment. You have to separate your belief system. You have to find validity to another person's choices and actions. And that's kind of what I refer to as gaining empathy and understanding through this work and a lifetime of doing it, is that, you know, someone may do something quite despicable and yet they're not a despicable person. And it's a long, complex life and it's not all encompassing.
- [01:05]
Interviewer
Yeah, all humans are flawed.
- [01:07]
Adrien Brody
That's right. That's right.
- [01:10]
Interviewer
When you leave the set, do you take the character with you or can you leave the work at the set?
- [01:19]
Adrien Brody
I don't know if I can leave it. I'm always me at the end of the day, but I. I definitely will have moments that I'm altered and influenced from the day or what's to come for my character. And I don't see how I could not do that. And I don't see it as too problematic. I haven't, I haven't, you know, anyone who's ever been in my life meaningfully knows me well enough and knows when I need a little space to do my work and respects the process. And sometimes I need space and sometimes I need to be immersed in that and lost in that to preserve it and to protect it. And then other times I don't need that and I can access it quite availablely. My girlfriend discovered that on, on this film, on the Brutalist. When I went into it, I told her, this is going to be a very hard one to endure with me just because of the pressures and the nature of all the hardships that the character is, the traumas that he's trying to overcome and that linger. And we didn't really discuss it when I made the film, but afterwards she was like, you really weren't tough to deal with and you weren't stuck in it in a way afterwards. And it was a really remarkable observation because for most of my career, I've felt somehow an obligation to carry the suffering beyond. And I think there's a degree of suffering that's necessary for the work, but not beyond and not to. To hold on to out of fear that you're not going to honor that suffering in the work. And it's taken a lot of work and, and a lot of living to know that it's accessible enough. And then you don't have to torture yourself to be tortured in certain moments. And that's a. A huge discovery. It's. It's quite liberating. Because it is an exhausting process, especially if you're adding more psychological or emotional pressure on your personal life in order to carry a character through an extended period of time.
- [04:13]
Interviewer
Do you feel like you could play any character or there are characters that are right for you?
- [04:19]
Adrien Brody
I think I can play much more than other people think I can play. I don't know if I would want to play any and every character. But the joy and the purpose of being an actor, frankly, is to be a chameleon and to be malleable and shift into something different. And it's beautiful. It's beautiful to experience. And it's okay to fail as hard as. Or be willing to fail as hard as it is to say that out loud. But you have to be willing to do something that's not easy and not. Doesn't seem intuitive or make sense to you in order for that something to be profound and for. For you to grow. If you play it safe, you could have a wonderful, successful career and maybe even be content. But it's so much more interesting to not just repeat and do something that feels like it's not going to inspire you.
- [05:36]
Interviewer
You've got to work with some of the greatest directors alive. And how different is the process with different directors?
- [05:44]
Adrien Brody
Yeah, it's very different. I've been very, very privileged to work with some of the best filmmakers who are real auteurs and artists. And everyone is very unique and everyone brings different qualities to it. And it's like any collaboration, it's like any partnership, it's like any relationship. And the key is to be around people that bring something good out of you in life, I'm sure you'd agree. And to hold those people close, actually often think about you because we don't get to spend as much time as I'd like. And I think of you, and I think of even moments early on in my life where I didn't even know you and admired you. And when I did get to meet you, you were very generous of spirit. I remember sitting in your car probably, I don't know, close to 20 years ago, maybe playing beats on a take or something in your. In your tape deck and sat there and listened thoughtfully. And Quincy Jones gave me that courtesy. And these are moments that you don't have to hear some kid playing you as beat tape and give them the feedback. And you did. And you were. You were thoughtful and kind and. And just those things don't go unnoticed, especially with the world being as it is and how precarious it all is. When you encounter people that you consider friends that you don't see enough, it's important to let them know and to cherish those friendships and to try and make time for them. So I mean that. And I thank you for all of our encounters because I always find you uplifting.
- [07:46]
Interviewer
Same.
- [07:47]
Adrien Brody
Yeah. Thank you. And so you have the similar characteristics, like, I feel safe in a room sharing creative ideas and. And interpreting something together. And you will have a different perspective than I will, and it will likely give me insight. And I can go with that. And I'm good with that as a. As a person, as a. As a collaborator, I'm very good with that. And so I look for what those things are in people that I work with. How can they pull me out of my own limitations? And. And sometimes they do that forcefully, and sometimes they do that through more peaceful methods. But I'm. I'm used to all of it. I'm not. I'm not surprised by any of it. And I'm not too put off by it. You know, it can't all be smooth. It's gotta. It's gotta. We just. But we gotta be in it together. And.
- [08:56]
Interviewer
Yeah, give me the range of a direction. What's something that one director would say and then something another director would say that couldn't be more different?
- [09:10]
Adrien Brody
So, I mean, Ken Loach wouldn't give me the end of a scene or the second half of a scene if I wasn't the. My character wasn't the catalyst. So I didn't know what would actually transpire. And so I'd have actual dialogue and to memorize and a scene and a basic understanding of what's to transpire. But then another actor would be given his dialogue or his notes from. From Ken. Of where the scene goes. And then I would have to be in character and focused enough to respond as the character would and react. And he uses this technique primarily because he deals with non actors. And we were doing a film about the janitors movement, the justice for Janitors movement in Los Angeles. And I spent time working with union organizers and spending time with people in their homes and, you know, this whole underbelly of the city that isn't acknowledged for keeping it afloat. Like, you look at all the offices and everything with all these janitors that had no job security and a lot of hardship and complexity in their lives. But I loved the process, and it was very interesting working with non actors and watching their reactions were quite natural, the first go around. And then now we do a second take, but we all knew what was going to happen. And people started acting. They started doing what they think you wanted them to show you rather than to experience what is happening. And as a professional actor, you learn not to show it and try and re experience it. And that's where it's great to have someone who wants to try different things and actors who try different things, because then you're always on your toes and you're always responding. So that would be one quite extreme way of doing it. Some directors would show you. Sometimes they would do something not necessarily give you a line reading of even that's not the end of the world if it's good, if it resonates. And then Wes Anderson, for instance, will use animatics, which are these moving storyboards, and he will act out the characters at pace, at a style, and with a kind of frenetic energy that he is looking for. And that's also quite interesting. And I know that's quite clear where my interpretations might veer from that and not to really go there, because you have to honor his specificity and the nature of his storytelling, both the way he shoots and the way everything must work in an almost choreographed manner. And then your. It's your responsibility to bring truth and life to those moments. So there are myriad ways. And you know, and sometimes a director will give you something beautiful and let you just do it and not weigh in. And they might. They might ask you to do it three, four times and not say anything, and then might offer a little note or might never offer a note. They just gave you space and adjusted camera to you, you know, blocked it with you with camera and found where those moments are or, you know, but there's no one way to do it. And the joy is working with people that you like and trust their interpretation, whether it's different from your own. You say, I can do that. It's not what I was thinking I would do, but I can make that feel truthful. To me, it's when someone's way off in another field and you're struggling, typically.
- [13:28]
Interviewer
If there's going to be another take, would it be the director asking for another take, or are you asking for another take?
- [13:34]
Adrien Brody
Not necessarily. That's a good one. I learned one from Peter Jackson where we'd shoot it and then he'd get it and he'd be satisfied with it and he'd go, let's do one for luck. And I will always ask for one for luck. If it's not being egregious, if we're up against the clock and we're losing the light. And there's another actor that hasn't gotten his shot. And I feel like we got it. I won't ask to do it again. But if we have room to do one more and I say, do we have room for one? I'd love to just do one for luck. And then you can let go of the pressure because you know in your heart they got something safe. You know that your director's happy to move on. And sometimes something magic can happen.
- [14:21]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [14:22]
Adrien Brody
And then sometimes it doesn't. And you say, all right, well, we try that. Let's move on. Right.
- [14:26]
Interviewer
In general, how different would you say your performance would be from take to take?
- [14:33]
Adrien Brody
Oh, vastly, vastly. On most things. I'm, I'm, I would say my, my choice is not an interpretation of the character or a connectedness. Sometimes I'll be deeply immersed and sometimes it'll be harder to get there. But it's not like it's not like it's going to be a handful of takes that aren't right. They're just going to be different choices. And some at some point, one feels really right. And you hope the director selects those and the editor selects those in the cut.
- [15:12]
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- [16:40]
Adrien Brody
Warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.
- [16:48]
Interviewer
How much of a performance is the words that you're saying and how much of it is something else?
- [16:57]
Adrien Brody
The feeling and the connection is first. Sometimes not having to say words is freeing. And if the words are really beautiful, sometimes they will spur more emotion and feeling. That's where dialect work is so important. The key is to not have to think about your lines or how you sound or any of the technical aspects of expressing the feeling and context of what needs to be conveyed. And then, then you're free to live in that space and modulate how those words need to be expressed.
- [17:51]
Interviewer
Do you ever ad lib?
- [17:53]
Adrien Brody
Yeah, if. If a director's open to me improvising, I'm. I'm often ad libbing. There's a lot of curse words and fun, subtle things in Hungarian that I learned as a boy that have been added to Brutalist, for instance. And, you know, I think it brings textures and feelings and I like them as bridges, I like them as intros and filling the space sometimes. And I like what it does to my fellow actor because then they're not waiting for something very specific that we've kind of hammered home. And so. And I like receiving it from another actor. If someone has a comment that they think of that's quite fitting and interesting as the character, it gives me something to respond to and react to and come back differently. You know, many ways in which you can have that same conversation, interpret what someone said or meant, and they interpret it differently. Say, you know, you. I didn't say it that way. And. Or you say, yeah, that's what. That's how I meant it. But that's all based on them. If someone just says it the same way or doesn't integrate some little spark of something else, then it's predictable.
- [19:29]
Interviewer
Have you ever done theater?
- [19:32]
Adrien Brody
So I started doing theater. So when I was 12, I was doing off Broadway play. I was taking the train from junior high school in Queens after school and going to the city and trying not to get jumped on St. Mark's and it was rough. And I did another piece at BAM with Elizabeth Suedos very early on. And then I went to performing arts and studied and did a lot of scene study. But I didn't work professionally in theater since those days. And I just did last year a play on the West End in London at the Dunmar, and we did eight shows a week. And I played an inmate. It's based on a true story. It's called the fear of 13. And I played an inmate who served 22 years on death row for a crime he didn't commit.
- [20:29]
Interviewer
How was the experience of the theater schedule for you?
- [20:34]
Adrien Brody
It's pretty intense, pretty immersive and a lot of pressure. I knew it would be. It's been intimidating and kind of what's kept me from doing it for a long time. It's also a Vastly different way of working than I'm accustomed to, I've grown accustomed to in film. I also like a somewhat controlled environment when I'm working. It helps me, I think my senses become enhanced when I'm working. And so I don't like a lot of noise or people moving or coughing or eating chips or whatever it is around me, of course. And I find it harder to deliver the work on the level and immerse myself on that level. And you don't have that luxury. It's very unpredictable. You're surrounded by people and the Dunmar is quite an intimate space. So they built the stage abutting the audience. There were people right in front of me and the other actors and I spoke to, you know, 50 people a night in their eyes. And on some nights there. It was quite wonderful that you really had this communion with them. You, you felt them in a moment with you and that fuels you. And then some nights people are, who are in the light and available to you are less accessible to you because they don't either don't respond to it or are unwilling to channel that level of intensity, which is fine. But I always found the nights that I connected and was able to connect with members of the audience, I found it such a rewarding thing that I go home with that and they go home with that and, and theater is very interesting because it's, you gotta leave it all on there and then it's gone.
- [22:47]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [22:47]
Adrien Brody
Whoever was there that night and if there is a mishap, you keep going and it's quite exciting. Yeah. I had to start engaging in the promotions of the film while I was on the stage. And so that was pretty hard. I got to come back for the Governor's Awards, for instance, just for the intro and leave before the dinner, got on a plane, flew straight to London and straight to the theater and then did a show and then did seven more shows that week.
- [23:17]
Interviewer
Wow.
- [23:19]
Adrien Brody
But it's been very exciting. You know, it's been this, this past window has been quite good creatively and, and doing theater after all these years has helped me, I think, with my work and given me. It's made me feel stronger.
- [23:40]
Interviewer
Yeah. Do you picture doing it again?
- [23:43]
Adrien Brody
Yeah, I, I, I'll have to find the right window. You know, I, I'm, I, I, I haven't made a film since the Brutalist. And I'm a film actor and I want to do more film work that, that speaks to me and, But I, I did, I love the, I loved my cast. I loved collaborating with people Every day. And they were very supportive of me, you know, coming in. They were. They're all theater actors, and that's their world. And, you know, they were generous. I appreciated that. Yeah.
- [24:22]
Interviewer
We start talking about the Buddhalist. How did you get involved first?
- [24:27]
Adrien Brody
Well, they sent the script. I read the script. It was beautiful. You know, I read it and I thought what an amazing opportunity this would be for any actor to live with a character for decades and all the complexities of his life and all of his complexities of his personality, which really, really spoke to me to play a flawed protagonist, you know, and then it didn't come to me, if you want to know the whole detail. I met with Brady and we had a wonderful meeting and spoke a lot about his storytelling approach and why I felt I was right for it. But they ended up going in a different direction with numerous other casting choices. And then Covid disrupted everyone's life, and it went away for a while, and financing fell through, and then they brought it back together in a new iteration, came. Came back to me with it, which is remarkable.
- [25:28]
Interviewer
Interesting. Obviously meant to be.
- [25:30]
Adrien Brody
Yeah, feels that way.
- [25:31]
Interviewer
Yeah. We have no control over these things.
- [25:33]
Adrien Brody
Yeah, we don't know. I'm more willing to embrace that these days because I realize I can't control it anyway.
- [25:41]
Interviewer
Yeah, we have no control. Typically, when you read a script, is it the character that gets you or is it the whole story? What happens when you read a script and you like, ah, this is good.
- [25:54]
Adrien Brody
I need several things. The criteria is, of course, do I relate to the. This character, or is it a journey I want to go on creatively? And will it. Will it provide growth and will it offer me, you know, an opportunity to do something, explore something different or. That speaks to me in some way at that point in my life? That's. That's crucial. And then the other considerations are who I'm going to be with for that period of time. It's a director's medium. You have to trust your filmmaker. You have to believe in that you. You will both be aligned in that storytelling vision and so that you can relinquish some of your controlling nature, or my own, I should say. And then. But know that you have someone in your corner that is similarly aligned in how they want to tell this journey and how you know what their expectations are of you. I think it's very important that you're aligned. And then, you know, there are other factors, but the. The main thing is, does the work speak to you and who you're going to be? With and this was a wonderful ensemble. Amazing, amazing actors from everyone from, you know, day players who came, worked so hard and just amazing crew. Guy Pearce is such a generous, giving actor and Felicity Jones is so amazing. And Alessandra Nivola and Isaac Debancole. Just the relationships in the film, the characters relationships really feel baked in and lived in and truthful. And that's a testament to their ability to give a lot. And beautiful writing, of course.
- [27:52]
Interviewer
How much does your performance change based on the person you're playing against?
- [27:57]
Adrien Brody
I think it's definitely enhanced or diminished by the collaborative nature or lack thereof. I mean, you can fight through things, of course, and that's where techniques comes in and experience. But the joy of interacting with another actor who's listening and modulating their responses accordingly and you have someone to connect to their soul. It's such a beautiful moment. And that surely elevates your own work and your ability to feel centered and connected.
- [28:46]
Interviewer
Does it ever get so strong in that moment to where you don't feel like you're acting, you forget you're in a movie and you're in this moment and the moment it's happening?
- [28:59]
Adrien Brody
To some degree, yes. I would say to some degree. I don't know if I've ever fully lost a sense of where I was, ever. I've had profound, emotional, cathartic, transformative experiences as another person, as a character, if that makes sense. Yeah, you know, the key is to lose your self awareness and self consciousness. Children make remarkable actors because they're not self conscious. They haven't been kind of bombarded by rules and society and parents and everyone telling them, don't show that. It just, it comes out. And you see, when the kid is alive and lost in thought or mad or finding something, you know, any human emotion that comes from a child is quite pure and truthful. And it takes work, it takes research and a lot of discipline to do that work, at least for me. But that is the joy of the work. And you know, I was always. I never really liked homework. It's funny, I picked a job that requires a great deal of homework. But that's part of the reason I have to really want to be on that mission and want to delve deeper into those that understanding that would be required for the character and my perspective and my understanding of life and my own sense of gratitude each day has come primarily from an understanding of the human condition and the suffering that exists in others and my own good fortune of not experiencing suffering on that level. And I learned that and earned that at a young age. And it really gave me a wonderful sense of perspective and immense gratitude that really has, I would say, shaped my years as a young adult. And of course you're not always as present as you'd like to be, but I always do feel very conscious of my own good fortune and very sensitive and empathetic to others and can connect to their struggle. As I've struggled through many things in life and even things that are not personal to me, I can relate to because of the work that I've done and which I think encourages that.
- [31:52]
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- [33:21]
Interviewer
Tell me a little bit about the research process for the Brutalist. You read the script, you like it, what happens next?
- [33:29]
Adrien Brody
I'm a fan of architecture and appreciate the artistry and I a fan of brutalist work. Not all of it, but I love how bold and in your face it is and how forward thinking it was at that time. And some of those structures still today look quite futuristic even in, you know, and I love the use of raw materials and clear open spaces. I because I paint and like music and like cars and bikes and toys. I always, always envision big open clear span structures not enclosed by little rooms and walls. And so that style of architecture lends itself to those kind of cavernous rooms. And so I studied a bit about it. I mean Laszlo Toth, the character I play is a fictional character, but he's an amalgamation of several quite prolific architects of that era. Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, Louis Kahn. Those men were fortunate enough to flee or had families had left Europe prior to World War II. Or the Nazi occupation. And so they were able to carry on with their creative work and their lives. And when Brady and Mona. Mona Fastfold, who's his wife and co writer of the film, were researching architects of the Bauhaus era, they were trying to model a character or write a story about one who had survived and emigrated to America. And there were no survivors. And so he was a fictional character based on these out of necessity. And so I did some research there. And I think what was most important to me was the Hungarian dialect, which is quite a specific sound. It's very unique language. And the dialect is familiar to me from my grandparents and my mother. But my. My grandparents and my mother fled Hungary in 1956 during the revolution. So there are hardships and they're tenacity and their. Their resilience and sacrifice were all very intimate to me. And so I. I really felt I wanted to hearken back to my memories of my grandparents and to have a sound reminiscent of my grandfather. There's a kind of formality of speech of a man in the 50s and a. And. And the way he expressed himself was. Was very unique. And he passed when I was quite young, but he was so memorable to me. He was super charismatic and quite powerful. And so there were qualities that I wanted to integrate of that. So I worked with a dialect coach that the film provided. Who's this woman? Tanara Marshall. And she was wonderful.
- [36:42]
Interviewer
What is that process to learn a dialect?
- [36:46]
Adrien Brody
It's interesting. There are lots of techniques and there are things that we hear or we perceive to hear that we miss, that someone else who's, as you know very well, it doesn't even have to be about a specific thing, but it's a nuance that's overlooked. And you say, I noticed this, and then that gives information for the person who's trying to convey it to see if they can integrate a new little detail to that. And so I found one person in particular who was a Holocaust survivor who spoke a lot about his experiences, recounted his experiences in Hungary of that time as a boy and his father, and how all the details of the factories were shut down and people were hidden and all of these things, which only helped. But the way he spoke was very much the way my grandfather sounded. And I. It was a. It was a key resource for me. And so I would listen to it for hours and hours and hours on end, and I would try to replicate what he's saying. I almost memorized many of the things by just hearing them repeatedly. And then I would work on my own dialect. And then I would read other things as I would. And then, you know, the beauty was we shot in Budapest and even though the film takes place in Doylestown in Pennsylvania, it was very helpful for me to be there in Hungary hearing a dialect. The crew all had, you know, when they spoke English, had things for me to learn from and I had to represent because I had, you know, I wasn't in another country. And so it gave me a bit of an extra push to be aligned with, with even beyond the dialect, you, you pick up qualities that are very useful and. And you just keep working and working and working away at it and because especially in independent films, you don't have a great deal of leeway. You don't have, you know, we shot on film, we shot on VistaVision, which we should talk about at some point, which is amazing. Yeah, but you have limited time. We shot on a 33 day window, which is nothing. We made the movie for less than $10 million, which is nothing for, for a film of this breadth and, and epic nature and visual storytelling. And so that meant that every second counted. So I was home studying all the time and working and. But it's very exciting because, you know, I'm. I'm steeped in that. I. Most of the films I've done in my. Since I've been a boy have been independent films. And the lack of resources often spurs great creative moments and gems. And the pressure, as unpleasant as it is at times, helps you cook. And I'm used to cooking under pressure.
- [40:10]
Interviewer
And it's good you say in general pressure helps you or undermines you.
- [40:16]
Adrien Brody
I'm good with pressure. I tend to lean into things that feel a little bit more higher stakes. It's fight or flight, you know, and, and you don't have to fight and you don't have to flee, but you have to find a way to solve it and get through it and not. Not run away. It's getting used to using that pit in your stomach for good and to wake up the brain and the emotional state and then apply it very forcefully. And that's something I've grown accustomed to and I'm not intimidated by.
- [40:59]
Interviewer
Yeah. How different is it playing a fictional character versus playing a real human?
- [41:07]
Adrien Brody
You have additional responsibility, of course, portraying a person that you're representing, you have a responsibility anyway to make a fictional character real. So it's not that you, you don't have your, you're not freed of your, your responsibilities, but you're not encumbered by certain things that are quite known. I've played numerous characters who are real people and obviously, you know, portraying Pat Riley, for instance, and we all know and have a very distinct memory of how he was at that era. And it was very important for me and the filmmakers started earlier than my understanding of Pat Riley and most people's. And I was very eager to get to the space where I could represent the Pat Riley I felt I knew and wanted to represent, which came after this period where they wanted to show a bit of him, of his uncertainty in his life and very different stylistically and personality wise. And it's a beautiful arc in the long run. But I kept wanting to almost defend the image that I felt ought to be represented in my portrayal. Right. So there is, there is a different sense of responsibility. The Pianist, of course, I, I portrayed Vladislav Spielman, that the movie was based on his memoirs. And that's also quite significant, you know, but if you represent a horrible time in history and you represent someone who's endured that or witnessed that, you still have a responsibility to all of those that have experience, have been connected to some kind of horrific loss, that's unfathomable. And so I don't, I don't know if I would have done it my work differently. I apply the same level of focus. It's just, I think you, you, you can use your imagination in ways that it doesn't feel like it has to adhere to certain qualities, if that makes sense.
- [43:31]
Interviewer
Yeah. Typically when you're shooting, how aware are you of the frame that you're in or the space that you're in? And do you pay attention to things like that or do you just act?
- [43:44]
Adrien Brody
No, I'm very. No, no, not anymore. I think there was a time probably that I just let it rip and hoped and didn't know. Didn't know enough about what lens they were on and.
- [43:56]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [43:57]
Adrien Brody
Didn't know that I should know.
- [43:59]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [43:59]
Adrien Brody
And that's not to be self aware or overly controlling. It's to give you insight into the cinematic language and, and, and the tools that are being used in those moments to help tell that story. And that shouldn't necessarily have to come from your director to say, we're on an 80 mil lens and we're very close to you, so you need to bring it way down, you know, anyway. I mean, you're there for the blocking. You know, you don't have to necessarily ask, but sometimes I'll say, what, what's the frame? What's bottom of frame? What's my. What lens Are you on? I don't like looking at dailies. Dailies or playback, if I can help it. Just to not somehow potentially get self conscious. I know what I feel I am conveying. I don't want to see me interpreting that. I don't want to see the physical. I want to just be it and feel it, if that makes sense. But I do like to see the frame and where I fit in the frame and how. What space I have to work in, you know, and yeah, there are no close ups in the theater. You gotta just stand, you know, it's funny. You gotta really figure out how to make those moments a moment and, you know, and a moment for someone up in the back. That's part of the beauty of film. I like, I know a lot. I mean, I grew up. My mother, Sylvia Plahy. I grew up the son of an amazing photographer. So film and perspective and her point of view and the artistry in the way images can be caught in a frame or partially caught in a frame and how that further depicts the figures in the frame and tells the story is something that's very personal and familiar to me. And so I love the work of a cinematographer and how it's. And the operator, not just a cinematographer whose objective is also lighting and figuring out the look and feel and consistency of a storytelling, but you're a Steadicam operator who you're doing a dance with that day and who's gotta be with you and you've gotta be with them. And you know when certain things are being revealed, when you turn into it or he's encountering you over a shoulder or what you need to do to further tell the story over your shoulder, where it's really not about you, but you have to be the guide in carrying that attention and still feel connected and interesting and alive in the frame without overshadowing that. So it's very important that an actor is in communication with all those departments.
- [47:05]
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- [48:42]
Interviewer
Do you ever pick up either a mannerism or a quirk that you see out in the world that you might every day bring into a character?
- [48:54]
Adrien Brody
Every day. That was the first thing I noticed that could potentially be compromised with success as an actor. And I wouldn't trade it back to living in a sea of anonymity out in la, struggling, showing up at auditions and I'm not knowing even my name when I raised my hand to say yes, that's me. But the freedom of anonymity is that people aren't watching you watching them. And it's another thing that I don't know if I've it's been enhanced from my mother and traveling with my mom as she photographs grew up in her photographing New York or just being curious and finding these nuances and specificity interesting. But it's memorable to me and I often attributed my four trains that I had to take each way going to performing arts from Queens because there was no direct way to get to Woodhaven to Lincoln center as my formal acting training because the sea of humanity in New York that I was in the midst of gave me every character and interesting expression and interaction and from every socioeconomic background and you name it, New York is just so full of life and uniqueness and it was always available to me and it was interesting. During COVID even though we all interacted less wearing a mask and finding myself, I'd still take a train and do things I had more freedom to not maybe tuck down and just keep it simple, stay on my phone. And it's. It's a wonderful thing. It's a wonderful thing to observe and incorporate these things that are truthful and interesting and then infuse various ones that you've stored along the way in a role. When I did the Pianist, I portrayed a man who has incredible manual dexterity and finesse and artistry with his fingers as a concert pianist. And then he endures all these horrors and is starved and lives through brutal winters with no heat. And so that would restrict and inhibit all of Your dexterity and mobility. And I grew up in New York with many cold winters and unfortunately too many homeless people. And I was always very observant of their hardships and a common trait were very kind of gnarled, swollen, damaged fingers and hands because they're exposed to the elements all the time and they've had a hard life. And at the end of the film, I tried to make my hands much more claw like and rigid and uncooperative. So everything from holding a jar of pickles and trying to open it with kind of disconnected to something that was the nimbleness of a surgeon was important for me and that I learned many, many years ago and. And absorbed it. And it came alive in me. And then the moment where he's asked to prove that he's a pianist in front of the German officer and he sits at a grand piano and hasn't had the opportunity to do so. And then he's in this moment and he doesn't quite know if he can do it. And his fingers have to kind of come alive slowly. And that's where it was wonderful to have learned to play those portions of Chopin's work and to be able to tell that story in the way I'm actually playing it, not just have someone double my hands and hope that they're going to. It's like a stuntman doing your thing. It's like he'll do the fall great, but he's doing the fall as a stuntman and not necessarily as that character would. Sometimes you have to try and get in there and if you don't fully break yourself, try and do the fall, at least initially, so that the qualities of that person come through before the big stunt.
- [53:48]
Interviewer
Tell me about body language in general. Like, do you alter your posture for a role?
- [53:55]
Adrien Brody
Yeah, I mean, I. A lot of things become altered and a lot of things follow a state of being. Some things will be deliberate choices, but it'll be informed by how you feel the character feels and how you are feeling as the character. So sometimes I will do things to make certain movements a bit more restrictive, actually restrict those motions. Or put something sharp in my shoe, for instance, or something where it will alter your gait and it'll remind you of that. And sometimes I joke about it. I like to have a rock in my shoe, even if there's nothing. No need to limp because it's good kind of layer in there. Because we all have a proverbial rock in our shoe. Right. And some people may not, but I think most of us do. And I have a lot. I don't need one. But an extra one is a reminder of certain things and I think they help.
- [55:06]
Interviewer
Yeah. How important is the costume?
- [55:10]
Adrien Brody
Very important. I think sometimes even being uncomfortable in what you're wearing is good for the characters. If you want your character to be comfortable in what he's wearing, you should try and work together with the costume designer to feel comfortable. I mean, I've, I've played a bull fighter where, you know, I grew up wearing size 38 Jabot's and I was 32, 31 ways, whatever, you know, and 30, you know, ridiculous, you know, hip hop pants down to my ankles. But I was then wearing this kind of very tight fuchsia pants where you, you literally have to force your, your package over. And it was. Bullfighters would wear it for a matter of like two hours and we'd be shooting 12 hour days in it and they could barely even cope. So I wasn't really comfortable in that, I remember, but it was, I had to be, I had to. But the character was, I think, uncomfortable with the degree of his fame and pressure of, you know, his responsibility, being one of the greatest bullfighters. And so you can find ways of making it feel fitting.
- [56:35]
Interviewer
Tell me how you learned your craft.
- [56:40]
Adrien Brody
Well, my mother had an assignment to photograph the American Academy of Dramatic Arts when I was 11 or something. And she had the intuition to know that I was already an actor, which I understand now. I didn't quite get it, but I understand. And I, and I think, you know, I always think, well, all kids are imaginative. And, and I was different as a kid. I was much more outgoing. I was fearless and curious and extremely imaginative. And I would tend to see things and express them and kind of replay them as I saw them. So if I encountered some experience, I'd come home and I'd be like, yo, you don't know what, I saw this happen. And I'd kind of reenact those things. And so she saw that. And when she saw these kids in this class that she was photographing, she's like, they're doing what you do every day, which is amazing. And I don't know if I would have encountered this. And the beauty of it was that it started prior to adolescence, prior to when you start shifting into those teenage years and becoming more self aware, I think, or receptive to the awareness of your peers, their subjective ideas about who you are. And I think you have a lot of freedom prior to that. You're not aware, you've kind of Mastered childhood. And so you're free. And that's a great age to encourage your kids to play, to be anything they want to be. But anything performative is quite exciting for them to gain a sense of freedom and understanding and control of that early. And then I spent many years studying and I auditioned for. My mom had one friend who was an actress, and she got me an audition for her agency, and they had a youth department, and they agreed to represent me. And I booked some work here and there. I booked the lead role of a public television movie where I played an orphan in the 1800s, shipped from New York out to the Midwest to a farm family. And I got to understand about the hardships of these kids.
- [59:10]
Interviewer
And how old were you then?
- [59:13]
Adrien Brody
Thirteen. Maybe just. Maybe just turned 14. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was epic. I went to Nebraska, filmed. My dad came with me, gave me an opportunity, encouraged me. I remember my dad came to the audition for that, and my character had to steal a cigar off a conductor. So my dad went to the. To the candy store and bought me a. A blunt, and he. He gave it to me to take in. And I remember I. There were other kids there. My dad, like, waited for me in the car. And I often use this anecdote when asked about if someone has given me any great advice over the years. And I said, my dad, this one of my first auditions. My dad said, just go in there like you already have the job. You don't have to, like, worry about thinking and asking for it. Just go in there like you already have, and you just show them how you're going to do it. And it really helped. And so I went in there and just remember there were other kids there, and they're sitting with their moms or their parents, and I was there on my own. They called my name, and I rocked up into this room, and I did this scene where I steal the cigar off the conductor and I pull out my cigar and put in my mouth or whatever, and. And they were like, who's this? Who's this kid? You know, I was like, when are we. When we. What's next? You know? You need anything else? Thank you. It was really nice, you know, whatever. My state of mind was so not what most kids stepping in that room was. And I. I really owe it to my dad to have the understanding of what I needed and to give me the space to feel confident to do it.
- [61:00]
Interviewer
Tell me more about your dad.
- [61:04]
Adrien Brody
So my dad, Elliot Brody, Mr. Brody, my dad taught public school in New York, taught middle school in Queens. And the Bronx. And he's, he is a great man, but he was a really great teacher. His students loved him. He taught social studies and English as a second language and he was very good, very patient to his students and to me. And he's quite thoughtful and a very considerate person. He's. Both my parents are quite empathetic people. He's an amazing painter. He can paint old master's works on oil. Self taught in a way that I could never dream of painting. And yeah, he's, he's incredibly intelligent and he's been a real wonderful father and a great husband to, to my mom. Like he's, he's, he's been very supportive of her creative life and enabling her to live her life as an artist and he supported our family and I'm very appreciative of him.
- [62:24]
Interviewer
Did you go to performing arts school?
- [62:27]
Adrien Brody
I went to public school and I went to. I got accepted into LaGuardia, which is performing arts, which was fame. Yeah, that, you know, numerous really interesting people attended. Timothee Chalamet went there. Years later Marlon Waynes and I used to slap box in the hallways of the drama department. I just. Yeah, he had a very long reach in high school. I remember sparring with him. It was fun but it, you know, it was great. It was a wonderful thing for me and I had it saved me. I would have had to go to Franklin K. Lane, which is a big zone school in Brooklyn and my parents home was on them border of Queens and Brooklyn. So I would have had to go into Brooklyn to go to school and just would have been a very different trajectory. I wouldn't have had an opportunity to have encouragement in the arts in the way that I did going to an art school. And performing arts is a multidisciplinary school. There's an art department, fine art department, a music department, a dance department and drama department.
- [63:35]
Interviewer
How old were you when you got into magic?
- [63:38]
Adrien Brody
Very young. So my mom worked for the Village Voice and she had a co worker there named Howard Smith who was a wonderful writer and really cool dude. He had a corner office with all these gizmos and gadgets and magic tricks and the fiber optic lights. Oh yeah, remember those? They were amazing. So those little strands and those purple glowing lights through the fiber optic tips. I remember seeing that like six years old or six or seven and just being like that was the coolest. So I'd always go hang out in his office and he loved magic and he would show me a trick like a coin that would you could bite off a piece of. Or he'd make something disappear and then he'd teach me how to do it. And then I'd go torment every one of her co workers all day and perfect my routine and, And I at the time didn't know, but I look back at it, I go. And this was really my introduction to acting. Yeah, it's a monologue. You get given a bit of pattern and then you improvise and then you come up with a whole storyline. And see, I found this coin and I think it must be magic. I started rubbing it. It had a little piece of dirt on it. As I rubbed it, look, this piece disappeared. And I said, oh no. And I figured if I rubbed it some more, maybe it would come back. And then this disappeared and then. But then if I rubbed it on this leg too, would come whatever, you'd make up something. And that worked with the boxed trick.
- [65:05]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [65:05]
Adrien Brody
And it was so fun. And I remember the joy in that. And that lasted for, you know, a number of years. I ended up for a little while doing professionally as the Amazing Adrian. I would do a children's party as a, as a child, basically do a younger kid's birthday party for. Yeah, not very much. I think I was doing it for 50 bucks. I, I did the whole party, you know, but I loved it. I loved it. And I, I always look back at it as something that was my gateway drug into acting.
- [65:44]
Interviewer
Yeah. And then you got to play Houdini.
- [65:46]
Adrien Brody
I did, yeah. Who was Hungarian, by the way, and we shot that also in Budapest. But yeah, Houdini was Eric Weiss and he was, he was a somewhat failed magician. And he worked in these kind of sideshow, kind of carnival esque sideshow gigs and took a job as a locksmith to pay the bills. And he invented the term even escape artist. He created a whole new form of magic, entertainment of the art of the escape. And he was so brilliant. I mean, he, he also was one of the best self marketers. Like he would figure out how to, you know, he'd go to a police chief in a town and say, I bet you I can get out of your jail. And guy would be like, I bet you can. He goes, well, I'll make a little wager with you. And then he'd have the press come, invite the press, and, and the officers would stand there and their arms crossed, and then he'd escape. And he became, I think, other than like Chaplin, one of the greatest vaudeville performers of that era. And as a kid, I loved Houdini. I loved. I loved magicians and he was one of the greats. Yeah.
- [67:26]
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- [68:55]
Interviewer
How much would you say you know about your character when you show up to shoot the first day? Do you know everything or do more things come during the making of the movie?
- [69:09]
Adrien Brody
I know a lot, but every day offers new opportunities to discover things about yourself and about the character. Right. You think you know. You think you know who you are and what you're about today and tomorrow you will encounter something that may prove you right or may add a new sense of understanding. And then the day after that, you're different.
- [69:36]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [69:37]
Adrien Brody
And so that's the beauty of being an actor, because the more you live and even the more days you show up on set, the more you learn and the more you can apply those things to. To the work at hand.
- [69:50]
Interviewer
Do you ever have a revelation about a character you played after it's already finished? New insights into who they are?
- [69:58]
Adrien Brody
Yeah, I think that's pretty common. I think you go, that. That's how I should have played that. That's what I. Yeah. I'll go home and I'll be like, why didn't I think of that? Why didn't I? Damn it. That's why you have to be really focused and disciplined.
- [70:14]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [70:14]
Adrien Brody
You know?
- [70:14]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [70:15]
Adrien Brody
And sometimes it'll happen. You walk out of the set and you go, that is it. That was it. And sometimes you don't feel as connected as you really are. And you'll see it and you go, I didn't feel it quite like that. And that works in a way that I didn't sense it working.
- [70:43]
Interviewer
When you read a script and you imagine what the film looks like and then you See the finished film. How different are those two things?
- [70:51]
Adrien Brody
It varies. It can be unrecognizable. You know, I worked six months on the Thin Red Line and ended up in the movie for a few minutes. And I played the author of the novel. I played James Jones's Persona. I mean, the movie was based on a character and a character's point of view, and the point of view was removed. So it can be. It can be vastly different. And sometimes you'll work with a director who wants to experiment a lot and ask you to do various things and give me one like this and give me one a little more funnier or more overtly reactive. You were like, I don't know. Okay, I'll try it. And they might use most of those things. Those are not choices you really have made.
- [71:46]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [71:47]
Adrien Brody
You've succumbed.
- [71:50]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [71:50]
Adrien Brody
To honor being collaborative. But then ultimately a whole different idea is shaped in an edit. And that's very challenging, especially as you grow as an actor and have a point of view about the work that you're contributing. And it's hard. That's why I find painting very helpful for me on my creative journey, because it's Gives me a sense of autonomy at times when I need that.
- [72:29]
Interviewer
How long have you been painting?
- [72:30]
Adrien Brody
I was drawing and painting since I was a child. My mom would have materials around the house and she would have test prints. You know, I grew up with film hanging everywhere. And she'd have test prints laid out on record racks on the floor, all over the place. And then ones that she didn't need that were kind of crossed over and weren't printed. Right. I would draw on them and do things. And so I already started, you know, having room to be quite creative and entertain myself with those tools. And then actually, when I went to performing arts, I also applied to the fine art department and didn't get accepted. So my. My portfolio wasn't accepted. So I kind of put down painting for many years. I fortunately, didn't get accepted, I think, because then I'd just be a struggling painter, most likely.
- [73:25]
Interviewer
And when did you pick it up again?
- [73:28]
Adrien Brody
I got more serious, I think, in my late 30s when I started finding I needed a bit more creative fulfillment at times, or I was waiting for role to speak to me. And, you know, if you're an actor, you have to work to get the fulfillment. I'm most alive when I'm in the mix and involved in doing the work that I have dedicated my life towards. But sometimes you're not going to find the right thing and you can't just work for the sake of working, unfortunately. And so painting has offered me space to do something quite creative and immersive in those windows and not necessarily say yes to certain things just to feel that I'm creative.
- [74:21]
Interviewer
Would you say that the characters you've played have changed you in any way?
- [74:26]
Adrien Brody
Definitely. How have lived many lives, I've died many times. I've had to put myself in other people's shoes a lot. And the interactions beyond the pain and the pleasure and the joys of those moments, you're in other countries with a whole bunch of interesting creative people that you get to know quite well. Yeah, you know, I, I lived in India with Owen and Wes. I didn't even know Owen then. And I'm living in a house with Owen and Wes and Jason and bought a Royal Enfield motorcycle and riding around through Jodhpur every day and, and hanging out with these incredibly interesting and funny and creative people and all of us in a life changing environment, you know, and being in India with so much to be excited about and to experience and then years later working with Wes, for instance, sitting at a dinner table and there'll be Scarlett Johansson, you know, sharing some wonderful anecdote and, and Francis Coppola showing up and you name it. Like all these interesting people around you through the work and all of those stories and experiences that you share and receive are shaping you each thing you encounter. And so I always joke, it beats working for a living.
- [76:13]
Interviewer
Have you had to learn any cool skills for parts that you've played?
- [76:19]
Adrien Brody
Yeah, I mean I've, yeah, I've had to fought Jackie Chan in the Gobi Desert. I had to do martial arts choreography. I studied martial arts as a kid. My, my dad by the way, used to take me to, he also is a film lover and he would take me to Chinatown and go to movie theaters on Canal street in the 70s and 80s and we'd sit in movie theaters watching amazing old Run Run Shaw martial arts films. And I was steeped in that because he loved those movies and martial arts films and Scorsese movies shaped my, my creative, you know. And then if you look at clean like this movie that I co wrote and brought to life, that I brought my director, co writer on board to help me bring to fruition. It really is quite like that. It's quite a kind of 70s revenge movie and it's got hatchet fighting sequences and we use my Buick grand national in the movie and I ended up scoring the whole movie. You should hear it. I did all the original music. I produce a rapper from up in Utica now who I encountered on that movie. And I put him on, and he's really talented, and he's in the movie rapping. And I did all this contemporary music for it. So I never really done anything cohesive with my music, and that spoke to it. So all of the things that have fed me over the years in my environment growing up in New York City, kind of fed this creative work in a way that was quite, quite special.
- [78:01]
Interviewer
Describe the New York that you grew up in. What was New York like then?
- [78:05]
Adrien Brody
I mean, I'm nostalgic. It was. It was great. It was great. We had no cell phones and distractions. I didn't even have a pager that worked until late, you know, But I had, like, you know, I had freedom. I hung out with all these troublemaker kids on my block and in the neighborhood, and we'd ride around on bikes. And I live right near Forest park, so we roll through the park. And I lived off Jamaica Avenue and under the elevated train track. And we'd take the train and buy Lucy's at the bodega and eat 5 and penny candy, 5 cent candy, and get into trouble and. And then that was all as a child. And then, you know, then, you know, I was break dancing and I had a tail and was getting jumped from my tail and holding it down. And grew up with the birth of hip hop, and that fed a lot. And I grew up in Queens when Queens wasn't hot, when KRS was, you know, putting the Bronx on the map. And. And then I grew up through the times when Queens was hot with Nas and Mobb Deep and 50 and everyone else that followed and had amazing careers. And that's all shaped me in a lot of ways. And I grew up the son of an artist photographer, so seeing the world on assignments, and she had press plates, so I would be everywhere, you know, it was amazing. It was an amazing childhood. It wasn't easy. It was rough. New York was dangerous. You know, it was a very different time in Manhattan, but it was. It had a rawness. It had a. A poetry to it.
- [80:10]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [80:11]
Adrien Brody
And artists could afford to live there. I was surrounded by artists or artistic people. Writers, poets, musicians, theater actors, photographers, war photographers and hoodlums. Lots of hoodlums. Lot of little crews and all that stuff, which I'm sure, you know, it's still there, but it was. It felt different then. It was different. You know, it was different on those trains then also being little and, you know, having to Learn through experience.
- [80:54]
Interviewer
Did you ever get into graffiti?
- [80:56]
Adrien Brody
Yeah, yeah, I used to write. I used to. I mean, I had a lot of. I went to an art school, so I had a lot of boys that were super talented, you know, And a lot of my art today is deeply inspired by graffiti, and I have my, you know, graffiti culture all woven throughout it. And, you know, taking the trains to school, I observed the interesting qualities of people, and I read the walls. I spent every day with headphones on reading, you know, vibing and reading who was getting up and who had style and who's prolific. And that's all part of growing up in a. In a city. One of my youngest, closest friends, when I was young, we used to get in a lot of trouble. He used to live under the train tracks. His sister was a big writer, and she was in a crew, and they used to go to the train yards and bomb whole train cars. Then I'm talking. I was like, must have been 10, but, like, I was going to. Yeah, it was fun. Those were fun days. I used to collect cans with my friend, this kid Chucky, and we used to go collect cans to get some extra money and go buy. Just buy stuff at the store and take. Jump the train and go right around and just get. No, no. You know, my parents let me live, and you could live quite freely then. It was wild. It was great. I love that city. It shaped me.
- [82:35]
Interviewer
Would you ever consider directing?
- [82:38]
Adrien Brody
Yeah, definitely. I. I have been yearning to direct. I've directed commercials primarily to explore different formats and materials. And it's kind of like free film school practice. Practice? Yeah. Working with a crew, finding dps that you like, and experiment with things I shot with. On my first commercial that I never didn't even have a reel to show, I pitched them this idea and I flew myself to Detroit. I met a head of marketing at Chrysler, and we met at a film festival, and we're talking about film. And he had asked me if I had any interest in directing. I said, yeah, and I'm a car nut. I grew up drag racing in Queens, too. I neglected to even bring up that whole massive chapter in my life. Like, I. I built so many muscle cars, I had no money, and so I. All the kids on the block who I related to had muscle cars or knew about mechanical work. And so they would teach me. And we'd all have our. Our own muscle cars, and we'd go out on Friday night and a Saturday night, and we go to, like, factory blocks in Brooklyn, and I'd race these Jamaican Dudes with their Toyota starlets. And I'd pull up in my Mazda RX7. I had seven different RX7s at one point. They were rotary engines, and I'd whip it down the block sideways and. And Mach 1 Mustangs that I built up, and a 70 challenger. And so I had shared some of this with this guy, and he was like, you should do a commercial with us. And he sent me some idea. I didn't think it was good for them, and I didn't take the job. And I said, I don't think this is good for you for these reasons. And he appreciated that. And then he gave me another one, sent me another one. I said, I have an idea for this one. I came and I. I sat in a boardroom. I think I got up at crack of dawn, flew to Detroit, pitched them, and they. They gave me the gig. And it was a super. It was a Golden Globe commercial, or they played at the Golden Globes, and they. They loved it. It was quite good. You could look it up. It's called Arrive in Style. If you look up Chrysler, Arrive in Style. And I did the VO for them. I directed it. It was largely black and white. I did it with my friend Gabriel, who is a wonderful editor on Brothers Bloom. I met him working with Rian Johnson, and Gabriel unfortunately passed away since then, but we made a really beautiful piece and. Yeah. And so, long story short, yeah, I'm waiting for the right moment to do it and take the time to do it, you know, Because I think it's very important that I have a lot to apply my life's experiences and my collaborations with people, including my own mother's artistic vision, cinematically to give. And I definitely know how to communicate with actors. So it's only a matter of time that it'll happen. Yeah, great.
- [85:43]
Interviewer
Is there a type of character that you've always wanted to play but never have gotten to do yet?
- [85:49]
Adrien Brody
I'd love to do a really great, like, meaningful love story. Like, just something where there's just such a deep connection with someone that's intimate and true to life and full of complexity of love and relationships, I think.
- [86:15]
Interviewer
What's the biggest physical transformation you've ever gone through for a part?
- [86:20]
Adrien Brody
I've had two big shifts physically for roles. Obviously, the Pianist, I had to depict a man who experienced starvation. And so I went down to £129. I was hardly even drinking water. Towards the first days of production, we shot in reverse chronology, so I was in very good shape, too. I'd just Done another film before that called Love the Hard Way, which is one of another favorite film of mine. It's more obscure, but I was fit. I was thin, but I was muscular. And so it was an interesting challenge.
- [86:59]
Interviewer
How long did it take to lose the weight?
- [87:01]
Adrien Brody
I lost about 30 something pounds. 30 something pounds in six weeks and.
- [87:07]
Interviewer
Just not eating, or was it more than that?
- [87:10]
Adrien Brody
It was mostly not eating. I was eating but very, very sparse, specific things and wasn't particularly healthy. And I wasn't taking supplements and I wasn't guided through it and I didn't know kind of what I was doing. And then, and then I had to gain the weight back rapidly. So I was kind of forced feeding after, which was terrible for my body. And I felt sick and I felt I gained weight in a way that I didn't like. I had a bit of a belly and I was like, oh my God, I ruined my metabolism. And yeah, I managed to kind of have it catch up again, which is good. And then, you know, when I did Predators, I essentially play the Arnold Schwarzenegger character in the film. I play this mercenary character and that's kind of reboot of the franchise. And I thought it would be fun to do a shift and I thought it would be fun for the guys who are fans of that, that movie and that genre. And it's kind of unexpected to see me in that role. And so I got. I got jacked for that. It was really great. I put on a lot of muscle mass. I think I had less than 6% body fat. And I was, wow. I was 75. I put on 20 something pounds of muscle. It was serious. I was the best shape of my life. And then I went to India and shot one day on a film and got really ill and lost £15 in a week.
- [88:46]
Interviewer
Wow.
- [88:46]
Adrien Brody
Something like that, literally, I'm almost that it eviscerated me. And all again, my all that lean muscle mass was gone wild.
- [88:55]
Interviewer
How has your relationship to the craft changed over the course of your life?
- [89:00]
Adrien Brody
You know, we are an instrument and you become more proficient at using your instrument for the work that you've applied a lifetime towards. And so my relationship to life has shifted too. And I've become more proficient at being less reactive and more attuned and open. And that can be linked to a spiritual awakening and one that is found through work and sacrifice and understanding the valleys as well as the peaks and applying them in your observations of yourself and others.
- [89:59]
Interviewer
How do you think rhythm influences your performance? Is it a factor?
- [90:08]
Adrien Brody
Yeah, oh yeah. It influences how we are day to day. And sometimes you're more in touch with a rhythm and some days you're not. Right. And each character you play has a different rhythm from your own. Like on the Pianist, I shut down all modern influences, all of it. Not just my love for hip hop, but any modern music. I just lived in another era and I think that was helpful and gave me insight into an understanding of classical music and also the playing of that music and how each time it is played, how differently emotionally that journey is and how the. How it conveys things. Like when I was doing the play, I would have to amp up. And we do eight shows a week. So two days were with a matinee. And you know, that second performance you really have to be. It's a lot, you know, and it's a heart wrenching thing to kind of conjure up all that every day. And. And I would put on a bunch of trap music and pazzy. One of the actors would come through to the little dressing room, which was like a little cinder block cell. And we'd just do push ups and incline, push up, decline, push ups, whatever, Doing like a kind of jailhouse workout. And then he'd bounce and get ready. And then I would put on some John Frusciante and kind of meditate in a solemnness to tap into that. So I would empower my. My being and my. The anger and the frustrations and the. The hurt and all the stuff that's a man's confined with. And then I would open up the sensitivity that I find in John's work and the mourning and longing and creativity. And then I'd go out and step out there and do it. But that every day. Help me hone in on those things. And I remember working with Tupac and Mickey doing Bullet and we were under the Major Deegan in the Bronx in 93, 96 and a long time ago. And Mickey was the first actor that I worked with who would always use music to get into his own. And he had this Walkman cassette. Walkman. I was actually sitting in the limo. Pac's character had a limo and I was playing him beats on cassette, of my beats on cassette. And then Mickey was there listening, getting into a zone, listening to Stairway to Heaven and getting into his groove over there. And I was bomb. I went bombing with Pac, by the way, you were asking me about writing. We both were tagging this handball court and you can see some of it in the movie. And he wrote Thug Life.
- [93:42]
Interviewer
Wow.
- [93:43]
Adrien Brody
He didn't have it tattooed on him as of yet. And he was writing Thug Life and I caught a little burner and there I was, like, he took my can and we were bombing together. Was it. Incredible moment. But, yeah, those are good days.
- [93:57]
Interviewer
Amazing.
- [94:26]
Adrien Brody
Tetragrammatin is a podcast. Tetragrammatin is a website. Tetragrammatin is a whole world of knowledge.
- [94:40]
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- [95:36]
Adrien Brody
Drone.