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