All artists use some part of their own reality to shape the characters they inhabit, but for “The Brutalist”, Adrien Brody had more than most to work off of. The film follows a fictional Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor Laszlo Toth when he immigrates to America hoping to resume his life and practice his craft. Has grown up among immigrant parents and grandparents from Hungary and Poland, Brody was all too familiar with not only the broad difficulties of this experience, but also the specific difficulties, both physical and emotional, faced along the way.
For the latest episode of “A24-Pod”, Brody sat down with his “The Darjeeling Limited” costar Jason Schwartzman and described those challenges, sharing how his grandfather helped shape parts of his character in “The Brutalist.”
“My mother has a recording – I don’t know if she recorded it or if my grandfather had recorded it – but I remember him trying to get work,” he said. “He aspired to be an actor as well, but he tried to get work and he did a recording of this and I’ve heard this recording and he sounds even more extreme than László’s accent. He would introduce himself – my mother’s maiden name is Plachy – and he would say “Plachy” and say it again and “I would like to apply for the job.” Then you could hear the pause on the other end of the line and he said, ‘Yeah, okay, thank you, thank you,’ and you could hear the rejection and he called again, someone else, and I really remembered what a struggle it was.”
Brody went on to describe his grandfather as “very charismatic” and “handsome”, so the fact that his voice acted as a deterrent to his success was very affecting. Not only this, but his grandfather’s presence still lingers with the actor largely because of how special Brody found the way he spoke.
“We were such a close family. My mom was an only child, I’m an only child, my grandparents were from the old world. Maybe because they sounded so distinctly different, it struck me even more than anyone else,” Brody says to Schwartzman. “No one was Hungarian. So to be able to have that as a guiding light in (‘The Brutalist’) is really special, because I feel like it’s such a universal thing – there is so many people regardless of background – we’re all descendants of immigrants. It’s been a lot of struggle. No matter who you are, it’s a lot of sacrifice.”
By changing the dialogue from what was originally written, Brody found a way to pay tribute to his grandfather in one scene by struggling with his words. At a crucial moment when Tóth presents the model of his design to the city where it will be built, he calls on an assistant to give him a flashlight, but instead calls it a flashlight.
“I added it because my grandfather would have trouble remembering the English word for things,” Brody said, “and he’d say, ‘What’s that, what’s the word for — Yeah, what’s that?'” and I did that in honor of him.”
Watch Brody and Schwartzman’s full interview on “The A24 Podcast” below.
“The Brutalist” is currently in cinemas from A24.
