Adrien Brody Calls His “Greatest” Career Loss of Being Cut Out of a $98 Million Oscar-Nominated Epic “a wonderful gift”
- Adrien Brody's role in The Thin Red Line was reduced to a background character without his knowledge.
- The actor says despite everything, he had a wonder time and experience working on The Thin Red Line.
- Adrien Brody won Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture-Drama for The Brutalist.
Actor Adrien Brody is regarded as one of the most talented and well-respected actors in the industry. The actor recently appeared as a Hungarian-born Jewish architect in the epic period drama The Brutalist. Brody’s character survives the Holocaust and immigrates to the United States, where he struggles to achieve the ‘American Dream.’
Brody was highly praised for his work in the movie, and he recently won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. The actor who is remembered for his work in The Pianist, King Long, Predator, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and more shared about one Academy Award-nominated movie he’s glad didn’t work in his favor.
Adrien Brody recalls his ‘embarrassing’ moment regarding The Thin Red Line
Actor Adrien Brody was locked in to portray Corporal Geoffrey Fife in Terrance Malick’s epic war film The Thin Red Line. The film marks Malick’s return to filmmaking after 20 years and is the second film adaptation of the 1962 novel by James Jones.
Upon release, the movie received a positive response from the audience and the critics, with special praise for its philosophical depiction of war, direction, musical score, and more. The Thin Red Line grossed over $98 million at the box office (via Box Office Mojo) worldwide and was nominated for seven Academy Awards.
According to Independent UK, when Brody watched the movie at the premiere, he was stunned. The reason is that his role, that is, the main character in James Jones’ novel, was reduced to appearing as a background character during the edits. Instead, the makers decided to center the movie around Jim Caviezel’s Private Witt. In his interview with Josh Horowitz for the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he said,
I had several years to come to terms with The Thin Red Line. I mean, I had been acting for 17 years, so that [his role being reduced to a background character] was probably the greatest loss creatively that I’ve had and hopefully will remain.
Brody recalled that the film was like a dream project, and he was already touted and kind of publicly put out there as the author’s persona and had spent time with James Jones’ widow. He mentioned that there was such a level of commitment and involvement while making the movie. Adrien Brody mentioned that the actor’s journey is connected with the journey of the character.
The actor shared that when The Thin Red Line was being made, he had to connect to a character who was struggling to write about himself. Brody recalled that James Jones, at the time of writing the novel, felt inadequate and guilty as a soldier to come back home. Despite getting his role reduced in the movie, Brody mentioned that his experience of working on that film has always been wonderful. He mentioned,
I was just so excited to get great work and work with a genius director and was surrounded by the most amazing actors.
He described the experiences he had while working on the film as a ‘wonderful gift.’ He also noted that to give value to an unpleasant experience is a beautiful thing to really do. Brody also noted in such cases, it’s the responsibility of the actor to step into the shoes of another person and honor that person.
In his interview with GQ Hype, he mentioned that he has always been grateful that The Thin Red Line was such a harrowing experience for him and full of personal loss.
The actor did not let one setback deter him, and then he worked in The Pianist in 2002. Adrien Brody became the youngest actor to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his work on The Pianist.
Adrien Brody talks about being a part of The Brutalist
The actor had appeared for The Hollywood Reporter’s roundtable discussion alongside Daniel Craig, Sebastian Stan, Paul Mescal, Peter Sarsgaard, and Colman Domingo. During the conversation, Brody was asked what made him say yes to playing a man traumatized by his experience during World War II. The actor answered,
There is real richness to the storytelling, and it speaks to many things historically that are quite relevant today but also very personal to me.
Brody continued to share that his mother, Sylvia Plachy, is a Hungarian-born photographer and artist who has been a beacon for him in all of his artistic pursuits. He also acknowledged that his grandparents had fled Budapest in 1956 during the revolution and lost their home and everything, immigrating to the U.S. He noted that they had their share of hardships, and he just felt fortunate enough to be able to represent that immigrant experience.
The actor added that everyone’s on a quest to find something of meaning that leaves behind something of meaning, and that’s also the quest of his character. In his interview with USA Today, Brody mentioned that nothing felt like fiction to him even though the story is fictional. He added that the story lives within him; it’s deeply rooted in truth.
Directed by Brady Corbet, Adrien Brody found the story of The Brutalist as ‘complex’ and mentioned that it’s unfortunate that it took him decades to find something like this. He added that it’s such an ambitious thing, but also it instantly tapped into his mother and grandparents’ struggle of coming to America.
The actor recently won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture-Drama for his work in the movie. The Brutalist is available to stream on MAX, HBO, and Cinemax.
