Adrien Brody Reacts To ‘The Brutalist’ Scenes

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Adrien Brody (László Tóth) relives some The Brutalist moments following the release of the 2024 epic period drama. Watch as Adrien Brody reacts to the big moments from The Brutalist.

Transcript

00:00How you doing? I'm Adrian Brody.

00:01You're watching GQ Action Replay for The Brutalist.

00:12These are yours, yes?

00:28Yes.

00:29I portray a Hungarian immigrant, a man who fled Budapest and emigrates to the United States.

00:38And my mother and her parents, my grandparents, are actual Hungarian immigrants as well.

00:46They fled Budapest during the revolution in the 50s and moved to America.

00:52My grandfather had a very distinct and quite pronounced Hungarian accent.

00:58It's not too dissimilar to what I work towards for Laszlo.

01:03And my research, working with a dialect coach and finding sources of that very specific dialect

01:12of a man from that time, from the 50s, really was to honor his accent and the truths that I knew,

01:21not just even with a dialect, but personality and forms of expression that kind of came out,

01:26that I recall from my childhood with my grandfather.

01:30It's a dialect that I had unknowingly been researching my whole life.

01:36Laszlo, my character in Van Buren, had an altercation prior to this, where Laszlo was

01:41hired to rebuild a library in Van Buren's home. And Van Buren kind of loses his cool

01:49and essentially kicks Laszlo out of his house for a bunch of assumptions,

01:54but basically he was very disrespectful.

01:56Van Buren had done some research and discovered not only Laszlo's talents,

02:01but a series of images of his previous works that he had constructed.

02:06What felt most profound to me was the gift of seeing all his years of work and creativity

02:12still existing, as he had assumed they had been demolished during the Nazi occupation.

02:20Did not realize these images were still available, much less of any consequence.

02:28May I keep these?

02:30When he asks permission to keep the images, it's pretty heartbreaking because these images

02:37are more nourishing, and the knowledge that all of his efforts and devotion to his work

02:45remained intact, is more nourishing than the potential for food to come.

02:50And I thought that was just so powerful and beautiful.

03:01This is magic. Thank you.

03:05There will be a big party tonight. I remember much love and party.

03:10We shot this in Carrara in Italy. We were in pre-production and Brady Corbet, our director,

03:19and I were texting and he said he was struggling to find this location, and he was in Italy.

03:26And I texted him back, I got you. I just so happened to have a friend whose family

03:36owns that marble quarry. And I reached out to him and within two or three hours,

03:43they send me a picture of Arm and Arm having a glass of wine. My friend was very kind to

03:48allow us to film our humble movie in that epic place, and it enhances the storytelling so much.

03:56So it's a big gift. He also shot it in VistaVision, which gives it this expansive look.

04:02So there's tremendous depth of field. It's a format where the negative is actually horizontal.

04:09There hasn't been an American film shot on VistaVision since 1961. So the look and feel

04:14of this is quite unique and of another era. So I think that adds to it. This grandness is kind of

04:23telling of the dangers looming as well.

04:30I've never thought of that before. I hope it was an intelligent enough answer, but

04:34I do see it. I do see how it's quite symbolic.

04:49We played this music again and again on the day, and we danced to it, and we reveled in it,

04:57and it haunted me. But it's such a beautiful moment. Lowell Crawley, our DP, is just

05:05an artist. We discuss how we will shoot something, and it's a matter of the dance between

05:15the camera and the subjects. So you have to be in a moment, but you also have to be aware of

05:21where light sources are and certain movements and what you're revealing and certain movements

05:30as they unfold. He's partying, and he's kind of given into the emotion of it all, I guess,

05:37and that exposes vulnerability. And you have Van Buren, the vantage point above, clearly

05:46looking down upon him and the circumstances with other agendas. I mean, Guy is a remarkable actor.

05:56He's a wonderful human being, but he's a very gifted actor. And there's a lot of complexity

06:01to his character. He's quite a mercurial character, and he brings all these nuances to his

06:07depiction of this character, because there are a lot of extremes. There's a genuine sense of wonder

06:17and gentleness and thoughtfulness that exists within him, but then there's this

06:24darkness and a very foreboding and controlling and representative of the class difference between

06:32them, representative of numerous ways where he must dominate in order to feel superior.

06:43It is no coincidence that fate brought us together on the eve of my mother's death.

06:52I'm good at reading the signs. Sir, I do not know what the commission entails.

06:59Talk about the details at home, but you'll be well compensated. And also,

07:03you'll be given a place here on the property. In this scene, Van Buren invites Laszlo to his home,

07:11and they have a celebratory dinner. They have some drinks together, and they really speak.

07:16And this is the first moment of profound respect and opportunity. They're on the precipice of this

07:24mountain, and this is the kind of precipice of crossing all that hardship to, apparently,

07:31the American dream. And your family, should they arrive, they're welcome here too. What do you say?

07:46I would like to draw something and then present it to you.

07:50You'd like to win the commission.

07:53Van Buren is offering him an opportunity to build this grand institute in Van Buren's

07:59mother's name, with all this artistic freedom. And I think it's very hard to

08:07believe for Laszlo. It's really like winning the lottery. So anyone would be in disbelief in this

08:15position. But, of course, there are undertones of that loneliness and longing. And he's alone at

08:25the end on the knoll in which he intends to, and ultimately proceeds to, build this life's work.

08:34It was very cold on this. It was a mountaintop. We had to be brought up with quads, so everybody

08:42would get in these quads and go all the way up. And this is where we started to construct the

08:47basis for the institute. So we worked in this location. We were outside of Budapest. It had

08:54a hopeful quality. It did have other things that may not be fit for this, but that were very telling

09:01of his journey. It spoke to all the complexity of both rebirth, renewal, the past lingering.

09:08In many ways, this character honors the journey of an artist, and how experiences and traumas of

09:17war and loss inform and influence the work that is being created, and the beauty of art to be

09:26created, stemming from some of the darkest times in our world history. And all of that speaks to

09:35me as an artist, and as a son of a Hungarian immigrant who is an artist in America. I'm

09:42definitely the right man for the job. I don't know who else really has had these influences

09:50in their lives who's fit to play the character. It's quite interesting. Thanks for watching.

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