Adrien Brody’s Mother’s Journey Inspired His Role in ‘The Brutalist’

Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, and Stacy Martin took the spotlight at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday for the premiere of Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist”.

They were joined at the press conference by other notable cast members, including Raffey Cassidy, Emma Laird, Isaach De Bankolé, and Alessandro Nivola, making for an impressive ensemble gathering.

Brody portrays László Tóth, a Hungarian-born Jewish architect who, after surviving the Holocaust, moves to the United States with his wife Erzsébet in pursuit of the “American dream” amidst poverty and indignity.

Guy Pearce appears as a mysterious wealthy client who offers Tóth a life-altering contract, while Felicity Jones plays Tóth’s supportive wife.

Brody shared that he felt an “immediate kinship and understanding” with his character due to the experiences of his mother, Sylvia Plachy, a noted photographer.

“She’s a wonderful photographer, but also a Hungarian immigrant who fled Hungary in 1956 during the Hungarian Revolution. She was a refugee and emigrated to the United States, and much like László, she started anew and pursued her dream of being an artist,” Brody explained at the press conference.

Brody continued, “I understand a great deal about the repercussions this had on her life and work as an artist, which mirrors László’s creations. Postwar psychology influences your work creatively and in other life aspects. This fiction feels very real to me, and it’s essential to embody a character like László authentically. This film not only represents the past but reminds us of how much we need to learn from it in our present.”