Adrien Brody on ‘The Brutalist,’ ‘The Pianist’ Oscar and In-Between

Back in 2003, Adrien Brody, at the age of 29, became — and to this day remains — the youngest-ever best actor Oscar winner, for his tour de force performance as a Jewish musician living in Poland during the rise of the Nazis in The Pianist. On Sunday night, 22 years and a lot of ups and downs later, he was back on top, winning a best actor in a motion picture drama Golden Globe for his portrayal of another Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, in this case a brilliant architect who then comes to America and discovers that the American dream is not all it’s cracked up to be, in Brady Corbet’s epic The Brutalist.

On this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, which was recorded at the London West Hollywood hotel, the 51-year-old reflects on his odds-defying, roller coaster of a life and career. He discusses early examples of luck, both great and terrible; how The Pianist came along, what it demanded of him and the pros and cons of his star-making night at the Oscars; why, as recently as 2016, he essentially walked away from his acting career, and what convinced him to return — on episodes of TV’s Succession and Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, in the film Blonde and in The Brutalist — and why The Brutalist has such great personal meaning to him; plus much more.