He's the youngest man ever to have won an Oscar for best leading actor. But did his win result
in a complete derailment of his career? Adrien Brody seemed to have everything going for him,
looks, charm and undeniable talent, but after he won his Oscar for the role in The Pianist,
it appeared that his career grew stagnant. Is it possible that he gave so much of himself to
The Pianist, that there was nothing left for his future roles? Is it true that the actor
never truly recovered from performing in the heart-wrenching Holocaust film?
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The Pianist launched Adrien Brody into a newfound level of celebrity status.
Despite having worked in the film industry for quite some time, it wasn't until The Pianist
was released that the actor finally began to get the recognition he had been seeking for so long.
Adrien was cast as a musician in the Film that portrays the horror of World War 2.
The movie itself is challenging to watch as the audiences are painted a story of pain,
and indescribable loss of those who suffered during the war.
Since the movie is difficult to watch, can you imagine what it must have been like to act in it?
We're not sure if any of us can, but Adrien was open about his experience making the Film,
and it was nothing short of a trauma in itself.
Brody took a deep dive into the world of method acting for his role in The Pianist.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, method acting is basically a
technique that involves becoming fully committed to the character,
mentally and physically not only on-camera but off-camera too.
In order to portray the most sincere and honest emotions for the Film,
actors invest themselves entirely into a character, almost completely dissociating
from themselves entirely. Sounds pretty intense, right? That's because it is. Famous method actors
include Heath Ledger, for his role as Joker and Angelina Jolie for her role in Girl Interrupted.
So, that's what Adrien did. He threw himself into his role, and it seems
like he was never able to recover from it. His first step into immersing himself in the part,
was to actually learn how to play the piano. He spent hours every
day practicing the pieces that he would be performing in the Film, because he felt like
it was important that he really played the piano and wasn't just pretending to do so.
The next thing he did is probably the most dangerous,
and it practically put his life on the line for his performance.
Adrien began to starve himself for his role. As a result of the war, his character in the Film
survives on very little to almost no food for months, looking terribly thin and frail. The
actor ended up losing around 30 pounds for these scenes, getting down to a dwindling 130 pounds.
"There is an emptiness that comes with really starving that I hadn't
experienced … I couldn't have acted that without knowing it. I've experienced loss,
I've experienced sadness in my life, but I didn't know the desperation that comes with hunger."
Before you think that he was done there, Adrien took his immersion into his character
another step further… In order for him to really understand the loneliness,
isolation and poverty his character felt, the actor decided to put himself in the same position.
He sold his car, moved out of his apartment and did everything he could to leave behind
his materialistic belongings. His dedication to his character
became so intense and overwhelming that his girlfriend at the time even broke up with him.
"I was in a very dark, sad, raw place, all day, every day. There was no moment to leave it.
There was only time for sleep. Even though it exhausted me emotionally and used me up,
it was the price I had to pay."
And a price he did pay, indeed. Even after his work with The
Pianist was done and he had the golden Oscar win in his pocket,
Brody's mental health had already begun to decline and he suffered from terrible depression.
"It wasn't just depression, it was a mourning. I was very disturbed by
what I embraced [in making that Film], and of the awareness that it opened up in me."
Brody spent the year following the completion of the Film sleeping on friends' couches
and trying to reconnect with the loved ones that he had spent so much time pushing away.
He was trying to put the pieces of what he remembered to be a normal life,
but somehow he wasn't able to shake off the dark hole that The Pianist had left in his soul.
The actor struggled to face the fact that his life was completely changed by the impact that the Film
had on the world and on his career. Everywhere he turned, there was paparazzi there ready to take
his picture and bombard him with questions about his personal life. So while he was trying to heal
the damage that his role in The Pianist had done to his mental health, he was trying to come to
terms with the fact that he was now a celebrity, and his life would never be the same again.
"Being anonymous is a great luxury. It's a big loss to lose that. Mostly, the loss is the
ability to observe others without being observed yourself. And as an actor, that is your key tool."
It's also safe to say that Brody faced a string of bad luck after his acclaimed Oscar win.
Perhaps it started JUST as his name was called out at the award ceremony in 2003.
Halle Berry called the actor on stage and in one of Brody's more infamous moments,
he grabbed presenter Halle Berry and kissed her, right on the stage for everyone to see.
"That was not planned. I knew nothing about it. I was like, 'What the f–k is happening
right now?' That was what was going through my mind," Halle Berry said of the intimate moment.
While no one said it at the time, following the #metoo movement years later,
Brody faced some severe backlash for his move on Halle Berry.
He also faced more criticism after defending Roman Polanski and his other director friend,
Woody Allen who were both under scrutiny over the #metoo protest.
After his Oscar win, Hollywood was buzzing about Adrien Brody and everyone wanted a piece of him.
Like many fresh-faced actors before his time, Brody was asked to come and host
the Saturday Night Live show. The host performs a monologue and always introduces a musical guest,
who that night was Sean Paul, a reggae performer. The actor then decided to
improvise his introduction of Sean Paul, and he arrived on stage wearing fake dreadlocks,
even put on a Jamaican accent, and went on to say a handful of stereotypical comments.
The actor was subsequently never invited back onto the show,
and there were whispers about him having been unofficially banned.
As years went by, audiences began to see less and less of Brody. After The Pianist, he did a bunch
of movies that never seemed to amount to the same heights as his debut into the world of Film. Soon,
it seemed that Hollywood became bored of Adrien. What initially came off as quirky and charming,
suddenly became weird, and he became associated as one of the One-Hit-Wonders of Hollywood.
The world of fame basically swallowed him, chewed him up and spat him back out.
Without even a second glance. No one thought that perhaps deep down,
the actor was still suffering from the trauma that he put himself through for The Pianist.
He was the youngest man to ever win an Oscar for best leading role and Hollywood dumped him.
It might be also fair to say that Brody peaked in his career too soon,
becoming a victim of his own success.
"I was perceived as this very serious dramatic actor."
And he felt like this had resulted in him being typecast, especially when he so
desperately wanted to express himself in many different ways. He's always believed that the
purpose of being an actor is to (quote) "be as much of a chameleon as possible".
It seems over the most recent years that Adrien has been making a slow return to Cinema,
but is very specific about the roles he takes on. He's spoken about how much he
enjoys working with director Wes Anderson, because he's allowed the freedom to have fun
and perform as interesting characters, rather than be restricted and typecast.
It might have surprised fans to see Brody in Anderson's films like The Darjeeling Limited,
or The Grand Budapest Hotel, but the actor admits that these movies have made
him feel like he could open up and become his true self once again.
"I crack myself up all the time, whether I'm doing something stupid or saying something
ridiculous and being able to harness that and bring laughter and lightness,
that is something that I've always yearned to do with my work."
During his time away from the spotlight of Hollywood fame,
he's spent a lot of time painting but he's also gone and finally found love, with none other
than Harvey Weinstein's ex-wife, Georgina Chapman. The actor has never been married,
and had a few relationships over the years but maybe this time with Chapman will be different.
The pair locked eyes at an event and something seemed to just click.
It should come to no surprise that Georgina has been going through a difficult time over the past
few years, feeling an immense amount of shame and embarrassment over the behavior of her ex-husband.
Reports claim that Chapman and Brody have found solace in one another and are having a wonderful
time together. Perhaps She will be able to bring lightness into the dark places that
The Pianist left behind in Brody, and maybe he can restore Georgina's faith in love once again.