Adrien Brody

Adrien Brody may repeat history this year with his second Academy Award win. In this 2021 conversation Josh and Adrien discussed the acclaimed actors beginnings in New York, the disappointment of being cut out of THE THIN RED LINE, the triumph of THE PIANIST, and what might have been to play the Joker for Christopher Nolan. SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS! Quince -- Go to Quince.com/happysadco for 365 day returns and free shipping! UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS 1/20 -- Adam Scott in NYC -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠Tickets here⁠⁠⁠⁠ 1/23 -- Michelle Yeoh In NYC -- ⁠Tickets here Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes, video versions of the podcast, and more! To watch episodes of Happy Sad Confused, subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Josh's youtube channel here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:31Speaker 01

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• 0:59Speaker 02

  After The Pianist, I didn't get a job for a year. After the Academy Award, I didn't work for a year.

• 1:06Josh Horowitz?

  Was the next thing you did The Village?

• 1:08Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:08Speaker 04

  Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now.

• 1:16Josh Horowitz?

  Hey guys, it's Josh Arrows here with another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. But this time we have a very special flashback episode of the podcast. An episode probably very few of you have ever heard, let alone seen. No one's seen this actually, because this was before we were putting video up on the podcast. Adrian Brody is the guest on Happy, Sad, Confused today. And you're about to watch a fantastic chat, honestly. I went back and listened to this and I was so pleased. This is a career conversation with Adrian that we recorded in August of 2021. And it covers everything from his beginnings in New York, the influence of his parents, being cut out of the thin red line, starring and winning an Oscar in The Pianist, his love

• 1:56Josh Horowitz?

  of genre, King Kong: The Village, and even a brush with nearly playing the Joker. I don't know if you knew that. Most people don't. He met with Christopher Nolan, talks about it a bit in this conversation for The Dark Horse.

• 2:10Josh Horowitz?

  Dark Knight. Yeah. So this is a great chat with one of our finest actors and he's having a huge moment right now because he's starring in The Brutalist, which if you have not seen, seek it out. Fantastic piece of work, one of the best of 2024, earning all the accolades. It's gonna get a slew of attention at the Oscars, including perhaps Adrian's second win for Best Actor. Potentially him or our buddy Timothy Chalmers. Can't go wrong either way. But wanted to resurface this great chat because as I said, not many people have ever seen it. Remember to review, comment below. Remember to hit that subscribe button, spread the good word of the podcast and the YouTube channel. And thanks as always for checking this out, guys.

• 2:57Josh Horowitz?

  This is a special one. Let me take you back. 2021, me and Adrian Brody. Enjoy.

• 3:04Josh Horowitz?

  So talk to me, first of all, where in the world am I finding you today?

• 3:06Speaker 02

  I'm in L.A. I'm working out here.

• 3:11Josh Horowitz?

  Is this the the Lakers project? Which of the many exciting Adrian Brody products is this?

• 3:16Speaker 02

  It's really exciting.

• 3:18Josh Horowitz?

  What a cast and some great pedigree behind it. McKay, Adam McKay did the podcast recently and that guy is just so, so whip smart, anything he puts his name on. Yeah.

• 3:28Speaker 02

  And all of our, yeah, Matt and Max Bernstein and it's wonderful, talented, creative people on board. And yes, a wonderful cast and amazing history to delve into. The craziest thing for me each day is realizing how the 80s, which theoretically shouldn't feel so, it is a long time.

• 3:54Josh Horowitz?

  I know.

• 3:54Speaker 02

  We do that, but it feels like the 60s, like fashion shifts and we've come so far and so far from that era. It's fascinating. So that alone is just.

• 4:09Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, it's trippy to realize that like your childhood era is now like science fiction in today's terms.

• 4:16Speaker 02

  And how foreign it must be for young people today because it's foreign for me already. And, you know, the concept of, I mean, just even the old days of, you know, lugging around a Thomas Guide out in L.A. when I first got out here.

• 4:33Speaker 02

  Get a page and call over to a payphone and call my agent. You know, couldn't wait to get a page and before the pager, literally waiting by the phone, waiting for your answer, calling in and checking your messages.

• 4:48Josh Horowitz?

  Yep, or the answering service or all of it.

• 4:50Speaker 02

  Someone called.

• 4:51Josh Horowitz?

  Yep.

• 4:53Speaker 02

  Now, now I don't even have voicemail.

• 4:57Josh Horowitz?

  I know. Yeah, to the modern audience, basically watching your Lakers show is gonna feel basically like watching Tapleight. It's the same thing.

• 5:04Speaker 02

  It's not that different.

• 5:07Josh Horowitz?

  Well, you lead me to a subject that I wanted to lead off with because you're a born and bred New Yorker like myself. I still live here in the city and I always love to talk to unicorns like myself that came out of New York and are semi-well adjusted and love this city and love what it, how it defined them. Do you, when you look back at your childhood in New York, do you romanticize those times? Do you look back at them and think they were tough or rough? Or when you think back to your childhood in New York, what do you think of?

• 5:36Speaker 02

  I appreciate them. I don't always romanticize them because parts of it were rough and difficult. But they were beautiful. And I do see the beauty in that and the gift of encountering so many walks of life, as I'm sure you do too. Even if I wasn't an actor, my sense of community and

• 6:07Speaker 02

  just awareness of how diverse we all are comes from this sea of humanity that we grew up in. And taking the train, I always attribute, you know, I went to Performing Arts High School and I was very lucky to be accepted into the drama department. And, you know, I was already acting professionally.

• 6:32Speaker 02

  We can delve into that if we want, but I Fell into a love of acting, not necessarily acting as a career decision or any sense of what could come or would come. And really, Performing Arts kind of saved me from having to go to my local zone school, which would have been disastrous for many reasons. It was very, it was really high dropout level, it was very violent at the time, and quite dangerous. And it was very close to home, and it would have, it would have trapped me into something very different.

• 7:11Speaker 02

  And even, even just out of necessity to survive, which I even felt commuting, going to, taking four trains to go to Performing Arts in the city.

• 7:24Speaker 02

  But, you know, that journey into, to go to drama school, I felt was way more informative. I mean, I appreciate all the technique learned, and it was very valuable, but just absorbing all the characters that I've encountered in my lifetime that, you know, resurfaced in, in works like The Pianist, you know, and, and, and there are nuances of human behavior that you just couldn't really learn by just studying. You, you could learn details, but you're there, and, and you're always a fly on the

• 8:07Speaker 02

  wall of so much, so much, so many lives and different things going on and chaos. Yep. And I, I do love that. I do, I, I, I do romanticize that. It's kind of like, it's kind of like looking back and seeing New York as like Taxi Driver was. Like, I remember my mom's old shitty Chevy Nova, seventy, Nova, which I would like, love to have right now, but, you know, just the drum brakes and sliding in the snow and really heavy snow, snowy winters.

• 8:41Speaker 02

  You know, the, the, I remember the flakes of snow coming up on the windshield as, as like just flowing, like it was beautiful imagery, like I noticed, it doesn't snow like that anymore. You know, our whole environment's changed, but just yellow old taxi cabs and all of those things, it was kind of romantic. Forty Second Street was really Forty Second Street, it wasn't a tourist trap. It was dangerous, but it was exciting. When, when, when you're young and when you're a teenager, like that, that just is like a siren call. Like I couldn't not want to go to a more dangerous area. It would just be like, let's go there. That's a great idea.

• 9:26Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, the amusement park was in your backyard. Yeah, all that completely resonates with me. As I always say, like, yes, just colliding with culture and diversity as a kid in New York is just, was just like the most invaluable education that I, that I was given. Talk to me a little bit about your family. I mean, your mom, a very well-regarded photographer, your dad, a professor. Did they have, did they instill in you a strong sense, a love of the arts, a love of film and theater? Was that part of your, your upbringing?

• 9:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, my father really loves film and, and um,

• 9:59Speaker 02

  he watches a lot of movies and loves a lot of older films as well, which, which were very interesting for me to, to watch with him as a, as a boy. Like I didn't really realize it, but there was an education there as well. But actually, my dad used to love martial arts films too. We'd go down to Canal Street in Chinatown and he'd take me to the movie theater on Saturday. And we'd drive in and, you know, we had an old Commingia and drive in, go see these movies, right?

• 10:35Speaker 02

  One day, someone was shooting, someone shot a gun off in the theater or whatever. I think when I was really young, but I mean, it was so, it was so wild. Um, but then, you know, I, I was steeped in these old Run Run Shaw films and martial arts movies, which were, you know, I didn't know would have some real place. And then I ended up doing a movie with Jackie Chan years later. Right. And, um, doing martial arts sequence, fight sequence with Jackie Chan, which was so amazing. Couldn't write a better script. And, uh, training with the Jackie Chan stunt team. It was such a, a dream come

• 11:17Speaker 02

  true, right? Cause as a boy, you know, even all my teenage years, I was just actually reminiscing with a friend last night about, I used to go up to the park in my neighborhood. Nobody really had any, anything really to do. And we'd just hang out and get, get into trouble. We'd play fight and like do these like martial arts moves on each other and practice on each other. Yeah. Uh, so it's just so funny, but yeah. So there, there was a love of, of quite a diverse love of film. Yeah. And, you know, we'd also go see films at, you know, the Angelica and when you could go see really interesting foreign films and independent movies that would play in theaters. Yeah.

• 12:00Speaker 02

  Uh, and, and, and my mother has just, is such a, uh, an enormous, uh, influence on me in, in all of my creative pursuits and, and, um, has really been a divining rod to, to, uh, at least the quest for purity. She's a much purer artist than I am. I don't think, I don't think you can be that pure in, in most professions, but you know, there's, there is a need to compromise in, in.

• 12:42Speaker 02

  Making film because, well, they're not, they're hardly making film, right?

• 12:47Josh Horowitz?

  Right. How often does that perfect project come along?

• 12:50Speaker 02

  Yes. Thing, you're not a photographer and having a vision and you're not just given an assignment and being allowed to interpret something in your way and bring that home. And hopefully they accept it and give you another job, right? It's, it's, it's, you're, you're, you're given material and you have to choose them, unless you're gifted enough and fortunate enough to be able to write your own material and get that made, which very few people are.

• 13:17Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 13:17Speaker 02

  You're really interpreting someone else's words and then your work is then interpreted by a director and guided by the production and then edited. And it's such a complex thing. So it's really vastly different, but, but I have tried very hard to at least be motivated by what actually inspires me or a journey that I think is meaningful or storytelling approach that I think is valuable to others, including myself. And, um, and she's given me all of that. And aside from having had an assignment for the Village Voice to photograph the American

• 14:01Speaker 02

  Academy of Dramatic Arts when I was a boy and, and saw that there were young people behaving like I was, misbehaving and, and, um,

• 14:14Speaker 02

  just, you know, I think it's, it's, that's, that's such a huge gift.

• 14:18Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 14:18Speaker 02

  And, and I always look back at it of finding acting or acting, you know, finding me prior to adolescence. Because when, when a boy or a girl hits puberty, already there's a shift, right? And we start becoming, we start doubting ourselves, which we're changing. There's a metamorphosis, right?

• 14:47Josh Horowitz?

  Right. There's a purity to like 12 and under, it's all purity.

• 14:50Speaker 02

  Yes, that's right. And it was, it was, it was the verge. It was 12.

• 14:55Speaker 02

  And fourteen, you're not a man yet, but you're feeling different and things are going on and it's more complicated.

• 15:05Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 15:06Speaker 02

  And, and then you've got a whole, you're, you're, you've kind of mastered boyhood at twelve. And now you're a teenager and you have no clue what that is. And you see, you know, a seventeen year old or an eighteen year old and you think, wow, they're a man. And you really wanna emulate them and, and.

• 15:29Speaker 02

  But you're not there, you're not there yet. And, um. I think, and then you have, if you're lucky enough to find something like.

• 15:40Speaker 02

  Getting proper acting education, you're getting all this information and all this.

• 15:46Speaker 02

  Judgment from your teacher.

• 15:49Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 15:49Speaker 02

  And that also can be amazingly positive experience, but that can also inhibit a young person. And I, I feel so blessed that I just caught a sense of. The freedom of my child, of, of the carefreeness more. Uh, that is needed. Even as an adult to be an actor and, and. Um, of course, there's a lot of precise work that has to go in it, but you do need this. Childlike imagination, you do need to stay open in some way or manage to open. Whatever those channels are up to be vulnerable and exposed and present.

• 16:35Speaker 02

  In, in sometimes very compromising situations.

• 16:41Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 16:41Speaker 02

  And, and, or, or, or difficult ones and, um. Uh, I feel like that. Retaining that is the technique that I, uh, have valued most of, of, of, um. That early start. And also my mother.

• 17:04Speaker 02

  Is just such a beautiful artist and photographer. And not only was I her subject so much that I got very comfortable having a camera present and was not encouraged to do anything. Wasn't my father telling me now, smile. Now, you know, you want a good photo here, you know, smile. It's like my mom just shot me climbing, doing pull ups on a stoplight, you know?

• 17:35Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, yeah, she stripped you of the artifice early on.

• 17:37Speaker 02

  You tell me to do a pull up or stop doing a pull up. She just taught me doing my thing. And so I'm grateful for all of that. And that I romanticize about.

• 17:55Josh Horowitz?

  If I had a dollar for everybody in my life who's benefited from therapy, I would be a very, very rich man. Therapy has certainly helped me, especially when I was a confused teenager. And thankfully, that's not a shameful thing to say anymore. Right? It's okay to seek help and need help and talk about it. We're all doing our best. We're just trying to get by. Right, guys? Unfortunately, the reality is that getting help is still harder than it should be. That's why I'm thrilled always to have Rula as a sponsor of Happy Say Confused, because it's very obvious to me that online therapy should be both accessible and affordable for everybody. So let's make it easy for anybody who wants help to get help. That's where Rula comes in. Here's the thing, a lot of online therapy platforms don't actually talk about. Most don't take insurance.

• 18:39Josh Horowitz?

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• 19:22Josh Horowitz?

  Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that's actually covered by insurance. Visit rula.com/happy to get started. That's rula, R-U-L-A, dot com slash happy. You deserve mental health care that works with you, not against your budget. You guys know the best stuff in your closet is the stuff that you actually wear, right? The things that you just keep coming back to, whether you're going to work, you're going out, you're just hanging around. Well, with the holidays coming up, Quince makes it really easy to find great gifts for everyone on your list. This year, I'm doing a lot of my holiday shopping at Quince, and yes, that includes a few things for myself. That's okay, right? One of the things I love about Quince is that you're getting really high-quality stuff without spending a fortune.

• 20:04Josh Horowitz?

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• 20:48Josh Horowitz?

  I've got a cashmere hoodie that is honestly invaluable and actually makes me look like I know what I'm talking about when it comes to fashion, and that is a miracle. So give the gift of quality this holiday season. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers, or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. It's now available in Canada and the UK too. And when Quince asks where you've heard about them, you know what to do. Let them know it was happy, sad, confused. That's the best way to support our show.

• 21:22Josh Horowitz?

  It's funny to think about because like, you know, I was going back through your filmography. Looking at some old interviews and you know, when people think back to The Pianist, when you won the Oscar, I think for a lot of people had a sense like this guy came out of nowhere. This was his first thing, but like, as you just alluded to, you've been working for a while. And not only have you been working, like you've been directed by like Spike and Barry Levinson and Terrence Malick, like you've been like accumulating a really significant body of work, whether the general public knew it or not. Where were you at when Pianist happened? You'd been through that trial by fire, which must have been crazy, the whole Thin Red Line experience, which must have fucked up your head a little bit. Were you in a happy, good place?

• 22:04Josh Horowitz?

  Like, were you like feeling like ready for your coming out party? Or were you beaten down by like opportunities that hadn't quite panned out in the way you wanted them to be?

• 22:12Speaker 02

  Oh, I had several years to come to terms with Thin Red Line. I mean, and I had been acting for 17 years. So that was probably the greatest loss creatively that I've had.

• 22:33Speaker 02

  And hopefully will remain that. But...

• 22:36Josh Horowitz?

  With the years, are you able to look back at that experience with any greater grace?

• 22:40Speaker 02

  Yes, already at that point in grasping the responsibilities I had in The Pianist. And I was still a young man. I was 27 when I shot that.

• 22:58Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 22:59Speaker 02

  And so much of life became apparent to me. And much of what I had taken for granted in my life become apparent to me

• 23:16Speaker 02

  in the making of that film and the process of preparing for it and shooting it, which was a six-month movie. The Pianist was a six-month movie. Malik's film was a six-month film as well. I joked with Roman, actually, when we made the movie. I said, "Well, you can't cut me out of this one. What are you gonna call it, the piano?"

• 23:37Speaker 02

  But...

• 23:42Speaker 02

  The loss of not being in a movie that is a dream project and you're already touted and publicly put out there as the author's persona, et cetera, and having spent time with James Jones's widow. And, you know, there was such a level of commitment and involvement. The gist of what an actor's journey is really is to connect with the journey of the character

• 24:27Speaker 02

  and in this case, a novelist who really was writing about himself. That was the Fife was his point of view. And what James Jones was coping with was the feeling of inadequacy and guilt as a soldier of coming home and all the complexity of the psychological scarring of war and repercussions of war. And what I kept thinking about was how I can't really share what that felt like to

• 25:11Speaker 02

  come back and have six months of doing something kind of eviscerated and no clue of all of that, really. And I thought on some level, this is how soldiers must feel coming back, giving their all and fighting and being put through hell, really hell. And being afraid and feeling insecure about their fears and watching other soldiers be more brave. And then coming back like in Deer Hunter, like coming back to

• 25:49Josh Horowitz?

  Right, waiting for the parade that never comes.

• 25:51Speaker 02

  And we had no parade, yeah, I mean, I was so young anyway, I just was so excited to get great work and work with a genius director and be surrounded by the most amazing actors and, you know, and then I had all those experiences. I had them, we shot them, I had, I had that life, I, I was with Sean Penn there and, and I, and he treated me wonderfully and I, you know, was there with Woody Harrelson and, and, you know, I was in Guadalcanal and I was doing the work, I did a

• 26:35Speaker 02

  eight days or so boot camp and got put through the wringer because the, our, the captain of our squad really made an example of me because there's a bit in the movie, I guess, but I was the lead at that point. So they kicked me out of my group, which were all the young guys that were in the core group of the film, and they put me in with the Australian extras. And then made me feel what it was like to be taken away and there's, there's a kind of parallel element that happened in, in the novel. And all of these were wonderful, it was such a wonderful gift, a life experience.

• 27:19Speaker 02

  And I, I feel like anything that happens in your life, the beauty of being an actor, is that there's value to all the sadness that you have, to any sense of loss, to any sense of joy, but, but, but to give value to unpleasant experiences is a beautiful thing, to really give value because your, your responsibility is to now step into the shoes of another person and honor that person. And

• 28:04Speaker 02

  To act it without some innate understanding of it is bullshit. Then you're then you're acting and it's the wrong you can't. Some people can, but I it feels so dishonest that uh.

• 28:25Speaker 02

  It it's it's the antithesis of the process. It's the antithesis of what I want to show up and do. I don't want to make it through something by faking some connection or acting.

• 28:39Josh Horowitz?

  Is finding a connection.

• 28:40Speaker 02

  Like showing you showing you that I'm in pain. I want to understand what that pain is and the muscles of that pain and the complexity of that pain. And.

• 28:52Speaker 02

  Allow the intimacy of a camera to capture that moment. Go there, conjure it and try and get get rid of it to some extent. You know, that's the real magic trick. Um, but I could not have done the pianist.

• 29:13Speaker 02

  Or what or or connect as well to certain things I don't think without a certain degree of loss.

• 29:18Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 29:19Speaker 02

  Understanding of that. And so I value it and I I value.

• 29:28Speaker 02

  All of the things that come and go in life and loving and losing and winning and losing. And, you know, I think the beauty of of being an actor is you continue. If you can stay the course, you continue to get better. Because life informs.

• 29:56Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, life's giving you all the material. Yeah, yeah.

• 30:00Speaker 02

  And the more. Character building, things that happen that don't break you, make you much more interesting as a person. And if you can now channel that into a work to share intimately with the world, which we all need, which is, which is, which is what we need. We don't need,

• 30:26Speaker 02

  I mean, sure, we, we can enjoy a more, a lighter entertaining experience of,

• 30:39Speaker 02

  you know, killing some time and being entertained. But if we can be entertained and also feel a connection and feel more connected even to an interpretation of a character that makes us think about either our lives or our neighbors' lives or our parents' lives or what they've been through.

• 31:02Speaker 02

  That's, that's a gift. That's, um, and that's what I, I yearn for in, in everything that I do.

• 31:09Josh Horowitz?

  Well, it's, it's, it's a great trait that you were able to kind of figure that out, at least to some degree even early on back then. I mean, because then on the flip side, I was watching like, I, I might have even been working there at the time. You were on the Charlie Rose show when you were on The Pianist. And to see you there is to see like, it's kind of a joy. It's a really joyful thing to watch because it's to see an actor, as Charlie said, and he was a shitty guy, but a good interviewer. And I know from, from working for him. But you met the moment, you met, you know, the actor met the material. And it was just to see a guy at that relatively young age, kind of like just finally kind of welcome to the club. Did you feel that? Did you feel like your peers or your elder peers, the people that you had admired, kind of like,

• 31:53Josh Horowitz?

  gave you validation in the wake of The Pianist? And what did that mean to you at the time?

• 31:57Speaker 02

  Oh, absolutely. It was, it's still, it almost moves me to tears because,

• 32:09Speaker 02

  You know, I'm and I think this is something that I inherently learned from my mother and her experiences of, you know, my mom

• 32:21Speaker 02

  fled Hungary during the revolution in fifty-six and left everything behind as a very young girl and left her friends behind. She was only told twenty-four hours before she was leaving and fled on the back of a truck, shooting flares, and she was a refugee. She went through Vienna and then she was a foreigner there and made fun of her for being a foreigner and ended up in New Jersey and put herself through art school and became this wonderful, soulful

• 32:53Speaker 02

  person. And all of her perspective, I think, and if you look at her imagery, there's this such a connection to the fragility of life and there's a degree of sadness within that. There's a, there's a, there's a consciousness of that. And I have that. I am I'm saddened by how much sadness there is in the world.

• 33:21Speaker 02

  And then there I was

• 33:25Speaker 02

  with this triumph of a lifetime of working, which was, it was, you know, I, you know, shy ten years of my entire existence on this earth. I had been working professionally. Uh, and I

• 33:45Speaker 02

  was being given all this appreciation, but it was, it was coupled with an understanding of the horror of the world.

• 33:53Josh Horowitz?

  Right. Tied to this very weighty, yes.

• 33:56Speaker 02

  It was this very weighty thing and it was, and it was a huge responsibility in making that film to

• 34:05Speaker 02

  Honor all the loss. How does, how does a, a young man do that? And, and the personal loss for the filmmaker and the man who I portrayed in the memoirs and the each individual and all of that, just on so many levels. And, and then there I was being showered in, in, in appreciation and, and um, it, it was a very strange time, you know? Um, I,

• 34:49Speaker 02

  I don't know if I ever anticipated that level of acknowledgement for my work. Of course, I, I, I couldn't. And I think every actor says, oh, yeah, I'd love to win an Academy Award, you know, I get be appreciated and, but you don't understand what that is and what kind of a, a, a triumph it is, especially if you're, if you're young, I think.

• 35:18Speaker 02

  And to, to

• 35:21Speaker 02

  have so many of my peers even know my name. I mean, Jack Nicholson didn't really know my name before we were up and, you know,

• 35:33Speaker 02

  I was really going over to his house to discuss, what do we do about it? Because we've just embarked on a, it was a, it was, you know, it was, that's a whole other tangent, but you know, like Jack, like saw me one night and he was like, hey, Brody.

• 35:51Josh Horowitz?

  You can call me whatever you like, Jack.

• 35:52Speaker 02

  Whatever you like, boss. But um, it was such, it was such a crazy shift.

• 36:04Speaker 02

  And and really beautiful and and and again, to share that with my parents who

• 36:13Speaker 02

  gave me the space to pursue a dream, which is very hard to do, you know, we we don't come from, you know, come from really modest

• 36:25Speaker 02

  surroundings and, you know, they're they're both educated, they they would have, you know, but but they just understood me and and and allowed me to find my way and

• 36:41Speaker 02

  it was the beginning of really feeling like I I was on track and

• 36:51Speaker 02

  prior to that, I never knew if I'd get another job. I mean, it was really, I was a working actor and done a lot of work and and and worked with wonderful people and had wonderful education in in in film, but I I never knew and and actually, after the pianist, I didn't get a job for a year. After the Academy Award, I didn't work for a year.

• 37:16Josh Horowitz?

  Was the next thing you did the Village?

• 37:18Speaker 02

  Yes, yes.

• 37:19Josh Horowitz?

  Which also, can I can I just say, because I I I next kind of wanted to segue into what I would call, quote unquote, your genre work, which like, The Village fits in there, Chapel Weight fits into there. I'm a big fan of of all these things. Splice, I'm a big fan of King Kong, um, Predators, we've talked about, I remember years ago, um, and clearly, based on on some of your early experiences, you talked about watching Shaw Brothers, you know, uh, martial arts films as a kid, I I take it you were a genre film fan?

• 37:46Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 37:47Josh Horowitz?

  Um, do you approach things? Do you think about genre when you're doing something? Applying it to Chapel Weight, for instance, or for any of these, like, does the genre trappings affect a performance? Do you know, like, I'm in this type of movie, so I need to act in this style?

• 38:03Speaker 02

  That's a really great question. Uh, that's a great question. Um.

• 38:09Speaker 02

  I guess on certain days, certain days, you, you feel you can't escape that you're in a genre. Right, you look to your left, you look to your right, and you're like, I'm in a And Josh, whether you want it or not, it is affecting your acting. Yeah. It is, you know, you, you are having some really fake-looking blood oozing out of something, or you, you know, it is a bit arched, the moment that you, you, and that you have to swim through. Uh, but I, I have a sense of humor with it, and I think some people have a hard time

• 38:52Speaker 02

  differentiating, you know, it's a, it's like, I'm I have to become a painting, right, a part of a painting, and, uh, each one of these journeys is a different style. And I don't want, and even, and I do paint, and even as a painter, I have styles that I gravitate to, that I love, but I'm constantly experimenting, and I'm constantly trying new things. And I think even in the art world, when you see an artist, you wanna go, ah, that is a Picasso.

• 39:36Speaker 02

  That is a Monet. Right. That is a Basquiat. But if Basquiat just did some really cool collage, and you were like, that's a Basquiat, and be like, well, that's not a Basquiat. And there was no little cool sketching or oil stick work, and nothing that you recognize as a Basquiat.

• 40:02Speaker 02

  You got to allow the person to paint it.

• 40:07Speaker 02

  And you may not love that painting. But it is a creative journey, right?

• 40:13Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 40:13Speaker 02

  It is to share, but it is also for me to go on. And I love to experiment with the work. And I feel like that is part of the joy of being an actor. Of not only finding diverse roles and becoming people that are very different from you and your set of experiences, but to, you know, work with, you know,

• 40:42Speaker 02

  Ken Loach and work with Dario Argento, you know? And I think both of those are meaningful to me and both entirely different processes. And I, I, I love it. I love that. And, but I don't know if that translates.

• 41:04Speaker 02

  It may be you because you, you see so much and you're, you're, you have an understanding of, of the process and people's work. And, but I think, um, I don't know if I confuse, I feel like I've confused a lot of people with my choices. They, why would you do that? And I, I, I do love the, I'd love to experiment with the work and I, and I like to take some risk with it and, um,

• 41:39Speaker 02

  and just go there and see what happens. Sometimes it's not great what happens, but, but sometimes it is, it is really great fun. And, uh,

• 41:48Josh Horowitz?

  Without the rest of the

• 41:49Speaker 02

  I grew up on, I grew up on going to see, you know, Nightmare on Elm Street and

• 41:54Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 41:54Speaker 02

  It was in the theater and, uh, yeah.

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• 43:08Josh Horowitz?

  On a somewhat trivial note, but it's important to me because I'm a nerd at heart and I grew up with this stuff. And even many years ago, I remember talking about this with you. One of the few things you haven't been in is a big comic book movie. And it's just part and parcel of the conversation of pop culture in the last 10 years, especially as it's dominated everything. You told me once you had at least some conversation with Chris Nolan about Joker. Do you recall that?

• 43:32Speaker 02

  Yeah. Do I remember that?

• 43:34Josh Horowitz?

  I'm just curious, like, how far you... Did you have a take? Like, did you have, like, an interpretation? You were ready to...

• 43:39Speaker 02

  Oh, no, I wasn't. I wasn't close. I mean, I don't, I, you know... It was a role that I felt very suited to do. I mean, I think Heath did such an remarkable job in that movie. And it was indelible. And such beautiful work. And, you know, but any actor, any actor who has a degree of edge and would like to delve into a dark character like that, especially with a filmmaker like Christopher Nolan, who brought such a profound vision, and nobody was doing that at the time.

• 44:23Speaker 02

  There was nothing like that. So it was the difference of...

• 44:32Speaker 02

  Are you gonna do a big

• 44:34Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 44:34Speaker 02

  studio movie and play a comic book hero or villain, whatever you're suited for, uh, if you're lucky.

• 44:43Speaker 02

  But it's really broad and broad and not necessarily the, the, the, the way that

• 44:52Speaker 02

  would, uh, feel fulfilling.

• 44:54Josh Horowitz?

  Right. This, this checked all the boxes. This was everything.

• 44:58Speaker 02

  Yes, and, and

• 45:03Speaker 02

  Christopher Nolan's work and, and what he gave actors in that was such a revelation that, that it was, you know, mind blowing to see. And so of course, at that point, you know, uh, that would, that would have been such a dream role, you know, and, and I'm sure it was, but he

• 45:23Josh Horowitz?

  Does, does it, does it feel like unfinished business at all? Again, it's weird to like paint it with a broad brush because you just, you just described it well. It's like, it's really not about a comic book genre. It's about like the opportunity to work with like a specific

• 45:33Speaker 02

  Like I said, if, if, if I was presented with an opportunity to play an interesting character with a filmmaker that um, elevated me and gave me space to do something vastly different. In that world, it sounds amazing.

• 45:55Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 45:55Speaker 02

  You have this wonderful machine. If you're, you know, we're talking about Marvel movie, you have, you know, Disney and Marvel and all these, you know, giants that know all the technique and tools and

• 46:11Speaker 02

  stand behind these movies and, you know, they, they've, they've done something that, that I think is, is, uh, enormous.

• 46:23Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 46:23Speaker 02

  It's enormous. And, and people love them. And so who wouldn't want to be a part of something that is beloved and, and, you know, but it would, it would take

• 46:35Speaker 02

  A tone that I related to wouldn't be just to, you know.

• 46:41Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah. This time is already flying by. So there are at least two other subjects I want to hit before I release you back into your life, sir. We barely talked chapel weight, but this this subject actually kind of relates a little bit into it, which is I asked you for a comfort movie. I've been asking everybody for comfort movies in the last year. You mentioned The Man of the Hour at the center of this. This is a great one. It is a bizarrely comforting movie, even for me, even if it's one of the darkest, creepiest movies ever.

• 47:08Speaker 02

  I thought you'd appreciate it.

• 47:09Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, it's the best. So rewatchable, always. You get sucked in. Tell us your comfort movie, Adrian, and why you chose it.

• 47:17Speaker 02

  Well, I thought it was such an interesting question because I do know people who

• 47:23Speaker 02

  resort to a comfort movie. And

• 47:28Speaker 02

  it's a complex thing for an actor to have a comfort movie. It's a complex thing because it's my work and I, there are so many things that

• 47:39Speaker 02

  go on for me to watch a movie.

• 47:47Speaker 02

  It's rarely comforting.

• 47:52Speaker 02

  It's a lot of work.

• 47:54Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 47:54Speaker 02

  I

• 47:57Speaker 02

  and but I, there are, there are a few that I resort to, but I mentioned that The Steining, for me, is a comfort film. And for many reasons.

• 48:17Speaker 02

  One is that, you know,

• 48:22Speaker 02

  you can appreciate that movie if you've, if you, if you know it well, in, in the background, too. There is a vastness, scope, and

• 48:39Speaker 02

  visually, it's just stunning. Kubrick's work is just incredible. You know, the source material, Stephen King's work is gripping and tormented. And then the acting is impeccable across the board.

• 48:58Speaker 02

  And, you know, know a bit about it. I know, you know, I've done a little research on it. I know the some of the suffering that's gone on to make it and, and, and, and to witness that. Such a privilege. And to see an actor like Jack in his prime.

• 49:19Speaker 02

  And the subtlety. And, and the broadness of his work. It's just meaningful. It's just so meaningful to me. And.

• 49:31Josh Horowitz?

  I think you're right, by the way.

• 49:34Speaker 02

  I played on the projector and it's just, you know, the scope of it is just so powerful.

• 49:42Josh Horowitz?

  Well, it envelops you, right? It is, you know, the cliche of world building. That's what Kubrick does in each of his works. He just like draws you into this just meticulously crafted, absorbing sensory over the music, the from the, from the opening images of the car winding through the road to the, the topiary at the end, you're just like, you are at the overlook, stuck in there with this family. And it's just, I mean, I always say, I love the feeling of like, just being in, in, um, short hands of a filmmaker. And like, in a much more bizarre way, I would say like Wes Anderson shares this, right? Your buddy Wes creates a world that is just meticulous and you are in

• 50:22Josh Horowitz?

  the strongest possible vision and you're not going to be let down. And that's what Kubrick every time does. And to this one, to such great effect and such haunting. And I can't think of a movie that has more dread hanging over it. So I think it's, it's an unusual pick, but I, I, it's a, it's a great pick.

• 50:40Speaker 02

  I could put on just about any Wes Anderson movie and that would be a comfort film easily. Um, uh, and, you know, put on Royal Tannenbaum's and that can be on, you know, you can leave that on quite often. And it's a wonderful film. I just don't throw movies on again and again for the sake of it. I just partially because I don't have time to sit down and be comforted. I have a lot to do.

• 51:07Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 51:07Speaker 02

  I have a lot of burning inside of me that I want to accomplish, so it's hard for me to sit still. But um, I like, um, there are a few films, you know. Godfather two is another one that if I'm on a flight or somewhere that I am, you know, gone through some of my catch up work, my emails and my, you know, reading some scripts that I've forgotten, like I'll, I'll sit down and allow myself to watch and again. And uh, you know, that's comforting.

• 51:42Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 51:42Speaker 02

  It's just comforting.

• 51:44Josh Horowitz?

  Uh, great selections, man. I, I wish we had more time. Hopefully, let's do this again.

• 51:48Speaker 02

  I'd be happy to.

• 51:50Josh Horowitz?

  Because um, thankfully, and if you look at the IMDB, look, you've worked so consistently throughout your career. But right now, you have just a host of projects coming up that I, I could not be more excited for. We alluded to the Lakers project. Uh, you've joined the show that every actor is dying to join in succession. We'll see you on that one soon. I'm fascinated, excited by this Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan murder mystery thing. Uh, it's all happening in the best possible way, man. And just to say, because I know we didn't really give maybe enough love, but I do want to say Chapel Wait on Epics uh, is an exceptional piece of work. It's a, it's based on Stephen King's material. Uh, and it really does create that very holistic world, this, this feeling of dread. And again, you, you deliver as always, a fantastic central performance.

• 52:32Josh Horowitz?

  And um, this has really been a fantastic chat, man. It's been long overdue and I, I really do appreciate the time as always.

• 52:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, I appreciate you and, and uh, you know, keep up doing the great things that you're doing and um, you know, stay positive and focused on it. And I, I, I love your sensibilities, so I'm happy to talk anytime. And yes, I, I briefly just send you off with that, you know, Chapel Wait was just such a

• 52:59Speaker 02

  a pleasure for me, you know, it was, it was very challenging work, but it was such a, a first of all, a gift to delve into the, the work of Stephen King. And I think the Filati brothers did a wonderful interpretation and uh, of that source material of Jerusalem's Lot. And, and that was a real.

• 53:24Speaker 02

  He was a real man, that character, right? And I feel like it's very different from other roles that I've been given an opportunity to play. And I just liked his fortitude and pragmatic approach to things and his measured behavior in an attempt to not get swept away emotionally from all these things, because he had a lot stressing him emotionally.

• 53:51Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, from the get-go, he's dealing with a loss. Yeah.

• 53:55Speaker 02

  And I thought it was really interesting. It's very different from the man. I mean, I aspire to have certain traits like that, but I found it really like a meditation almost to play that guy because he was so driven and tenacious. I would have been long gone. I would have gotten out of that house quickly.

• 54:22Josh Horowitz?

  You and me both.

• 54:23Speaker 02

  Actually, I've been stuck in my house with plenty of ghosts for a long time. But yeah, I don't know. But I really enjoyed playing Charles Boone, and I hope people see it. It'd be really great.

• 54:37Josh Horowitz?

  No, people should check it out. We did an entire long conversation without even mentioning worms coming out of your nose. This might be the first chapel wait conversation that doesn't hit that. But come for the acting and stay for the worm coming out of the nose. Adrian Mann, again, it's been a pleasure, and I hope to talk to you soon.

• 54:52Speaker 02

  You're welcome.

• 54:53Josh Horowitz?

  All right, thanks, buddy.

• 54:54Speaker 02

  You're welcome.

• 54:55Speaker 04

  And so ends another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't prepared to do this by Josh.

• 55:15Speaker 06

  You've got your favorite blanket, a freshly poured drink, and a cold case burning a hole in your streaming queue. You're not just watching true crime, you're running the investigation from the comfort of your couch. Welcome to Murder She Watched, the podcast where we recap, dissect, and slightly overanalyze some of the best and craziest true crime documentaries on our favorite streamers. Did the spouse do it? Why is the shady neighbor wearing leather gloves in July? Why did this guy agree to be interviewed in this documentary? We ask the tough questions that you're often just screaming at your TV. So every week, we break down the twists, red herrings, and absurd documentaries that have kept you up all night.

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