Adrien Brody (born April 14, 1973) is an
American actor. He received widespread recognition and subsequent acclaim after starring in
Roman Polanski's
The Pianist (2002). He is notable as
the youngest actor ever to receive an
Academy Award for Best Actor and the only American actor ever to win a
César Award.
Early life
Brody was born in
Woodhaven, Queens,
New York, the son of
Sylvia Plachy, a photojournalist, and Elliot Brody, a retired history professor and painter.
Brody's father is of Polish-
Jewish descent, and Brody's mother was born in
Budapest, Hungary to a
Catholic father and Jewish mother.
As a child, Brody performed magic shows at children's birthday parties as "The Amazing Adrien".
[The Village Voice] Brody attended
New York's
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (famous as the inspiration for television's
Fame). His parents enrolled him in acting classes to distance him from the dangerous kids with whom he associated.
He attended summer camp at Long Lake Camp for the Arts in the Adirondacks in upstate New York.
In 1992, Brody was seriously hurt in a
motorcycle accident in which he flew over a car and crashed head-first into a crosswalk. He spent months recuperating. He has broken his nose three times doing stunts. His nose was broken once again during the filming of
Summer of Sam.
Career
Taking acting classes as a youth, by age thirteen, he had done an
off-Broadway play and a PBS-TV-movie. Brody hovered on the brink of stardom, receiving an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his role in the 1998 film
Restaurant and later praise for his roles in
Spike Lee's
Summer of Sam and
Terrence Malick's
The Thin Red Line. He received widespread recognition when he was cast as the lead in
Roman Polanski's
The Pianist (2002). To prepare for the role, Brody withdrew for months, gave up his apartment and his car, learned how to play
Chopin on the piano, and lost 29 lbs (13 kg). The role won him an
Academy Award for Best Actor, making him, at 29, the youngest actor ever to win the award, and to date the only winner under the age of 30. He also won a
César Award for his performance, becoming the only American actor to win one. Throughout his career, Brody has been compared to
Al Pacino for his unique looks and
method acting. He is also widely known for giving presenter
Halle Berry a back-breaking kiss before accepting his Best Actor Oscar, and as the spokesman for fashion brand
Ermenegildo Zegna.
Brody appeared on
Saturday Night Live on May 10, 2003, his first TV work, but he was banned from the show after giving an improvised introduction while wearing faux
dreadlocks for
Jamaican
reggae musical guest
Sean Paul (the show's producer,
Lorne Michaels, is notorious for hating unscripted performances). However, the unscripted intro remains in reruns of the episode. Other TV appearances include NBC's
The Today Show and on MTV's
Punk'd after being tricked by
Ashton Kutcher.
After
The Pianist Brody appeared in four very different movies. He played Noah Percy, a mentally disabled young man, in the movie
The Village, by
M. Night Shyamalan, shell-shocked war veteran Jack Starks in
The Jacket, writer
Jack Driscoll in the 2005
King Kong remake, and father-to-be Peter Whitman in
The Darjeeling Limited by
Wes Anderson.
King Kong was a box office success; it grossed $550 million worldwide and is Brody's most successful movie to date in monetary terms. He also played a detective in
Hollywoodland. He has also appeared in
Diet Coke commercials and
Tori Amos' music video for "
A Sorta Fairytale".
On January 5, 2006, Brody confirmed speculation that he indeed was interested and very willing to play the role of
The Joker in 2008's
The Dark Knight. However, Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. eventually decided to cast
Heath Ledger as The Joker.
He was also in talks with Paramount to play
Spock in
J. J. Abrams Star Trek XI, but it ultimately went to
Zachary Quinto.
[[1]] Brody also starred as a con man named "Bloom" in
Rian Johnson's
The Brothers Bloom, released in May 2009.
Brody will star in
Splice, a science fiction film directed by Vincenzo Natali that is slated for a 2009 release. He will also play the lead role of Royce in
Predators which will be directed by
Nimrod Antal and produced by
Robert Rodriguez.
Personal life
In May of 2009, Adrien Brody and
Elsa Pataky ended their two-year relationship.
Filmography
