The Brutalist gave Adrien Brody ‘perspective’ on family’s immigrant experience

Watch: The Brutalist star Adrien Brody and his co-stars discuss the film

In The Brutalist director Brady Corbet shines a light on the immigrant experience in a way that gave lead actor Adrien Brody new means to connect with, and understand, his own family history as Hungarian Jews, he tells Yahoo UK.

The 3 hours 38 minute epic examines the way in which immigrants can be used and abused by those in positions of power through character László Tóth, a Hungarian Jewish architect escaping the horrors of the Holocaust in order to chase the American Dream. During his journey he meets millionaire Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr. (Guy Pearce) who hires the architect to build a great structure for him, only to treat him appallingly throughout and yet demand his unyielding service.

Brody took some inspiration from his relatives when shaping his portrayal of László, sharing with Yahoo UK: "I think the hardships that my grandparents and my mother endured, fleeing war-torn Europe and coming to America, definitely informed a lot in my understanding of the character. And I guess [I gained] a respect and sensitivity to that overarching theme that many, many people and their ancestral struggle have affected their lives.

"This yearning for finding home and being included, these are all themes that I think are very universal longings and quite relevant.

"But I feel grateful to understand it and it's also given me a great deal of perspective and gratitude for my own life and what's been presented to me. [There are] opportunities, just [by] being born in America that would have been substantially harder, even just pursuing what I would like to do."

A 'universal' theme

The Brutalist touches on themes that continue to be relevant, even if the story is set in 1947 there is a lot of László's experience of relocating and finding his feet in a foreign country —one that doesn't welcome people like him— that could be applied to modern day. The immigration crisis continues to be a hot button issue used in political debate that, more often than not, decry the movement of people seeking asylum both legally and illegally.

Reflecting on the film's approach to the subject, Brody says: "The world has always been complex but there's a lot of hardship that we're seeing and I think when you have an opportunity to tell a film that references tremendous wrongs, and injustice, and mistakes of the past you hope that it can find relevance and can serve as a tool for us to grow and improve, and not allow history to repeat itself.

"So, of course, I think it's a very relevant film about intolerance and racism, anti-semitism, and also a need to support artistic yearnings and creativity. I think we live in a world where we've got a lot of things coming at us, a lot of frivolity, a lot of superficial stuff that is noisy and interferes with our ability to perceive beauty in a way that may have been easier in the past to discern.

"I like to stand up for that, and I like to be a part of a film and a journey that speaks to all of those things and what we have to continue to fight for."

Pearce feels similarly to his co-star, as he adds: "Immigration is only becoming a bigger and bigger subject constantly, in more and more places around the world.

"And the different ways in which different countries, and different governments, and different societies will continue to accept or don't accept immigration, is a pretty hot topic. So that's something that I think people can connect to in a contemporary audience."

Creating characters

Both Pearce and Felicity Jones, who plays László's wife Erzsébet, describe Brody as being a dedicated co-star and a delight to work with.

"He's very so dedicated," Pearce says. "I mean, he's so good for starters so there's that. He's really committed, but [Felicity] was talking about how he's got a good radar for the truth. It's pretty impressive and he's just an amazing looking guy as well, you sort of can't take your eyes off him."

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Jones adds: "He's not scared to to be very committed to that. We would keep going until you get it working and he's got a kind of sixth sense for it, for what feels genuine and what you create together. But he just has a wonderful naturalism as well."

The pressure might be mostly on Brody's shoulders as László but Pearce and Jones make remarkable scene partners, embodying their respective characters completely — both the good and the bad aspects of them.

Pearce's Harrison, in particular, is a repugnant man who thinks nothing of mistreating László for his own gain, in a way his character is representative of the way in which societies can use or be dismissive towards the pain and suffering of immigrants. It was a character that Pearce relished playing precisely because of how dark and gritty a character he is.

"It was great, to be honest. It wasn't great playing that aspect of him it was just great playing such a well defined character," Pearce explains. "And an interesting character who exhibits so many different facets of struggle and confidence, and lack of confidence etc.

"So there was great conflicting things going on, even when I read the script I could see that in this man. It was a really delicious character to play so I loved it. Didn't love him necessarily, but loved the job."

If Harrison is a destructive force in László's life then Erzsébet is the anchor keeping him afloat in a sea of uncertainty, and Jones says it was this aspect of the character that appealed.

"I felt like Erzsébet just had this intensity to her," Jones says. "She's someone who's been through a lot of trauma and you see that manifested physically but also mentally and emotionally, you can see in some ways she's decided to leave the past in the past and she's very focused on forward momentum.

"And when she gets to America she wants to do whatever it takes to make their lives work, to the point of taking a job that perhaps isn't something she'd ideally want to do. But she's extremely pragmatic and she's finding in the end that she has this incredible strength and focus, and ability to be incredibly truthful in the face of corrupt power and wealth."

The Oscars race

The film has been gaining huge momentum in the lead up to the Oscars, with the film and Brody the current frontrunners to win big this awards season including at the Baftas. It already did so at the Golden Globes this year, with Brody admitting in his acceptance speech for Best Actor that it was something he thought he "wouldn't be awarded" anymore in his career.

When asked about why he felt this way, Brody says: "I'm very grateful for this moment. It's been a long, wonderful journey, but it's been a long journey and it's challenging to find work that is deeply inspiring and with a breadth and vastness of storytelling such as The Brutalist.

"Not only for myself, but for other wonderful actors. They're just infrequent and to have an opportunity like this, and then for it to be received with such respect and support and recognition from my peers and my industry, critics and people with a voice that I admire, I'm profoundly grateful for it."

Pearce and Jones agree, with the latter sharing: "You don't even think about these things, you're so focused when you're making something and trying to do the best that you can and then as you get into these awards you do start to get quite obsessed with it.

"I think it's actually really important for films like these because the awards bring so much attention, which means ultimately more people will see the film, which is fantastic."

The Brutalist premieres in UK cinemas on Friday, 24 January.