Adrien Brody says he found inspiration for The Brutalist’s Oscar-winning role from childhood as son of Hungarian refugee | Hollywood

Adrien Brody won his second Best Actor Oscar on Sunday as the actor took home the coveted prize for his performance in Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist. The film saw Adrien play a Hungarian architect in The Brutalist. In a statement, the actor said that he was inspired for the role by his growing-up years as the son of a Hungarian refugee. (Also read: Adrien Brody on his journey from The Pianist to The Brutalist: ‘I yearn to find roles that speak to the human condition’)

Adrien Brody played László Tóth in The Brutalist, a story about the architect’s life in America after World War II. The actor has been praised for the depth of his performance. Brody had earlier won the Best Actor Oscar 22 years ago for playing Polish-Jewish composer and Holocaust survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman in The Pianist.

Adrien Brody on The Brutalist

Regarding the two characters’ similarities and differences, Brody says, “For me to inhabit László Tóth, I had to build a character based on a foundation of truth. I pulled from two profound influences in my life – growing up the son of a Hungarian refugee, and representing Wladislav Szpilman’s memoirs as recounted in The Pianist; although they are two entirely different characters, the months spent researching and connecting with Szpilman‘s past, and the horrors of that era, still haunt me and offered an emotional understanding to the harrowing experiences and loss that inform László’s journey coming to America as a refugee.”

Adrien Brody’s mother, photographer Sylvia Plachy, was born in Budapest and left Hungary for the US after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Brody was born to her and professor Elliot Brody in New York in 1973.

Adrien Brody’s Oscar win

Brody called out antisemitism and racism during his speech. “I’m here once again to represent the lingering traumas and the repercussions of war and systematic oppression and of antisemitism and racism and othering,” he said. “I pray for a healthier and a happier and a more inclusive world. And I believe if the past can teach us anything, it’s a reminder to not let hate go unchecked.”

Brody thanked his partner, Georgina Chapman, who not only “reinvigorated my own self worth, but my sense of value and my values.” He also mentioned both of Chapman’s two children, who she shares with disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who is currently detained while awaiting a retrial on sex crimes charges in New York.

(With AP inputs)