CinemaAdrien Brody was inspired by his own grandfather to create a character in The BrutalistIn an interview with the A24 podcast, the actor recalled his grandfather, a Hungarian immigrant in post-World War II America, who was rejected because of his accentBy Editorial Staff

The well-commented work of Adrien Brody in The Brutalist (2024) – which earned him a Golden Globe for best actor – is inspired by a story very close to the actor’s. To play the fictional Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor László Tóth during his journey as an immigrant to the United States, he was inspired by his own grandfather.

Descendant of Hungarians and Poles, the actor knows firsthand the difficulties of being in a foreign land. During participation in the A24 Podcastthe actor spoke with Jason Schwartzman about the process of building the character and revealed a strong influence of his maternal grandfather in the process.

“My mother has a recording — I don’t know if she recorded it or if my grandfather recorded it — but I remember him trying to get work,” he said. “He also aspired to be an actor, but he was trying to get work and he had a recording of it and I listened to this recording and he sounds even more extreme than his accent. László. He introduced himself — my mother’s maiden name is Plachy — and he said ‘Plachy‘ and said again and ‘I would like to apply for the job’. Then you could hear the pause on the other end and he’d say, ‘Yeah, oh, okay, thanks, thanks,’ and you could hear the rejection and he’d call again, someone else, and I actually remember what it was like a fight.”

The actor described his grandfather as “very charismatic” and “handsome”, and attributed the rejections to the accent he heard on the phone. He, however, shared fond memories with relatives who came from Europe: “We were such a close-knit family. My mother was an only child, I am an only child, my grandparents were from the old world. Maybe because they sounded so distinctly different, it impressed me even more than anyone else.”

“No one sounded like them; no one was Hungarian. So, being able to have that as a kind of guiding light in [‘The Brutalist’]it’s really special. And represent that, because I feel like that’s such a universal thing — there are so many people of any background — we’re all descendants of immigrants. There was a lot of fighting. No matter how you slice it, no matter who it is; There is a lot of sacrifice,” he concluded.