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Quotes
It
made me have a much greater understanding of loss, of loneliness, and
the level of intense tragedy that so many people have experienced in
this world, I take a lot less for granted. It's really valuable to gain
that, especially at a young age.
I
think people go to movies and they know too much about the movie before
they go into it, whether it's the advertising or they're reading too
many stories about it. And they know all the essential elements of the
film before they even go into it. And I think that sabotages a thriller.
I'd
like to do, you know, a lighter film with a beautiful girl and an
interesting relationship developing. Humor and slapstick. It's all
gravy.
I'm
sure it would be fun annihilating all my enemies too. I'm not really
drawn to that, but as a character I can see it being a lot of fun.
It's
interesting because you feel on the one hand, we understand people from
what the say, and in another sense, you'd think that you'd be able to
convey more through dialogue.
The
media gets a bad rap sometimes. But my mom is a photojournalist, so I
see how much she struggles and how under-appreciated she is.
War
is chaotic and when you start having a larger scale film and you have a
lot of safety protocols and choreography, I would imagine it becomes
more difficult.
You'd
be surprised how difficult it is relinquish a cell phone.
It
just felt like it was the unconventional choice. It was the kind of role
that I would have taken prior to the Academy Awards. A lot of actors
tend to wait for the perfect role. And that perfect role may never come.
I don't want to start changing the way that I view things and become
precious.
I
was a wild, mischievous kid and I had tremendous imagination. Any
experience I had, I'd try to reenact it. I always had an actor within
me.
I
think to be a well-rounded person, you have to experience good and bad,
wonderful moments and pain. You need to meet people who have no exposure
to kindness, who lack any opportunity and have no way out--like the
homeless, the mentally ill--and you've got to learn empathy for them.
I'm
running around in front of a green screen screaming, Where's the monkey?
Where's the monkey?
I
identified a lot with that character, I was exorcising the demons that
I'd has as a hoody kid in Queens, where you hold your own or wither. So
my character out-hustled the hustle.
My
dad told me, 'It takes fifteen years to be an overnight success,' and it
took me seventeen and a half years.
There's
no comparison to what Wladyslaw Szpilman went through and the suffering
that people during the Holocaust, or nations afflicted with famine are
going through, but it gave me a much greater understanding of that. And
you can't act that. I take the work very seriously.
We
were shooting a scene and he's like: 'Adrien, I need you to climb up the
building. And I want you to go up to the roof and I want you to climb
out the window. And I want you to hang and they're going to shoot at
you. And I want you to slide off the building and hold on to the gutter
and then you're going to fall,' And I said, 'Has anyone tried this
before?' And he said, 'Hollywood actors! Come on, I show you, I show
you.' And he runs up the building, sixty-eight years old, climbs out the
window and hangs from the window, slides down the roof of the building,
hangs from the gutter, jumps down to the ground, brushes himself off and
he said, 'There, somebody did it. Now do it.'
I
was an amazing Adrien. I may still be at times. In retrospect, I see
that was my first performance. And you know a lot about magic is not
just the trick, it's the pattern. It's the delivery. It's the
presentation. And this is why you're going to be amazed.
He
wasn't easy on me, ever. He wasn't particularly kind to me, but he
wasn't - he was never disrespectful regarding the work. I grew. I'm
stronger, I'm tougher from Roman. I'm tougher. I'm not harder, I'm just
tougher.
It's
interesting, winning an Academy Award as a young man...life-changing,
but I'm just me within that. It's been very helpful for my career, but
I'm trying to stay on the path I was on before.
Those
situations are very challenging, emotionally and psychologically, to
find yourself in a confined space like that. I thought it would be
interesting. It was very painful and I kind of encouraged that pain. I
spent time in an isolation tank - lots of time - and I would let them
leave me in the jacket and leave me in the drawer for a while.
I'm
not the kind of person to deliberately behave differently for the sake
of behaving differently, but there are certain things that you have to
kind of be true to and sacrifice your own freedom at that time to do.
I've
never taken a role for money. I felt it would be wrong - not necessarily
a career decision - just wrong.
I've
always wanted to do something like King Kong. It's a phenomenal role
that any actor would kill for. I've been looking for this kind of iconic
leading man guy for years, but they are hard to find.
They
compare me to Al
Pacino - I admire and appreciate the comparison. But, really, I'd
rather be thought of as 'the first Adrien Brody', than 'the new Al
Pacino'!
I
hung out with troublemakers. I was a sensitive teenage boy, who luckily
had kind parents, but I lived in a not-so-kind neighborhood. In order to
deal with it, I toughened up and became more of a hoodier kid. It was
never malicious, that's not in my nature, but I was much harder than I
am today. Had I not had parents I could talk to, it would have got out
of hand.
I
liked it instantly. Aside from being one of only three boys in a class
of 20 girls - the odds were fantastic - I felt I was good at it, it was
creative. I had been encouraged by my parents to be outspoken and free,
so I was pretty much disinhibited. It was a good outlet for me.
It
kind of felt like a soldier coming home after giving his soul and then
not being appreciated. At 24, it sucked; it was embarrassing because I
would assume if an actor was cut out of a movie of that nature with a
director of that caliber it must be as a result of a flaw in the actor's
work. Not as a result of a director changing his vision. But you pick
yourself up. The advantage of being a bigger name is it costs them too
much money to cut you out of a movie.
I
suppose that means I'm not easy to define. But that's good, isn't it? In
this town they love to define you to death.
Everything
is harder than you would imagine, including success. You might think
it's lovely to be famous, but if your process is to constantly observe
people and human behavior and yet everyone is observing you all the
time, how do you do what you do? I never saw that coming as an
obstacle."
I
don't think anyone saw me as the heroic leading man before I won an
Oscar. I'm not sure anyone does now, outside of Peter Jackson.
I
would have loved to make a lot of money as an actor. I would have loved
to not live in a shitty little apartment for most of the time I've been
in Los Angeles. I would have loved to have nice things and bought new
cars, but it's painful for me to do a bad role. Personally painful. You
feel like you're lying to everybody. It's just not worth it.
I
grew up without a lot of money and my parents grew up with far less
money. And that's kept me in line. Really in line.
You
get a little fame as an actor and suddenly people ask your opinion on
world politics and why we're in Iraq. Why is my opinion any more valid
than anyone else's? My opinion doesn't count more just because I'm
famous now.
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