Birthday:
14 April 1973, New York City, New York, USA
Height:
6' 1" (1.85 m)
Biography
The son of Hungarian-born photographer Sylvia Plachy
and retired history professor Elliot Brody, Adrien Brody grew up an only
child in the Woodhaven section of Queens, New York, where he
accompanied his mother on assignments for the Village Voice. He credits
her with making him feel comfortable in front of the camera. He attended
the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and LaGuardia High School for the
Performing Arts in New York.
Despite a strong performance in The Thin Red Line (1998), time constraints forced the director to edit out much of Adrien's part. In spite of his later work with Spike Lee and Barry Levinson, he never became the star many expected he would become until Roman Polanski called on him to play a celebrated Jewish pianist in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. He pulled off a brilliant performance in The Pianist (2002), drawing on the heritage and rare dialect of his Polish grandmother, as well as his father, who lost family members during the Holocaust, and his mother, who fled Communist Hungary as a child during the 1956 uprising against the Soviet Union
Career
Taking acting classes as a youth, by age thirteen, he appeared in an Off-Broadway play and a PBS television film.[9] 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, was left by his then-girlfriend,[9] 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.
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 films. In Dummy (released in 2003 but originally shot in 2000, just prior to his work in The Pianist)
he portrayed Steven Schoichet, a socially awkward aspiring
ventriloquist in pursuit of a love interest (his employment counsellor).
He learned ventriloquism and puppetry for the role (under the tutelage
of actor/ventriloquist Alan Semok) convincingly enough to perform all of
the voice stunts and puppet manipulation live on set in real time, with
no subsequent post dubbing. He played Noah Percy, a mentally disabled
young man, in the film 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 both a critical and box office success; it grossed $550 million
worldwide and is Brody's most successful film to date in monetary terms.
Additionally, Brody played a detective in Hollywoodland. He has also appeared in Diet Coke and Schweppes commercials as well as Tori Amos' music video for "A Sorta Fairytale".
On January 5, 2006, Brody confirmed speculation that he was interested in playing the role of The Joker in 2008's The Dark Knight. However, Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. decided instead to cast Heath Ledger in the role.[10] He was also in talks with Paramount to play Spock in J. J. Abrams Star Trek XI, but it ultimately went to Zachary Quinto.[11][12] Brody starred with Mark Ruffalo as gentleman con men in Rian Johnson's The Brothers Bloom, released in May 2009.[13] In 2010, he starred in Splice, a science fiction film written and directed by Vincenzo Natali. Originally a Sundance film, Splice was adopted by Dark Castle Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros. Most recently, he played the star role of Royce in Predators (a sequel to the original Predator), directed by Nimród Antal and produced by Robert Rodriguez.[14]
In 2011, Brody starred in a Stella Artois beer ad called "Crying Beans[Heinz]," that premiered right after half-time of the Super Bowl XLV as part of Stella's "She Is a Thing of Beauty” campaign.
On January 16, 2012, Brody made his runway debut as a model for Prada Men Fall/Winter 2012 show.[15] Also in January, he was named ambassador for the Gillette Fusion ProGuide Styler which the company began marketing the following month.[16]
Personal life
In 1992, Brody was seriously hurt in a motorcycle accident in which he flew over a car and crashed head-first into a crosswalk.[17] He spent months recuperating. He has broken his nose three times doing stunts; the most recent was during the filming of Summer of Sam.[18]
Brody began dating Spanish actress Elsa Pataky in 2006.[19] For Pataky's 31st birthday in July 2007, Brody purchased her a 19th-century castle in New York state. Brody and Pataky were featured at their New York home in a 35-page spread for HELLO! magazine in October 2008.[20] The pair broke up in 2009.[21]
In 2010, Brody sued the "Giallo" filmmakers, alleging that they failed to pay his full salary.[22]
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | New York Stories | Mel | |
| 1991 | The Boy Who Cried Bitch | Eddie | |
| 1993 | King of the Hill | Lester Silverstone | |
| 1994 | Angels in the Outfield | Danny Hemmerling | |
| Natural Born Killers | One of Gale's cameramen | ||
| 1996 | Nothing to Lose | Ray Diglovanni | aka Ten Benny |
| Solo | Dr. Bill Stewart, Solo's Designer | ||
| Bullet | Ruby | ||
| 1997 | The Last Time I Committed Suicide | Ben | |
| Six Ways to Sunday | Arnie Finklestein | ||
| 1998 | The Thin Red Line | Cpl. Fife | |
| The Undertaker's Wedding | Mario Bellini | ||
| Restaurant | Chris Calloway | Nominated – Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Male | |
| 1999 | Oxygen | Harry | |
| Liberty Heights | Van Kurtzman | ||
| Summer of Sam | Richie Tringale | ||
| 2000 | Bread and Roses | Sam Shapiro | |
| Harrison's Flowers | Kyle Morris | ||
| 2001 | The Affair of the Necklace | Count Nicolas De La Motte | |
| Love the Hard Way | Jack Grace | VFAA Award for Best Actor | |
| 2002 | Dummy | Stevens | |
| The Pianist | Władysław Szpilman |
|
|
| 2003 | The Singing Detective | First Hood | |
| 2004 | The Village | Noah Percy | |
| 2005 | The Jacket | Jack Starks | |
| King Kong | Jack Driscoll | ||
| 2006 | Hollywoodland | Louis Simo | |
| 2007 | The Tehuacan Project | Narrator | |
| Manolete (The Passion Within) | Manuel Rodríguez Sánchez "Manolete" | ||
| The Darjeeling Limited | Peter Whitman | ||
| 2008 | The Brothers Bloom | Bloom | |
| Cadillac Records | Leonard Chess | Black Reel Award for Best Ensemble Cast | |
| 2009 | Splice | Clive Nicoli | |
| Giallo | Inspector Enzo Lavia | Also producer | |
| Fantastic Mr. Fox | Rickity | Voice | |
| 2010 | High School | Psycho Ed | |
| The Experiment | Travis | ||
| A Matador's Mistress | Manolete | ||
| Predators | Royce | ||
| 2011 | Wrecked | Man | Also executive producer |
| Midnight in Paris | Salvador Dalí | Nominated - Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Best Ensemble Cast Nominated - Chlotrudis Award for Best Cast Nominated - Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Ensemble Acting Nominated - San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Performance by an Ensemble Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture |
|
| Detachment | Henry Barthes | Also executive producer | |
| 2012 | Back to 1942 | Theodore White | |
| 2013 | InAPPropriate Comedy | Flirty Harry | Post-production |
| The Third Person | N/A | Filming | |
| Motor City | N/A |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Home at Last | Billy | TV movie |
| Annie McGuire | Lenny McGuire | Episode: "Annie and the Brooklyn Bridge" | |
| 1994 | Rebel Highway | Skinny | Episode: "Jailbreakers" |
| 1996 | Bullet Hearts | Chuckie Bragg | TV movie |
Video games
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie | Jack Driscoll |
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