While doing press for “The Brutalist,” Adrien Brody has spoken about his mother, photographer Sylvia Plachy, and how her life’s journey is so relevant to the critically acclaimed film, in which he plays the fictional László Tóth, a Hungarian Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor who comes to America to start a new life. And yet it was a moment in which Brody thanked his Jewish dad, Elliot Brody, that was perhaps the most moving part of his acceptance speech for Best Male Actor in a Motion Picture at the Golden Globes last night.
“Oh my goodness, you always hold me up,” Brody told his parents, who were looking up at him lovingly from their table at the ceremony. “I often credit my mother for her influence on me as an artist,” he said, “but Dad, you are the foundation of this family, and all this love that I receive flows back to you,” he shared, his voice cracking with tears.
“The character’s journey is very reminiscent of my mother’s and my ancestral journey of fleeing the horrors of war and coming to this great country, and you know, I owe so much to my mother, my grandparents for their sacrifice,” he continued. “And although I do not know how to fully express all the challenge that you have faced and experienced and the many people who have struggled to immigrate to this country, I hope that this work stands to lift you up and to give you a voice.”
He ended by telling the crowd that he would “cherish this moment forever.”
Elliot Brody is the descendant of Polish Jews, something that Brody discussed when he was doing press for a different Holocaust movie, 2002’s “The Pianist,” in which he played the very real Polish Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, and which earned him an Academy Award before he turned 30.
Elliot is a retired public school history teacher who “taught himself to paint like an Old Master,” and Adrien shared that his perspective informed that role: “I remember saying to my father, who is a history teacher, that young Americans are extremely fortunate not to have experienced war on their soil, because the repercussions of World War II are still very visible in Warsaw,” he told the LA Times. “Then the World Trade Center was attacked. I went down there with my mom, who is a photojournalist and took pictures. The emotions I felt — the sadness, anger and the fear from this destructive inhumanity — were very similar to what I’d been experiencing playing Szpilman.”
In the Village Voice, Plachy, who was for many years a photographer for the paper, recalled attending a screening of “The Pianist” with Elliot and Adrien, and that Elliot, who had been holding back tears the whole movie, started weeping when the crowd stood for a standing ovation. Adrien, seeing his dad, a retired professor and painter, visibly moved, started crying as well.
Adrien recently shared that one of the movies he is most proud of, 2011’s “Detachment,” in which he plays a substitute teacher at a Queens school, was in a way a tribute to his dad, and why the movie resonated with him so much.
At the Golden Globes, Adrien’s parents and his wife, designer Georgina Chapman, were invited to join in Brody’s post-award ET interview, in which he discussed why “The Brutalist” felt like it was paying homage to his mom, sharing the Plachy “left Hungary in 1956, during the revolution, and immigrated to New York, during the revolution” (a similar story to fellow Hungarian Jew Agnes Keleti, who fled to Australia and Israel that same year, and who passed away last week). He shared that playing a man who fled Hungary and pursued a life in America, who also went on his own artistic journey, felt very much like walking in his mother’s footsteps.
Brody also shared how he witnessed his grandparents struggle. “My grandfather in particular… it was hard for him being a foreigner,” he shared, along with how meaningful it was “for me to be able to speak to their sacrifice and resilience and hopefulness,” adding that he was thankful to be able to share their experience and that of so many immigrants in this country. “What they’ve achieved by my mother’s own hard work and tenacity, and my father’s love and to give me the firm footing I have on this earth… I’m so grateful,” he shared.
Plachy was asked what she thought of the film and shared she was moved deeply. “I thought it was one of the best films I’ve ever seen,” she said. “I was immersed in it, and I got lost in it, and I had to go see it two more times.”
Elliot, who was watching his son lovingly from the side, contributed to the interview too, sharing a joke when his son refused to speculate about what happened to the character of Harrison after the film ended: “When Adrien finishes his career as an actor, he’s going to the diplomatic service,” he jested sweetly.
It was another Jewish star who presented Brody with the award — Gal Gadot. On the screen, it was shared that Gadot “represented Israel in the Miss Universe pageant in 2004.”
“In a night that’s given us some amazing moments, let’s continue with the amazingness,” the “Wonder Woman” and future “Snow White” star, who presented the award with Edgar Ramírez (“Emilia Pérez,” “Dr. Death”), said before reading the nominees.
Gadot did not wear a yellow ribbon for the hostages at the event, but it was reported that she prominently wore a yellow diamond ring in their honor.
On the day of the awards, Gadot shared a message on her Instagram about the newly released video of hostage Liri Elbag.
“On a personal level, as I prepare for another festive and moving night, my heart is heavy, my soul is anguished about the fact that the hostages are still there,” she shared in Hebrew. “Every day that goes by without a deal endangers their lives. I cannot not think about their families waiting for them, counting the hours, minutes and hopes. They have to come home. We all deserve to see them come home alive.”
