For The Brutalist, Adrien Brody drew inspiration from his mother

23:40Adrien Brody: What The Brutalist adds to the conversation around immigration

Adrien Brody grew up in the New York City borough of Queens with a darkroom in his house, surrounded by film negatives and images that he found to be haunting, sensitive and curious. He says his mother, the esteemed New York photographer Sylvia Plachy, deeply influenced him as an artist, leading him to discover acting as a form of expression.

Plachy's influence on Brody has perhaps never been stronger or more significant than it is right now. In an interview with Q's Tom Power, the actor says there's a clear parallel between her story as a Hungarian refugee who was forced to flee with her family in 1956, and his latest career-defining role in The Brutalist as László Tóth, a fictional Jewish Hungarian architect who emigrates to Pennsylvania after surviving the Holocaust.

"I'm the son of a Hungarian immigrant," Brody tells Power. "I grew up with a great understanding of [my mother's] journey as an artist, her assimilation into this great country and her being an outsider."

The Brutalist, which is up for 10 Oscars in March, including best actor for Brody, is a sprawling historical epic that tackles complex themes like immigration, the American Dream, addiction, class, sexual assault, and the tension between art and commerce.

Brody says the film gave him a new perspective on the hardships that his family and many other immigrant families have experienced after settling in the U.S. and Canada.

"It's a reminder for us to have a bit more grace and respect for the plight of others that we are so fortunate not to endure ourselves," he says. "[The film] also speaks to how artists must conform … and how far and few these opportunities are."

At 29, Brody became the youngest person to win best actor at the Oscars for his performance in 2002's The Pianist. Regarding his role in The Brutalist, he says it's taken him "a good two decades to find something of this magnitude," and he's grateful that director Brady Corbet gave him the opportunity to inhabit a complex character.

"To have had a director entrust me with that has taken 20 years," he says. "It's about conveying truth and not asking me to be here to merely entertain you. To use all that I have discovered of self and others to portray and honour and represent something that speaks to me personally, that I know will speak to other people."

The full interview with Adrien Brody is available on our YouTube channel and on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Adrien Brody produced by Mitch Pollock.