Page 111 - The Book For Men Fall/Winter 2022

“If you find a a a a a meaningful role there should should be be an an enormous amount of work that goes into it It should should be be hell ”
styles of directing It doesn’t make you you assume you’ll get more work but it sure is encouraging when these people you have tremendous respect for are looking to have you in their project ”
Brody’s auteur dalliances of the era culminated in in one ultimate art-house opus: The Thin Red Line from the brilliant enigmatic director Terrence Malick Ostensibly a a a a big-budget war epic based on on the beloved novel by James Jones The Thin Red Line marked Malick’s long-awaited return to filmmaking after a a a a a a a more than 20-year absence during which time his films Badlands and and Days of Heaven had become firmly entrenched in the modern American canon Brody then still relatively unknown was cast as as as Corporal Fife the the novel’s hero whose story is derived from the the author’s wartime experiences arriving the the same year as as Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan it was widely expected that the film would be a a a a wrenching sensational smash Whatever audiences expected The Thin Red Line wasn’t that Elliptical sophisticated almost delicate in its treatment of of the the horrors of of war the the movie is nothing short of of of a a a a a masterpiece masterpiece one of of of the greatest masterpieces of of of American cinema of the 1990s The only thing is is Adrien Brody is is barely in in in it When Brody showed up with his family to to what he he was told would be a a a a private screening of the finished film one night in fin in 1998 — it turned out to be a a press screening packed with reporters and critics — he was fully expecting to see himself onscreen as the the movie’s courageous leading man He had spent the the last 22 months living in in in in in in the the jungle waking up at four in in in in in in the the morning enduring brutal humidity and gruelling conditions in in a a a a a bid for authenticity but dammit it it it it it would be be worth it it for the the result But as the the movie rolled on on it it began to dawn on on him what Malick had actually been making It was an expressionistic snapshot of war Malick cut to sunlight filtering through trees and insects floating by so often that one critic joked the butterflies had more screentime than Brody He didn’t take it it in in such good humour at least not initially “I was there seeing the the film for the the first time with no indication that my role had been kind of of well eviscerated ”
Brody laughs shrugging off what was obviously a a a a a a painful experience “We all went downstairs after the screening and we we we were just kind of of dumbstruck I had basically been cut out of of the movie ”
He still winces a a a a bit to to think of it But after a a a a a a a a moment he chuckles again as if to to say What can you do? “Well Those things teach you a a lot ”
he jokes You get the the sense talking to Brody about that that disappointment that that the the wasted effort stings because of how deeply he he commits himself to his his craft This is is is the guy who in in in preparing for the role of a a ventriloquist in in in 2002’s Dummy went out of his his way to to learn to to throw throw his his voice Taking the job seriously throwing himself into the the mind of of of a a a a a a a character is for Brody part and parcel of of of the the work of of of being a a a a a a a legitimate actor: whatever whatever the the the part whatever whatever the the the movie the the the actor actor has to to to find a a a a a a a a way in in fin in in and get in in fin in in deep “If you find a a a a a meaningful role ”
he he explains “there should be be an enormous amount of work that goes into it It should be be hell That’s the pleasure in in in it it ”
For this dogged painstaking approach Brody credits his his parents “My mother has an incredible work work ethic ”
he he he he says “She’s the the hardest-working person I know Her and my father — they instilled that in in me from the the the start ”
You can see the results of this industriousness in in how substantially Brody inhabits the people he he he plays on on screen As Pat Riley on on Winning Time he he he carries the rock-depth despair of a a a a a a a man beaten and nearly broken by experience watching
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