Last night, Adrien Brody defeated tough competition from Timothee Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”) and won his second Best Actor statuette for “The Brutalist.” Ironically, when accepting the Oscar on-stage, Brody promised to make it “brief.” Liar.
Even before getting on-stage to accept the award, Brody amusingly tossed his wad of chewing gum to girlfriend Georgina Chapman, seated next to him, and then went on to grab his trophy from last year’s winner Cillian Murphy (“Oppenheimer”). From there, Brody started to ramble on about numerous topics, including his own career.
Not only did Brody decide to shush the “play off” music,at around the 4 minute mark, telling the folks in the control room that this wasn’t his “first rodeo,” Variety reports that it turned out to be the longest acceptance speech in Oscar history — 5 minutes 45 seconds.
In between thanking God and his parents, Brody prayed “for a healthier and a happier and a more inclusive world.” He went on to tackle how acting was a “fragile profession,” and how since his first win, for 2022’s “The Pianist,” he learned that “it can all go away.”
It’s quite something that Brody is now only the sixth actor to have won multiple Best Actor statuettes. He joins Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn, and Tom Hanks. Quite the lineup of legends, and Brody’s inclusion seems a tad off.
Don’t get me wrong, Brody is a great actor, and his two wins were well-deserved, but man, this guy has had his fair share of ups and downs. They say winning an Oscar helps boost an actor’s career, but after winning for “The Pianist,” in 2003, Brody went on to star in an innumerable amount of dubious films, including “The Jacket,” “Predators,” “The Experiment,” “Back to 1942,” “American Heist,” “September of Shiraz,” “Ghosted,” “Fool’s Paradise,” and “Air Strike.”
In fact, Brody’s post-Oscar reputation was only partially salvaged due to his fruitful partnership with Wes Anderson which has so far amounted to five films. He wasn’t really the lead in any one of them, but these films also represent his most acclaimed works since “The Pianist.”
So, will winning his second Oscar pave the way for a more satisfying set of roles? Brody’s next project is supposed to be S. Craig Zahler’s “The Bookie and the Bruiser,” which could go into production as soon as this spring. He’s also already shot Lee Tamahori’s “Emperor,” which sees him taking on the role of Charles V.