Actor Adrien Brody, 42, became the youngest man to win a Best Actor Oscar in 2003 for his role in The Pianist. He played Salvador Dalí in Woody Allen’s Oscar-winning Midnight in Paris and a villain in The Grand Budapest Hotel. In 2012, he walked the catwalk for Prada and last month modelled for US Vogue. He lives in New York.
Fame is a blessing and a curse, but the beauty of knowing both sides of the spectrum is perspective. I struggled for 17 years before I reached a level of recognition. Had I not, I wouldn’t fully understand my good fortune or the blessings of anonymity. Perspective is everything because it gives you a barometer of truth.
City life is full of temptation. As a teenager I was into drag racing and there were a lot of destructive forces around me. New York is full of … let’s call it “stuff”. You can find it. It was difficult to follow a creative path without imploding along the way. The outskirts of London remind me of Queens: apartment complexes, liquor stores, a small park where you hang out with your friends, and not much else. It’s boredom and it’s hard.
Acting is enlightening but it can also be harmful. The Pianist is the most challenging film I’ve worked on. Not just because I had to lose over two stone, but because of the need to understand and embody loss and to distil the horror of that time in history. It was also very personal because the director, Roman Polanski, is a survivor.
Patience is not my strongest suit. I would like to be a dad one day but I would need to possess just a degree of the patience my father had.
I’m never lonely. I can go anywhere and meet people, whether I like it or not. It comes with the territory.
My foray into fashion amuses me. I still don’t imagine myself to be model material and I often joke about the transition I’ve made from a serious actor to a model. Usually it’s vice versa.
Being an only child enhances your imagination. And it also makes you more accountable. If I got into trouble I didn’t have a brother or sister to hide behind. I had friends in the neighbourhood, but ultimately I was my own man.
I’m a gearhead. I look at cars on Craigslist as a form of relaxation. Somehow drooling over muscle cars is calming to me. I like to see how they’ve been modified and to see if I can find the perfect package that might make me just have to go buy it, which I really don’t need to do.
People say I have a sad face but it doesn’t bother me. They have described it as tragic but I think that’s a bit extreme. I’m a very conscious person and I don’t conceal it.
Houdini was my childhood hero. He was a figure of such strength and mystery, who possessed the ability to do the impossible. All boys want that. When I was 11, I was a magician called Amazing Adrien. My best trick was being able to break a pencil in half with a dollar bill.
Young people these days have a skewed perception of acting, showbusiness, whatever you want to call it. Visibility on the internet! They have this fascination with being recognised, but not for something that is meaningful.
I want to make a banging hip hop album when I’m 50. I make beats on my iPad when I’m on a plane. It’s incredible what technology allows. I can lay down a track with a pair of headphones and a $20 app. It takes an enormous amount of work to make a cohesive album, which is what I would like to do, but I’m kind of busy with my day job.