Adrien Brody has won his second Oscar for best actor, for his role in Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist.”
He beat out Timothée Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”), Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”), Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”) and Sebastian Stan (“The Apprentice”) for the statuette.
Walking on stage to accept the trophy, Brody spit his chewing gum into his hand and threw it to his partner, Georgina Chapman. Toward the end of his lengthy and passionate speech, the Academy began to play Brody off with music.
“I’m wrapping up, please turn the music off,” Brody said. “I’ve done this before. Thank you. It’s not my first rodeo, but I will will be brief.”
Brody began his five-minute speech by expressing his gratitude for the life and career he has been afforded.
“Acting is a very fragile profession. It looks very glamorous, and at certain moments it is,” Brody said. “But the one thing that I’ve gained having the privilege to come back here is to have some perspective. No matter where you are in your career, no matter what you’ve accomplished, it can all go away. And I think what makes this night most special is the awareness of that, and the gratitude that I have to still do the work that I love.”
To Brody, winning the best actor Oscar for a second time represents “a chance to begin again,” and he said he hopes he can prove that he’s worthy of such “meaningful and important” roles 20 years from now.
Brody’s two Oscars are both for playing characters who survived the Holocaust. “I’m here once again to represent the lingering traumas and the repercussions of war and systematic oppression, and of antisemitism and racism and othering,” Brody said. “I pray for a healthier and a happier and a more inclusive world, and I believe if the past can teach us anything, it’s a reminder to not let hate go unchecked.”
In 2003, Brody became the youngest person to win the Oscar for best actor at age 29, for his lead role in “The Pianist.” Had Chalamet won this year, he would have beaten Brody’s record by eight months.
Brody joins a short list of actors who have won the Academy Award for best actor twice: Spencer Tracy, Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman, Gary Cooper, Tom Hanks, Fredric March, Sean Penn and Anthony Hopkins. (Daniel Day-Lewis is the only person to win best actor three times.)
In “The Brutalist,” a three-and-a-half-hour epic produced for only about $10 million, Brody plays the fictional architect László Tóth, who escapes Hungary to come to the United States. After a twist of fate, he begins working on an ambitious project for a wealthy businessman in Pennsylvania as he awaits for the arrival of his wife and niece.
Distributed by A24, “The Brutalist” scored 10 Oscar nominations in total and won three — for best actor, cinematography and original score.
See all the Oscar winners here.
