Washington [USA]: Actor Adrien Brody has opened up about the profound impact his physical transformation for his Oscar-winning role in The Pianist (2002) had on him, revealing that it led to an eating disorder and lasting emotional effects like insomnia, panic attacks, and PTSD.
Brody, who portrayed Holocaust survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman in the biographical film, took on a near-starvation diet to lose 30 lbs for the role. Reflecting on this drastic change, he told New York Magazine’s Vulture that the transformation was essential for the character’s authenticity but also had deep spiritual and emotional effects on him. “That was a physical transformation necessary for storytelling, but it also opened me up spiritually, to a depth of understanding of emptiness and hunger in a way I never knew,” Brody shared.
He described his condition during the filming, saying that he was “barely drinking water” when shooting began, with the scenes filmed in reverse to depict Szpilman at his most emaciated. Brody admitted, “I definitely had an eating disorder for at least a year,” and joked that the depression he faced afterward lasted “for a year, if not a lifetime.”
This is not the first time Brody has gone to extreme lengths to immerse himself in his roles. While filming The Jacket, he requested to be left in a straitjacket to experience it firsthand. He also recalled a permanent injury while filming Summer of Sam, where “someone accidentally punched him in the face,” leaving him with a permanent dent. Additionally, while portraying a serial killer in Oxygen, Brody chose not to use prosthetic braces, later regretting the decision due to the excruciating pain of having them removed with pliers.
Brody’s career includes notable roles in The Thin Red Line, The Village, King Kong, Predators, and The Brutalist, among others.