June 14, 1999

by Veronica Mixon

Of course, he´s barely seen in The Thin Red Line because for some unexplained reason, nearly all of his performance was left on the cutting room floor. Still, the hot young actor hides any disappointment or anger he might feel because he´s sailing along with a batch of new film projects that are sure to satisfy his growing legion of fans.

In Spike Lee´s marvelous new film, Summer of Sam, Brody plays Richie, a spike-haired punk rocker whose mere appearance in his old Bronx neighborhood causes alarm among his childhood pals. Tall, lean and sporting attitude, Richie masks his ambivalent sexuality during an insanely hot summer filled with hysterical paranoia because of the vicious murders committed by David Berkowitz. Clearly, Brody, who will be seen in the HBO release, Oxygen and Barry Levinson´s Liberty Heightslater this year, relished the role of fearless outsider because it is not unknown to him in real life.

Brody was born and raised in New York City where he started acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at the age of twelve. The son of the photojournalist and Village Voice staff photographer, Sylvia Plachy, Brody´s first professional gig was a starring role in the PBS feature, Home at Last. At thirteen, he was accepted in the High School for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center and then, moved to Los Angeles the following year to work on the sitcom, Annie McGuire with Mary Tyler Moore. His films include a role in Francis Ford Coppola´s segment of New York Stories; Steven Soderbergh´s King of the Hill as the sexy, streetwise Lester; the beat generation film, The Last Time I Committed Suicide with Keanu Reeves and Ten Benny.

Brody currently resides in Los Angeles when he´s not working.

THE INTERVIEW

Adrien Brody

You were a kid in 1977. What are your memories?
I don´t remember much from last summer. But, what I do remember was mostly from my parents. We were on a road trip in a van driving across country so we were fortunate enough to miss that nutty summer. I got lost on that trip. I remember my parents freaked out, thought I was kidnapped or something so it was a dramatic summer in it´s own way for me. Fortunately, not related to this.

How did you get lost?
We went to a Fourth of July party in some park, somewhere. I don´t even know what state we were in. I was about four and I met some kid who was about my age and we started playing. And, he said ´come back to my house.´ So, I went back to his house and hung out. His mom said, ´do your parents know where you are?´ I said, ´No but they´re in park playing.´ She brought me back and by that time hours had past and my parents were a wreck. They´d called the police. They were told they had to wait. It was brutally for them, I´m sure. I was four. But, I remember because they taught me not to do that again. (Laughs)

Did this script come to you the usual way? There is never really a normal way for getting work. It´s pretty bizarre the way jobs come about. But, this is the most normal. I got called asking if I could play Italian and I said sure, tell me when.

What nationality are you?
Hungarian and Polish, actually.

Haven´t you played an Italian before?
It´s a ridiculous question because I´ve done about fourteen movies and at least five or six -- I´ve done Italian.

Tell us about the audition process.
I had a telephone conversation with Spike in my kitchen. I remember that. When I auditioned, I spiked my hair up, wore this spike necklace and I wore this ripped DeNiro shirt with this Taxi Driver with a Mohawk on it that said, ´Serial Killer.´ It was funny because I was the suspect for the serial killer. I took a boom box to sing along with [Jimi] Hendricks and borrowed my friend´s guitar. So, I came fully prepared. All the while, in the midst of production on another film, working six day weeks. So, it was a busy time. But, I go down and got it.

How long did it take to do the hair?
Forever! That was really an arduous process. We´d be in the trailer for a good 45 minutes to an hour each day - which I´ve never dealt with before. I don´t wear makeup really or just a little if anything. So that was a really time consuming. I felt it was essential anyway. When we did that Mohawk, it was so extreme; you couldn´t help but feel large. It was necessary.

I understand that Spike likes a long rehearsal.
He´s very diligent about that. It´s important, actually but you don´t always have the luxury of doing rehearsals. He had his office compile a ton of research material and it helped because I couldn´t have done it all on my own. It was tons of literature on punk scene, music, video footage on strange stuff that would be helpful. He went to the point of sending me porno tapes for those 70 porno movies. I forgot what they were but they were ridiculous! (Imitates music in porno tapes) Really Seventies pool cleaner style. ´You got a problem with your pool? Something clogged up?´ (Laughs)

Since this character, Richie is an outsider, could you relate to him?
Yeah, definitely. I was always an outsider on my own. I had a lot of friends but I was very different from the kids in the neighborhood.

Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Queens, in Woodhaven. It was a relatively nice neighborhood. I mean, New York in general is tough. But, as a young boy, I was probably more sensitive than most of the kids on the block. And, through my teenage years, I probably had to toughen up a lot. I think most guys go through that or it breaks them. I took four trains to get to the Performing Arts high school so that´s eight chances of running through the wrong neighborhood during school hours. There are pressures in the city. But, I manage to not feel the need to harden up so much because I´m not under the constant threat of whatever. Plus no one in my neighborhood listen to hip hop so I became this hardcore B-boy in 5th grade and I grew a tail and started break dancing ­ and going to functions and things like that outside my neighborhood and got my ass kicked a few times. So, but, it´s part of it all.

What´s the importance of the sexual component for these people in this story?
It shows how people are screwed up and trying to find themselves. And, there´s pressure - in my character´s case, I wanted it to remain ambiguous. His own sexuality but he had to obviously hide what he was actually doing from the guys so that - There´s pressure, obviously.

The guys seem to accept this character, Bobby (who´s gay), but they don´t really accept your character.
They don´t really accept him.

They don´t give the same violent treatment.
Because he´s easily written off and not a threat. They didn´t know how quite to classify me. I think that´s a problem with human nature in general. People want to pinpoint you. What´s the relevance of someone sexual preference, really? What counts is who they are with you. Unless, they are obviously hitting on you and you´re not into it. But, I feel like this - people are afraid to kind of... Well, first of all, people want to judge you and are quick to judge initial impressions. That´s the main theme of the film. It tends to cause problems. You´re seeing it all over the world. People are afraid of what´s different and want to classify you.

When did you know you wanted to be an actor?
I don´t ever remember making the statement, "I´m going to be an actor." I think my first feeling was probably to be a space scientist and then I found out I wasn´t very good in math. So, I figured I could always be a garbage man because they made a relatively good salary and it was easy. But, fortunately, I found acting. I was also very interested in magic and did Children´s Shows for a couple of years. Then, I gave that up and started working as an actor and I´ve been fortunate. I´ve worked the entire time. It was really good.