Heath Ledger’s legendary performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight is considered a measuring scale for truly living the role for actors. Ledger sadly passed away before getting a chance to see his work receive immense appreciation from fans all around the globe.
Ledger won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. While Ledger gave his best for the role, there was one other actor who almost crossed the boundary of insanity for a role. Yes, we are talking about Adrien Brody’s portrayal of Wladyslaw Szpilman in the 2002 film, The Pianist.
Adrien Brody on a Difficult and Surprising Challenge of his Performance in The Pianist
Adrien Brody is a phenomenal actor as he has shown with his performances throughout his acting career. The epitome of Brody’s acting came in The Pianist, for which he also won an Oscar for Best Actor at the 2003 Academy Awards.
In a 2003 interview with BBC, Brody explained the process of preparing for the role, including the challenges he faced.
I gave up my apartment, I sold my car, I disconnected the phones, and I left. I took two bags and my keyboard and moved to Europe. There is an emptiness that comes with really starving that I hadn’t experienced. I couldn’t have acted that without knowing it. I’ve experienced loss, I’ve experienced sadness in my life, but I didn’t know the desperation that comes with hunger.
Brody explained how he used the desperation of starvation to really get into the role. The movie is, to date, Brody’s best work as it received a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
What was Adrien Brody’s The Pianist About?
Brody played the role of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jewish radio station pianist. The biographical drama showed his struggles of seeing the Warsaw Ghetto gradually change during World War II. But wait, that’s not it.
Szpilman was separated from his family during the infamous Operation Reinhard. Following the operation, Szpilman’s true struggle began as he hid in various locations to avoid getting caught.
The Polish Jewish radio station pianist continued this game of hide and seek in the ruins of Warsaw until the prisoners of concentration camps were released in 1945.
