Adrien Brody Wins Golden Globe for Lead Role as Hungarian Jewish Architect, Holocaust Survivor in ‘The Brutalist’

American actor Adrian Brody won best actor in a motion picture drama at the Golden Globes in Beverly Hills on Sunday night for his lead role as Hungarian Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor László Tóth in “The Brutalist.”

The drama, which follows Tóth’s life after he survives the Holocaust and emigrates to the US, also won best drama film and best director for Brady Corbet, making the film one of the top winners at the Golden Globes this year. In his acceptance speech on stage, Brody thanked his parents, who were in the audience, for fostering his growth as an artist. Brody’s mother, photographer Sylvia Plachy, and her parents fled Hungary in 1956 during the Hungarian revolution and eventually immigrated to the US. Brody’s father is Jewish and the actor’s maternal grandmother was a Czech Jew.

“You always hold me up,” he told his mother. “I often credit my mother for her influence on me as an artist, but dad, you are the foundation of this family and all this love that I receive flows back to you.” Brody additionally talked about how he has a personal connection to the movie from independent studio A24.

“The character’s journey [in ‘The Brutalist’] is very reminiscent of my mother’s and my ancestral journey of fleeing the horrors of war and coming to this great country,” he said. “And I owe so much to my mother and my grandparents for their sacrifice. And although I do not know fully how to express all of the challenges that you have faced and experienced, and the many people who have struggled immigrating to this country, I hope that this work stands to lift you up a bit and to give you a voice. I’m so grateful and I will cherish this moment forever.”

In the category of best actor in a motion picture drama, Brody beat Timothee Chalamet for his role as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” Daniel Craig for “Queer,” Colman Domingo in “Sing Sing,” Ralph Fiennes in “Conclave,” and Sebastian Stan for the Donald Trump biopic “The Apprentice.”

Backstage after his win, Brody talked about receiving the night’s honor 23 years after winning an Oscar for “The Pianist,” which is about a Polish Jewish radio station pianist who survived the Holocaust.

“It’s been many years, it’s been decades, and I’ve had a long life and career and a lot of peeks and a lot of valleys, and it’s given me perspective,” he said in part. “That you can have a triumph in your life again is incredibly healing and rewarding, and also for what it speaks to of my family’s struggles and the hardships that they’ve faced that have given me the good fortune of having front footing as an American actor and the ability to hope and dream and pursue something like this.”

Brody further discussed his mother and her family fleeing oppression in Hungary and coming to America, and how their journey “mirrors” the one depicted in “The Brutalist.” He said about his mother’s family: “Their resilience and their sacrifice is something that was very important for me to honor as well as this universal theme of wanting to find a home; to find acceptance. To not be ‘other’-ed because of how you look, how you sound, or what your religion might be.”

For best drama film, “The Brutalist” beat “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave,” the sci-fi film “Dune: Part Two,” “Nickel Boys,” and “September 5,” which spotlights the murder of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

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