Born to Hungarian photographer Sylvia Plachy and retired history professor Elliot Brody, Adrien Brody grew up an only child in the Woodhaven section of Queens. A tough neighbourhood by all accounts and Brody speaks of ‘hardening up’ on the streets and falling in with a bad crowd whereupon his parents enrolled him in acting classes to keep him on the straight and narrow.

All the right influences are there; left-wing academic/artistic parents, aristocratic heritage, he attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts (famous as the incretion for the TV series ‘Fame’) through in a healthy dose of New York Queens street grit and you’ve got a fine actor in the making. Pictured here he rocks a Dolce&Gabbana Tuxedo to the 'Detachment' Paris premiere. If those aren’t enough here are some other reasons to love Adrien Brody.

 Adrien Brody in a Dolce&Gabbana Tuxedo at the 'Detachment' Paris Premier

Youngest ever winner

When Brody scooped the Best Actor Oscar for his role in Roman Polanski’s ‘The Pianist’ he usurped Richard Dreyfus as the youngest ever winner at only 29 year of age. He learned to play Chopin on the piano. He lost 14 kilos from his already slight frame, gave up his apartment and car and lost his girlfriend all to isolate himself. “It made me have a much greater understanding of loss, of loneliness, and the level of intense tragedy that so many people have experienced in this world, I take a lot less for granted. It's really valuable to gain that, especially at a young age.”

 

Keeping it real

You can take the man out of Queens, but you can’t take the Queens out of the man. Brody is Hip-Hop mad and wants to be a producer. Apparently he’s being mentored by RZA of NY Hip-Hop legends Wu-Tang Clan. He has credentials too as he was good friends with Tupak Shakur before got ‘tagged’. Who would have thought eh?

 

Brody Boy Building

In addition to losing all that weight for the Pianist, Brody did the exact opposite and piled on 12 kilos of pure muscle for his leading role in Sci-Fi action flick ‘Predators’. In fact he had some work to do to convince the film’s Director he could do the art. But he is by far and away the best thing about that film. Precisely because you simply don’t expect him to cast in the role he adds something different.

 

Brody nose best

Apart from suffering a serious motorcycle accident in 1992 from which he took months to recover from, Brody has broken his nose on three different occasions. During the final scene in Spike Lee’s ‘Summer of Sam’ Brody’s nose was broken but after it was reset and healed, he didn’t have any further work done and tat nose went on to become probably his defining physical characteristic. It’s a world famous nose and probably has it’s own agent. It sets him apart from other actors and reminds us that ‘beauty nose no bounds’.

Brodyquest

In case you missed it Brodyquest is one of the greatest memes of all time. If features Adrien Brody waking up and going about an ordinary day set to catchy music. It proved so popular that more people have probably seen it than his films. We love Brodyquest and if you haven’t seen it here it is and if you have seen it you can watch it just one more time. Go on, you know you want to.

by Hugo Mc Cafferty