Jackie Spafford
Another new format on Thursday for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) Cinema Vanguard Award: the two actors from The Brutalist, Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce, were honored together. Brody has been nominated for an Actor in a Leading Role Oscar (and won the Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Drama), and Guy Pearce has been nominated for Actor in a Supporting Role (his first Oscar nomination).
The evening was moderated by Pete Hammond of Deadline. We learned at the end of the evening that the Vanguard Award would be known as the Pete Hammond Award starting next year, to honor his 17 years of presenting.
Both actors are genial and down to earth, with real ‘actor’s actor’ resumes, and seem to have immense mutual respect. The evening started with some background on each of them. Both started in show biz at a fairly tender age, Brody as a “professional magician,” and Pearce as a regular on the Australian soap opera Neighbours. But going back further, we learned that Pearce was crowned “Junior Mr. Victoria” in a body building competition at age 16.
Coincidentally both actors have portrayed Harry Houdini in different ventures (although we weren’t shown clips, unfortunately). Of playing Houdini, Brody said, “Magic is the gateway drug into being an actor. You have to capture people’s attention. It’s an illusion like how film is an illusion. Houdini, the man, symbolizes the feeling of being othered and not good enough. He created the term escape artist.”
The clips went back and forth between the two actors. For Brody they started with his first Oscar-winning role, as Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, of which he said, “I knew it was one of the most meaningful opportunities I would be presented. I understood hunger on a level I had never knew after making it. I gained an understanding of the hardships many people endure. That sense of loss and suffering that is pervasive in this world.”
Brody also talked about the many films he has made with Wes Anderson, including The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Darjeeling Limited, The French Dispatch, and many others. He noted, “He’s such a unique filmmaker. You look at one frame and say that’s a Wes Anderson movie. I’ve had such wonderful life experiences with him.”
Guy Pearce talked about his experience on Memento, “I understood the emotional center of it. There was a real sadness hanging around my character’s neck. This was a movie where you have to let everything go to focus on the scene at hand.” Of the director, he said, “Chris Nolan is a genius, as we all know. At the end of Memento is the middle of the story. The brilliant thing Chris has done is that he manages to give the experience of the build-up to the story. He can juggle fifty things at once.”
Pearce spoke about his experience on L.A. Confidential, saying, “I learned everything I know about film through that experience. It was my first really big thing I did in Hollywood. I get so emotional about Curtis Hanson because he was the best person.” Hanson died in 2016.
They also discussed one earlier, and iconic, role of Pearce’s, in which he played a (beautiful!) drag queen, in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. To great applause he revealed, “It was such an amazing experience, and we are all in discussion about if we should make a sequel to Priscilla. It came out at a pivotal moment in history. Priscilla really enabled a voice to a lot of people.”
The majority of the discussion was about their roles in this year’s The Brutalist. Brody talked about his character László and how he mirrors (director) Brady Corbet. “The creative yearnings are very prevalent in this character much like Brady. The need to fight for your creative vision. The film gets into how your power gets stripped away working for other people,” he said.
Brody also remarked on the relationship between their characters, saying, “I love the dynamic between Van Buren and László. Guy’s performance brings such a nuance to it. No one is free from insecurities. The beauty of being an artist is that you can apply and work past them. If you can find fulfillment in life and light in so much darkness, that’s a powerful thing to behold.”
Brody closed on remarks about how he thought The Brutalist applied to today. “When you make a film, you want it to speak about what’s going on today. The beauty of film is that it’s a subversive experience. It’s about bridging the divide and I feel such a privilege to be part of this movie. I love that this artistic work can evoke an understanding of hardships that others face. The world feels very complex right now and to do work that speaks to that – it’s a beautiful thing,” he said.
About the Santa Barbara International Film Festival
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is a celebrated venue for independent and international cinema. Over its 40-year history, SBIFF has grown into one of the leading film festivals in the United States, known for its commitment to community education and the arts. The festival not only showcases world-class filmmaking but also supports educational initiatives aimed at students and underserved communities within Santa Barbara County. For detailed information on films and events featured at the festival, please visit SBIFF’s official website.
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