mistress_f
Hell on Heels
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- May 27, 2007
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the photos with RDJ are amazing.
and yes, he's been looking great lately (thank god)
and yes, he's been looking great lately (thank god)
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Adrien Brody bulked up to fight aliens, and perceptions, in ‘Predators’
Adrien Brody isn’t kidding himself — he knows that when people hear his name, “action hero” isn’t the first description that comes to mind.
“The comment is constantly like ‘skinny actor.’ I’m thin. I’m not skinny at all,” said Brody, 37, seeming slightly irritated as he reclined poolside at a Los Angeles hotel last month. “It’s that they harp on a physical thing, because I don’t think there’s a question about my ability as an actor.”
He certainly has the hardware to back up that claim. It was nearly a decade ago that he bounded onstage at the Kodak Theatre, kissing actress Halle Berry before accepting a gold statue for his portrayal of a Jewish-Polish musician in Roman Polanski’s holocaust drama “The Pianist,” making him the youngest lead actor winner in Oscar history.
But for many, it’s been difficult to shake the image of Brody’s gaunt face in the affecting role, for which he famously lost 30 pounds. “A lot of people think I’m a European actor. It’s interesting, and it’s a compliment, in a way,” he said of his role as Wladyslaw Szpilman. “But it’s not representative of who I am, or what I’m able to do.”
Audiences are seeing a different side of the actor with this weekend’s release of “Predators.” Robert Rodriguez rebooted the 1987 sci-fi classic about a group of CIA-hired commandos — including a beefy Arnold Schwarzenegger — who realize they are being hunted by an alien predator while on a mission in a Central American jungle.
In the new film, Brody plays an amoral mercenary who leads a group of assassins through the inhospitable landscape of an alien planet, where they have been planted to exterminate a menacing breed of alien species.
For Brody, it was a part that was hard-won.
“It’s a role that a studio wouldn’t necessarily have me on a list for. And I had to kind of do some convincing, that I’m capable of physical transformation,” Brody said. “It was a very challenging thing for me to embark on. I think that fans have expectations if you’re going to reboot a series like that — so there’s a certain amount of risk that inspires me. It’s very different from something I’ve done before.”
Since “The Pianist,” Brody has tackled a variety of roles — including the romantic lead in Peter Jackson’s big-budget remake of “King Kong” and quirkier parts in less expensive films, such as Wes Anderson’s “The Darjeeling Limited” and “The Brothers Bloom,” a comedy about con men. Most recently, he voiced an animated character in “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and starred opposite Sarah Polley in the creepy thriller “Splice.”
Rodriguez, who produced “Predators” (which was directed by Nimrod Antal), thought Brody was right for the movie. But he initially presented the actor with a smaller role, which Brody protested, saying he’d like to play the lead character and promising he could change his physique.
“He has so much passion that you’re doing yourself a disservice not to hire an Oscar-winning actor who wants to do a movie this badly,” said Rodriguez.
“We looked at the actor list, and a lot of it is the actors you’ve seen do those roles so many times. But Adrien is doing something very fresh and different — it feels like you’ve just discovered some new action hero, yet he has the acting talent that you don’t get in these type of movies.”
Meanwhile, “Predators” co-star Laurence Fishburne — who plays a hermit found living on the planet — dismissed the idea that to some, Brody is an unlikely action hero.
“I’m not even going to … dignify that with an answer. I just can’t,” he said. “Adrien Brody is a really terrific actor. He has range. He has intelligence.”
Still, even Brody believes that without having won an Oscar, he wouldn’t have gotten the part.
“I would never have been given the shot — ever — if I didn’t have that under my belt, because they definitely wouldn’t hire skinny actor Adrien Brody without that,” he said.
Next, he’ll star in the spy thriller “The Experiment” and the Woody Allen film “Midnight in Paris.” And Brody says it is his intention to keep surprising everyone — even himself.
“When I saw this movie, I couldn’t believe how much I loved the movie, and I kept saying to myself, ‘Oh my God, I’m in this.’ It’s different — it’s something I haven’t seen of myself.”
Harper's Bazaar Men Czech Fall/Winter 2010-2011: Adrien Brody
Not for sale, it is a supplement.
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source: my scan