How Adrien Brody got on Spike Lee’s nerves: “He’s that type of actor”
Issues between actors and directors are not a development, by any stretch of the imagination. Put a highly-paid, uber-famous millionaire film star on a set and start telling them what to do and a reasonable number of them aren’t going to like it. There are numerous examples, from Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren to Stanley Kubrick and Shelley Duvall to Harold Ramis and Bill Murray – and you can add Spike Lee and Adrien Brody to that list.
Before we get into any accusations of self-importance aimed at Brody, at this point it is worth outlining what happened to the actor on Lee’s 1999 movie Summer of Sam, the serial killer thriller based in New York during the 1977 David Berkowitz serial murders.
Brody suffered a broken nose on set thanks to a prop knife malfunctioning during a fight scene, resulting in a dent that permanently changed his appearance – with make-up artists even thinking he was wearing a fake nose some 26 years later during his role on the Oscar-winning The Brutalist.
And it seems not all was right on the set of the movie, which suffered from numerous issues while filming, including racist graffiti from locals and letters sent to Lee from the victims of Berkowitz, who did not want the killer glorified.
Prop man Kevin Ladson, who sadly passed away just two weeks ago after a lifetime working in art departments on major movies, previously spoke of his time on the film, explaining: “Whatever could go wrong went wrong. It was a horrible experience.”
The Assistant Director on Summer of Sam, Mike Ellis, is more pointed in his criticism, however, saying of Adrien Brody: “I liked him for a little while, but he was just such an ‘ac-tor.’”
And Spike Lee himself added: “What bothers me most with an actor — and I’ll use a sports analogy — is if you are a manager and you have a player who’s more concerned about their individual stats than the goal, which is to win. And he’s that type of actor. He is more concerned about how many lines do I have, how do I look, than what is necessarily best for the film.”
Brody certainly didn’t let his perceived problems on the film hinder his career, however, four years later, he was walking on stage to collect a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in The Piano, Jane Campion’s historical romance that swept the board during awards season.
After two major roles in The Village and King Kong, however, he seemed to take on a series of puzzling roles in independent films and faded from the public eye to some degree, save for his regular appearances in several Wes Anderson movies as one of the director’s favourite actors.
That changed last year, however, with his performance in The Brutalist, the near four-hour epic about a holocaust-fleeing architect who arrives in New York to seek a new life. It earned Brody a second Best actor award at the Oscars and also won for Best Cinematography.
It’s doubtful that would have changed Spike Lee’s mind, however, who said in his autobiography, That’s my story and I’m sticking to it: “Adrien is a good actor, but he gives the directors trouble, simple as that. I’m not trying to badmouth him, but you ask some directors who have worked with him and they will say the same thing.”
It may well say something that when Brody picked up his statuette for The Brutalist, he delivered the longest acceptance speech in Oscars history. After almost six minutes, while the lead-off music started to play, he said: “I’m wrapping up, please turn the music off. I’ve done this before. Thank you. It’s not my first rodeo, but I will be brief.”
