WASHINGTON: Actor Adrien Brody opened up about his body transformation for his Oscar-winning performance in the film The Pianist and revealed that he developed an eating disorder, followed by lasting effects like insomnia, panic attacks, and PTSD from the experience.
Brody, widely known for his role as Holocaust survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman in the biographical film The Pianist, took on a near-starvation diet and lost 30 lbs to fit the character, reported Deadline.
"That was a physical transformation necessary for storytelling, but it also opened me up spiritually, to a depth of understanding of emptiness and hunger in a way I never knew," Brody told New York Magazine's Vulture, as quoted by Deadline.
The actor was said to be "barely drinking water" when they began filming, which was reportedly shot in reverse, showcasing Brody's character at his most depleted.
"I definitely had an eating disorder for at least a year. And then I was depressed for a year, if not a lifetime. I'm kidding, I'm kidding," Brody added.
This is not the only instance in which The Pianist actor immersed himself in his roles.
While filming The Jacket, Brody asked the director to leave him in a straitjacket "so he could get a feel for it."
Deadline also reported that while filming Summer of Sam, "someone accidentally punched him in the face," leaving him with "a permanent dent.
" Similarly, while filming Oxygen, in which he portrayed a serial killer with braces, he opted not to use prosthetic braces, saying, "I didn't know how fucking painful that was until they stuck in pliers and ripped them off my teeth at the end."
Adrien Brody's notable works include The Thin Red Line, The Village, King Kong, Predators, The Brutalist, and others.