Last month, Adrien Brody and I sailed into New York Harbor on a boat called the Manhattan. Destination: The Statue of Liberty. He had been to the landmark before and spent time there with his mother, an immigrant who came to America in 1958.

“My mother and grandparents fled Hungary during the revolution,” Brody said. “There were so many unknowns and a lot of loss. And all of those sacrifices sort of laid the foundation for my own existence and what was accessible to me.”

Brody’s immigrant roots make his latest film, “The Brutalist,” a deeply personal film. It’s a sweeping, decades-long story of love, ambition and a complicated American dream, centered around one man: László Toth. “He is a Jewish-Hungarian architect who survives the horrors of World War II and is forced to struggle through poverty and rebuild,” Brody said.

Toth is commissioned by a wealthy industrialist to build a massive community center in his “Brutalist” style – a form of architecture that is light on decoration and heavy on concrete.

To get Toth just right, Brody drew on his memories of his Hungarian grandfather. “I remember my grandfather’s accent was very, very strong,” he said.

“So, do you hear a little of your grandfather’s voice in this László character?” I asked.

“Oh, definitely, yes, I conjure it. As a child I also knew every bad word in Hungarian. So I included some of that that wasn’t in the script!”

To watch a trailer for The Brutalist, click on the video player below:

The film received seven Golden Globe nominations and Oscar enthusiasm is high. But at three and a half hours, it requires commitment.

When asked if he was worried about the length of the film, Broday replied: “It’s an event. Generations before us could expect to see something like this in the cinema. But that is becoming much rarer today. I think we all need to be fed nutritious meals! And this is one of them.”

At 51, Brody’s portrayal of a man rebuilding his life after war provides a fascinating counterpoint to a role he played more than two decades ago: his Oscar-winning portrayal of a man who died in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist “Must endure the horrors of war. ”

To play Wladyslaw Szpilman, the real-life pianist who survived the Nazi occupation of Poland, Brody virtually starved to death, losing 30 pounds and learning to play the piano at the same time.

He said that learning to play Chopin satisfied his hunger pangs. “Because it was a kind of meditative, intensely focused activity where I was memorizing something. And I became quite proficient at playing minutes of Chopin’s Nocturne and a ballad. And I don’t even read music.”

At 29, he was the youngest man ever to win the Oscar for Best Actor. The child of an immigrant lived his own American dream.

Adrien Brody grew up in Queens, New York. His father, Elliot, is a retired teacher. His mother, Sylvia Plachy, is a photographer. “As an only child and the son of a photographer, I was her favorite subject,” he said. “And so I had a lens on myself from a very caring and omnipresent perspective. And I think that helped as a film actor too.”

“Thanks to mom, did you feel comfortable in front of the camera?” I asked.

“Yes. Thanks to mom.”

He dabbled in magic and called himself “The Amazing Adrien,” but decided to pursue acting in middle school. At the age of 13 he got a leading role as a rebellious orphan in the television film “Home at Last”. “I remember thinking that I never wanted it to end,” he said. “And the feeling of joy I feel from that immersion has never gone away.”

Brody aged into a punk rocker with a mohawk in Spike Lee’s “Summer of Sam.” He had a blockbuster like “King Kong” under his belt and showed some whimsy in his five films with director Wes Anderson, including “The Darjeeling Limited” and “The French Dispatch.”

“Anderson,” Brody said, “gave me a lot of opportunities to do comedic work, more overtly comedic stuff, and at the time we started working together, people thought I thought I was a serious actor.”

“The Brutalist” is a return to his serious side and perhaps a reminder that Adrien Brody is up for anything as an artist. “It’s a beautiful moment right now,” he said.

I asked, “What makes you happy when you’re not working?”

“A lot. I have to be creative. This can be achieved through cooking, painting and playing music. I’m a pretty good cook.”

“What are you doing?”

“I mean, hot dogs,” he laughed. “What do you like? Tell me what you want? I can do some magic. You can come and see the artwork one day. I’ll whip up something to eat. I can make some good cocktails.”

“You’re a mixologist too?”

“Oh, I can plug it in.”

“OK. What can you do? not Do?”

“Shut my mouth!” he laughed. “I have to learn that!”

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The story was produced by Reid Orvedahl. Editor: George Pozderec.