HEALING MUSIC: An interview with The Pianist star Adrien Brody. By Warren Curry 1/2o/03 Part 2 of 2

How did you learn how to play the piano? Was it mainly through a teacher or a video?

No video. I had a piano teacher and we would learn the piece in stages. Once I was able to play well, I would play in time with the music they were going to use and practice over and over.

After playing this role, do you appreciate your own life more?

Absolutely. It put so much into perspective for me that I can't even tell you how I would feel today without this experience. Hopefully, it will do that for people who see the film; just getting a glimpse of what kind of suffering one individual endures and how fortunate you are not to go through that. On a simple level, it's made me appreciate being able to eat, being able to be with friends, having shelter. These are things that I have taken for granted and that we all have taken for granted. It's human nature to complain, and it's legitimate because we all want to strive to have better things and be better people and grow, but you have to remember your own good fortune and you have to be aware of other people's misfortune.

Was there one specific aspect of this man's story that stood out?

There was one thing that seemed particularly tragic, which is not from all the horror of death, but was when he was locked alone in the room and there was piano there and he couldn't play. It felt tragic to me, immediately, because I didn't get it in the memoirs and didn't get it in the script, but then I was locked in the room with this piano. I'd been playing a lot and so when I see a piano I go to play it, because it brought comfort to me, and I also identified with the music too. I omitted all of the modern music from my life and just listened to that type of music. Being able to play music and having some control over it, you understand the story behind the music, and you understand the connection between the composer, or the pianist, and the work. I felt a closeness to this piano now and couldn't touch it. It was like being locked in a room with your loved one and being unable to touch it. It was terribly tragic for me in that moment.

Is there a scene that you consider a favorite?

When I meet up with the German officer at the end and have found these pickles and there's some hopeful element. He's at his lowest point and then there's some interaction all of the sudden. He's interacting with a human being, and it's really moving and was moving for me doing it. When he brought me bread in that scene, in the first take I cried, because I smelled the bread and I hadn't had any carbohydrates, period. What this man must feel getting a loaf of bread, and he was probably way more hungry than I could've ever imagined, and getting it from a Nazi officer instead of a bullet in the head -- it made me cry. And I couldn't have gone there without all this other stuff that Roman guided me into. It was really profound and that's what I want to get from my work. That's the beauty of acting, when you can connect to these things and hopefully transmit these emotions to people and gain something. That's really how you benefit. Doing a fun character that's entertaining is great -- there's nothing wrong with it -- but it's far less enriching.

How do you keep your career at that level after this film?

I don't know. Hopefully, it will inspire some people to send me some good material. I'm very selective. It's hard to find something that tops this. You can't say, "What's going to take me to the next level?" because creatively this was pretty profound for me, and I don't expect everything to be that way. But I do need something that will provide me growth in another way. I'd love to do something with some romantic involvement; some serious leading man with a wonderful woman who's a fantastic actor. Just great contemporary stuff that's real and powerful and moving. That's where I'm at -- I'm ready for that kind of material. It can be equally as dramatic, but it doesn't have to be so much.

Did Roman ever share his personal experiences of when he was a boy with you?

Absolutely. He shared a lot, and it was invaluable. He incorporated a lot of things into the film too. For instance, the woman who is shot by the German officer and she falls on her face in this strange contorted position. He saw that as a boy. There was something specific in the way she fell, and he laid in the dirt to show (the actress) how he wanted her to fall. There was Roman Polanski laying in the dirt to show an extra how to fall and that's really inspirational. He's that involved and cares that much about it.

(Read Memo Salazar's review of The Pianist.)

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