Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin - Adrien Brody

Episode Date: February 12, 2025

Adrien Brody is an Academy Award-winning actor. Known for his nuanced performances across a wide range of films, such as The Grand Budapest Hotel, Detachment, and multiple collaborations with film director Wes Anderson, he became the youngest recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in The Pianist by age 29. In addition to his 2025 Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance as László Tóth in Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, he has also earned the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award for Best Actor, solidifying his reputation as a powerhouse in film. ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: Athletic Nicotine https://www.athleticnicotine.com/tetra Use code 'TETRA' ------ Squarespace https://squarespace.com/tetra Use code 'TETRA' ------ Vivo Barefoot http://vivobarefoot.com/tetra Use code 'TETRA25' ------ LMNT Electrolytes https://drinklmnt.com/tetra Use code 'TETRA' ------ Sign up to receive Tetragrammaton Transmissions https://www.tetragrammaton.com/join-newsletter

Tetragrammaton You have to come from a place of non-judgment. You have to separate your belief system. You have to find validity to another person's choices and actions. And that's kind of what I refer to as gaining empathy and understanding through this work and a lifetime of doing it is that, someone may do something quite despicable

and yet they're not a despicable person and it's a long complex life and it's not all encompassing. Yeah, all humans are flawed. That's right. That's right. When you leave the set, do you take the character with you or can you leave the work at the set? I don't know if I can leave it.

I'm always me at the end of the day, but I definitely will have moments that I'm altered and influenced from the day or what's to come for my character. And I don't see how I could not do that and And I don't see it as too problematic. I haven't, you know, anyone who's ever been in my life, meaningfully knows me well enough and knows when I need a little space to do my work and respects the process. And sometimes I need space and sometimes I need to be immersed in that and lost in that to preserve it and to protect it. And then other times I don't need that and I can access it quite available. My girlfriend discovered that on this film, on The Brutalist, when I went into it, I told

her this is going to be a very hard one to endure with me just because of the pressures and the nature of all the hardships that the character is, the traumas that he's trying to overcome and that linger. We didn't really discuss it when I made the film, but afterwards she was like, you really weren't tough to deal with and you weren't stuck in it in a way afterwards. And it was a really remarkable observation because for most of my career, I've felt somehow an obligation

to carry the suffering beyond. And I think there's a degree of suffering that's necessary for the work, but not beyond and not to hold on to out of fear that you're not going to honor that suffering in the work. And it's taken a lot of work and a lot of living to know that it's accessible enough. And then you don't have to torture yourself to be tortured in certain moments. And that's a huge discovery. It's quite liberating because it is an exhausting process,

especially if you're adding more psychological or emotional pressure on your personal life in order to carry a character through an extended period of time. Do you feel like you could play any character or there are characters that are right for you? I think I can play much more than other people think I can play. I don't know if I would want to play any and every character,

but the joy and the purpose of being an actor, frankly, is to be a chameleon and to be malleable and shift into something different. And it's beautiful. It's beautiful to experience. And it's okay to fail as hard as, or be willing to fail as hard as it is to say that out loud. But you have to be willing to do something that's not easy and doesn't seem intuitive or make sense to you.

In order for that, something to be profound and for you to grow, if you play it safe, you could have a wonderful, successful career and maybe even be content. But it's so much more interesting to not just repeat and do something that feels like it's not gonna inspire you. You've got to work with some of the greatest directors alive and how different is the process with different directors?

Yeah, it's very different. I've been very, very privileged to work with some of the best filmmakers who are real, real. Arturs and artists and everyone is very unique and everyone brings different qualities to it. And it's like any collaborations, like any partnership, it's like any relationship. And the key is to be around people that bring something good out of you in life.

I'm sure you'd agree. To hold those people close. Actually often think about you because we don't get to spend as much time as I'd like and I think of you and I think of even moments early on in my life where I didn't even know you and admired you. And when I did get to meet you, you were very generous of spirit. I remember sitting in your car probably, I don't know, close to 20 years ago, maybe playing beats on a tape or something in your tape deck and sat there and listened thoughtfully

and Quincy Jones gave me that courtesy. And these are moments that you don't have to hear courtesy and these are moments that you don't have to hear some kid playing you as beat tape and give them the feedback and you did and you were thoughtful and kind and just those things don't go unnoticed especially with the world being as it is and how precarious it all is when you encounter people that you consider friends that you don't see enough, it's important to let them know and to cherish those friendships and to try and make time for them.

So I mean that and I thank you for all of our encounters because I always find you uplifting. Same. Yeah, thank you. And so you have the similar characteristics like I feel safe in a room, sharing creative ideas and interpreting something together. And you will have a different perspective than I will.

And it will likely give me insight and I can go with that and I'm good with that as a person, as a collaborator. I'm very good with that. And so I look for what those things are in people that I work with. How can they pull me out of my own limitations? And sometimes they do that forcefully and sometimes they do that through more peaceful methods. But I'm used to all of it. I'm not surprised by any of it and I'm not surprised by any of it,

and I'm not too put off by it. You know, it can't all be smooth. It's gotta, but we gotta be in it together. Give me the range of a direction. What's something that one director would say, and then something another director would say that couldn't be more different? So, I mean, Ken Loach wouldn't give me

the end of a scene or the second half of a scene if my character wasn't the catalyst. So I didn't know what would actually transpire. And so I'd have actual dialogue to memorize and a scene and a basic understanding of what's to transpire. But then another actor would be given his dialogue or his notes from Ken of where the scene goes. And then I would have to be in character

and focused enough to respond as the character would and react. And he uses this technique primarily because he deals with non-actors. And we were doing a film about the janitor's movement, the Justice for Janitors movement in Los Angeles. And I spent time working with union organizers and spending time with people in their homes and this whole underbelly of the city that isn't acknowledged for keeping it afloat.

Like you look at all the offices and everything with all these janitors that had no job security and a lot of hardship and complexity in their lives. But I loved the process. And it was very interesting working with non-actors and watching their reactions were quite natural the first go around. And then now we do a second take,

but we all knew what was going to happen. And people started acting. They started doing what they think you wanted them to show you rather than to experience what is happening. And as a professional actor, you learn not to show it and try and re-experience it. And that's where it's great to have someone who wants to try different things and actors who try different things, because then you're always on your toes and you're always responding.

So that would be one quite extreme way of doing it. Some directors would show you sometimes, they would do something, not necessarily give you a line reading of, even that's not the end of the world, if it's good, if it resonates. And then Wes Anderson, for instance, will use animatics, which are these moving storyboards,

and he will act out the characters at pace, at a style, and with a kind of frenetic energy that he is looking for. And that's also quite interesting, and I know that's quite clear where my interpretations might veer from that and not to really go there because you have to honor his specificity and the nature of his storytelling both the way he shoots and

the way everything must work in an almost choreographed manner and then it's your responsibility to bring truth in life to those moments. So there are myriad ways, you know. And sometimes a director will give you something beautiful and let you just do it and not weigh in. And they might ask you to do it three, four times and not say anything. And then might offer a little note or might never offer a note.

They just gave you space and adjusted camera to you, blocked it with you with camera and found where those moments are. But there's no one way to do it. And the joy is working with people There's no one way to do it. And the joy is working with people that you like and trust their interpretation, whether it's different from your own. You say, I can do that.

It's not what I was thinking I would do, but I can make that feel truthful to me. It's when someone's way off in another field then you're struggling. Typically, if there's gonna be another take, would it be the director asking for another take or you asking for another take? Not necessarily. That's a good one. I learned one from Peter Jackson where we'd shoot it

and then he'd get it and he'd be satisfied with it and he'd go, let's do one for luck. And I will always ask for one for luck. If it's not being egregious, if we're up against the clock and then we're losing the light and there's another actor that hasn't gotten his shot and I feel like we got it, I won't ask to do it again, but if we have room to do one more and I say, do we have room for one,

I'd love to just do one for luck. And then you can let go of the pressure because you know in your heart they got something safe. You know that your director's happy to move on, and sometimes something magic can happen. And then sometimes it doesn't, and you say, all right, why don't we try that, let's move on, right? In sometimes it doesn't and you say, all right, well, we tried that, let's move on.

In general, how different would you say your performance would be from take to take? Oh, vastly, vastly on most things. I would say my choices, not an interpretation of the character or a connectedness, sometimes will be deeply immersed and sometimes it'll be harder to get there, an interpretation of the character or connectedness. Sometimes it'll be deeply immersed and sometimes it'll be harder to get there. But it's not like it's gonna be a handful of takes

that aren't right, they're just gonna be different choices and at some point one feels really right. And you hope the director selects those and the editor selects those in the cut. In a world of artificial highs and harsh stimulants, there is something different, something clean, something precise.

Athletic nicotine. Not the primitive products found behind convenience store counters. Not the aggressive buzz that leaves you jittery. But a careful calibration of clean energy and focused clarity. Athletic nicotine. The lowest dose tobacco-free nicotine available. Made entirely in the USA. No artificial sweetness, just pure, purposeful elevation. Athletic nicotine is a performance nootropic. Athletic nicotine is a tool for shifting mindsets.

Athletic nicotine is a partner in pursuit of excellence. Slow release, low dose, gradual lift, sustained energy, soft landing,ired results. Athletic nicotine. More focus. Less static. Athletic nicotine. More clarity. Less noise. Athletic nicotine. More accuracy. Less anxiety. Athletic nicotine. From top athletes pushing their limits to artists pursuing their vision, athletic nicotine offers the lift you've been looking for. Learn more at athleticnicotine.com slash tetra and experience next level performance with athletic nicotine. Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. How much of a performance is the words that you're saying and how much of it is something

else? The feeling and the connection is first. Sometimes not having to say words is freeing. And if the words are really beautiful, sometimes they will spur more emotion and feeling. That's why dialect work is so important, the key is to not have to think about your lines or how you sound or any of the technical aspects of expressing the feeling and context of what needs to be conveyed. And then, then you're free to live in that space and modulate how those words need to be expressed. Do you ever ad-lib? Yeah.

If a director's open to me improvising, I'm often ad-libbing. There's a lot of curse words and fun subtle things in Hungarian that I learned as a boy that have been added to The Brutalist for instance and you know I think it brings textures and feelings and I like them as bridges. I like them and filling the space sometimes. And I like what it does to my fellow actor because then they're not waiting for something very specific that we've kind of hammered home. And so, and I like receiving it from another actor.

If someone has a comment that they think of that's quite fitting and interesting as the character, gives me something to respond to and react to and come back differently, you know? Many ways in which you can have that same conversation and interpret what someone said or meant and they interpreted differently. You say, you know, I didn't say it that way. And, or you say, yeah, that's what I, that's how I meant it. But that's all based on them. If someone just says it the same way, or doesn't integrate some little spark of something else then

It's predictable Have you ever done theater? So I started doing theater so when I was Twelve I was doing Off-Broadway play I was taking the train from junior high school in Queens after school and going to the city and trying not to get jumped on St. Mark's. And it was rough. And I did another piece at BAM with Elizabeth Suedos very early on.

And then I went to performing arts and studied and did a lot of scene study but I didn't work professionally in theater since those days and I just did last year a play on the West End in London at the Dunmar and we did eight shows a week and I played an inmate it's based on a true story it's called the fear of 13 and I played an inmate who served 22 years on death row for a crime he didn't commit. How was the experience of the theater schedule for you? It's pretty intense, pretty immersive and a lot of pressure. I knew it would be it's

been intimidating and kind of what's kept me from doing it for a long time. It's also a vastly different way of working than I'm accustomed to, I've grown accustomed to on film. I also like a somewhat controlled environment when I'm working. It helps me. I think my senses become enhanced when I'm working. And so I don't like a lot of noise or people moving or coughing or eating chips or whatever it is around me, of course.

And I find it harder to deliver the work on the level, and immerse myself on that level. And you don't have that luxury. It's very unpredictable. And you're surrounded by people, and the Dunmar is quite an intimate space, so they built the stage, abutting the audience. There were people right in front of me and the other actors.

And I spoke to 50 people a night in their eyes and on some nights it was quite wonderful that you really had this communion with them. You felt them in a moment with you and that fuels you. And then some nights people who are in the light and available to you are less accessible to you because they don't either don't respond to it or unwilling to channel that level of intensity, which is fine.

But I always found the nights that I connected and was able to connect with members of the audience, I found it such a rewarding thing. I go home with that and they go home with that. And theater is very interesting because you gotta leave it all on there and then it's gone. Whoever was there that night and if there is a mishap, you keep going and it's quite exciting.

Yeah, I had to start engaging in the promotions of the film while I was on the stage. And so that was pretty hard. I got to come back for the Governor's Awards, for instance, just for the intro and leave before the dinner, got on a plane, flew straight to London and straight to the theater and then did a show and then did seven more shows that week.

Wow. But it's been very exciting, you know? It's been a, this past window has been quite good creatively. And doing theater after all these years has helped me, I think, with my work and given me, and it's made me feel stronger. Yeah.

Do you picture doing it again? Yeah, I have to find the right window. I haven't made a film since The Brutalist. And I'm a film actor and I want to do more film work that speaks to me. But I loved my cast, I loved collaborating with people every day and they were very supportive of me, you know, coming in. They were all theater actors and that's their world. And you know, they were generous.

I appreciated that. Yeah. We start talking about The Brutalist. How did you get involved first? Well, they sent the script. I read the script. It was beautiful. I read it and I thought what an amazing opportunity

this would be for any actor to live with a character for decades and all the complexities of his life and all of his complexities of his personality, which really, really spoke to me to play a flawed protagonist, you know. And then it didn't come to me, if you wanna know the whole detail. I met with Brady and we had a wonderful meeting

and spoke a lot about, you know, his storytelling approach and why I felt it was right for it, but they ended up going in a different direction with numerous other casting choices. And then COVID disrupted everyone's life and it went away for a while and financing fell through. And then they brought it back together in a new iteration

and came back to me with it, which is remarkable. Interesting, obviously meant to be. Yeah, feels that way. Yeah, we have no control over these things. Yeah, we don't, no. I'm more willing to embrace that these days because I realize I can't control it anyway.

Yeah, we have no control. Typically when you read a script, is it the character that gets you or is it the whole story? What happens when you read a script and you're like, ah, this is good? I need several things. The criteria is, of course, do I relate to this character

or is it a journey I wanna go on creatively and will it provide growth and will it offer me, an opportunity to do something, explore something different or that speaks to me in some way at that point in my life? That's crucial. And then the other considerations are who I'm gonna be with for that period of time

It's a director's medium. You have to trust your filmmaker you have to believe in that you you will both be aligned in that storytelling vision and so that you can Relinquish some of your Controlling nature my own I should say and, but know that you have someone in your corner that is similarly aligned in how they wanna tell this journey and how, you know, what their expectations are of you. I think it's very important that you're aligned.

And then, you know, there are other factors, but the main thing is does the work speak to you and who you're going to be with. And this was a wonderful ensemble, amazing actors from everyone, from day players who came, worked so hard, and just amazing crew. Guy Pearce is such a generous giving actor and Felicity Jones is so amazing and Alessandra Navola and Isaac de Bancole.

Just the relationships in the film, the characters' relationships really feel baked in and lived in and truthful. And that's a testament to their ability to give a lot and beautiful writing, of course. How much does your performance change based on the person you're playing against? I think it's definitely enhanced or diminished by the collaborative nature or lack thereof. I mean, you can fight through things, of course, and that's where technique comes in and experience.

But the joy of interacting with another actor who's listening and modulating their responses accordingly. And you have someone to connect to their soul. It's such a beautiful moment. And that surely elevates your own work and your ability to feel centered and connected. Does it ever get so strong in that moment to where you don't feel like you're acting, you forget you're in a movie and you're in this moment and the moment it's happening?

To some degree, yes. I would say to some degree, I don't know if I've ever fully lost a sense of where I was ever. I've had profound, emotional, cathartic, transformative experiences as another person, as a character, if that makes sense. Yeah. You know, the key is to lose your self-awareness

and self-consciousness. Children make remarkable actors because they're not self-conscious. They haven't been kind of bombarded by rules and society and parents and everyone telling them, don't show that. It just comes out. And you see when the kid is alive and lost in thought or mad or finding something, you know,

any human emotion that comes from a child is quite pure and truthful. And it takes work, it takes research and a lot of discipline to do that work, at least for me, but that is the joy of the work. And I was always, I never really liked homework. It's funny, I picked a job that requires a great deal of homework, but that's part of the reason

I have to really wanna be on that mission and wanna delve deeper into that understanding that would be required for the character. And, you know, my perspective and my understanding of life and my own sense of gratitude each day has come primarily from an understanding of the human condition and the suffering that exists in others. And my own good fortune of not experiencing suffering on that level. And I learned that and earned that at a young age.

And it really gave me a wonderful sense of perspective and immense gratitude that really has, I would say, shaped my years as a young adult. And of course, you're not always as present as you'd like to be, but I always do feel very conscious of my own good fortune and very sensitive and empathetic to others and can connect to their struggle as I've struggled through many things in life and even things that are not personal to me I can relate to because of the work that I've done and which I think encourages that. So much of today's life happens on the web. Squarespace is your home base for building your dream presence in an online world. Designing a website is easy, using one of Squarespace's best-in-class templates.

With the built-in style kit, you can change fonts, imagery, margins, and menus, so your design will be perfectly tailored to your needs. Discover unbreakable creativity with Fluid Engine, a highly intuitive drag-and-drop editor. No coding or technical experiences required. Understand your site's performance with in-depth website analytics tools. Squarespace has everything you need to succeed online. Create a blog. Monetize a newsletter.

Make a marketing portfolio. Launch an online store. The Squarespace app helps you run your business from anywhere. Track inventory and connect with customers while you're on the go. Whether you're just starting out or already managing a successful brand, Squarespace makes it easy to create and customize a beautiful website. Visit squarespace.com slash tetra and get started today. Tell me a little bit about the research process. For the brutalist, you read the script, you like it, what happens next? I'm a fan of architecture and appreciate the artistry,

and I'm a fan of Brutalist work, not all of it, but I love how bold and in-your-face it is, and how forward thinking it was at that time and some of those structures still today look quite futuristic even in, you know, and I love the use of raw materials and clear open spaces. Because I paint and like music and like cars and bikes and toys. I always, always envision big, open, clear-span structures, not enclosed by little rooms and walls. And so that style of architecture lends itself to those kind of cavernous rooms.

And so I studied a bit about it. I mean, Laszlo Toth, the character I play, is a fictional character, but he's an amalgamation of several quite prolific architects of that era, Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, Louis Kahn. Those men were fortunate enough to flee or had families had left Europe prior to World War

II or the Nazi occupation and so they were able to carry on with their creative work and their lives. When Brady and Mona, Mona Fastfold, who's his wife and co-writer of the film, were researching architects of the Bauhaus era. They were trying to model the character or write a story about one who had survived and emigrated to America, and there were no survivors. And so he was a fictional character based on these out of necessity. And so I did some research there and I think what was most important to me was the Hungarian dialect which is quite a specific sound.

It's a very unique language and the dialect. It's familiar to me from my grandparents and my mother, but my grandparents and my mother fled Hungary in 1956 during the revolution. So their hardships and their tenacity and their resilience and sacrifice were all very intimate to me. And so I really felt I wanted to

hearken back to my memories of my grandparents and to have a sound reminiscent of my grandfather. There's a kind of formality of speech of a man in the 50s and the way he expressed himself was very unique. And he passed when I was quite young, but he was so memorable to me. He was super charismatic and quite powerful. So there were qualities that I wanted to integrate of that. So I worked with a dialect coach that the film provided, who's this woman, Tanera Marshall,

and she was wonderful. What is that process to learn a dialect? It's interesting. There are lots of techniques and there are things that we hear or we perceive to hear that we miss, that someone else who's, as you know very well, it doesn't even have to be about a specific thing, but it's a nuance that's overlooked. And you say, I noticed this.

And then that gives information for the person who's trying to convey it to see if they can integrate a new little detail to that. And so I found one person in particular who was a Holocaust survivor who spoke a lot about his experiences recounted his experiences in Hungary of that time as a boy and his father and how all the details of the factories were shut down and people were hidden and all these things which people were hidden and all these things which only helped. But the way he spoke was very much the way my grandfather sounded. And it was a key resource for me. And so I would listen to it for hours and hours and hours on end.

And I would try to replicate what he's saying. I almost memorized many of the things by just hearing them repeatedly. And then I would work on my own dialect and then I would lead other things as I would. And then, you know, the beauty was we shot in Budapest. And even though the film takes place in Doylestown in Pennsylvania, it was very helpful for me to be there in Hungary hearing a dialect. The crew all had, you know, when they spoke English, had things for me to learn from. And I had to represent because I had, you know, I wasn't in another country. And so it gave me a bit of an extra push

to be aligned with, even beyond the dialect, you pick up qualities that are very useful. And you just keep working and working and working away at it. And because, especially in independent films, you don't have a great deal of leeway. You don't have, you know, we shot on film, we shot on this division, which we should talk about at some point, which is amazing.

But you have limited time. We shot on the 33 day window, which is nothing. We made the movie for less than $10 million, which is nothing for a film of this breadth and epic nature and visual storytelling. $10 million, which is nothing for a film of this breadth and epic nature and visual storytelling. So that meant that every second counted. So I was home studying all the time and working.

But it's very exciting, because I'm steeped in that. Most of the films I've done since I've been a boy have been independent films. And the lack of resources often spurs great creative moments and gems. And the pressure, as unpleasant as it is at times, it helps you cook. And I'm used to cooking under pressure and it's good. You say in general pressure helps you or undermines you. I'm good with pressure.

I tend to lean into things that feel a little bit more higher stakes, it's fight or flight, you know? And you don't have to fight and you don't have to flee, but you have to find a way to solve it and get through it and not run away. It's getting used to using that pit in your stomach for good

and to wake up the brain and the emotional state and then apply it very forcefully. And that's something I've grown accustomed to and I'm not intimidated by. Yeah. How different is it playing a fictional character versus playing a real human? You have additional responsibility, of course,

portraying a person that you're representing. You have a responsibility anyway to make a fictional character real. So it's not that you don't have your, you're not freed of your responsibilities, but you're not encumbered by certain things that are quite known. I've played numerous characters who are real people and obviously, you know, portraying Pat Riley, for instance, and we all know and have a very distinct memory of how he was at that era.

And it was very important for me. And the filmmakers started earlier than my understanding of Pat Riley and most people's. And I was very eager to get to the space where I could represent the Pat Reilly I felt I knew and wanted to represent, which came after this period where they wanted to show a bit of him, of his uncertainty in his life and very different stylistically and personality wise. And it's a beautiful arc in the long run, but I kept wanting to almost defend the image that I felt ought to be represented in my portrayal. Yeah. Right? So there is a different sense of responsibility.

The pianist, of course, I portrayed Vladislav Spielman that the movie was based on his memoirs, and that's also quite significant, you know? But if you represent a horrible time in history and you represent someone who's endured that or witnessed that, you still have a responsibility to all of those that have experience and been connected to some kind of horrific loss that's unfathomable.

And so I don't know if I would have done it my work differently. I apply the same level of focus. It's just I think you can use your imagination in ways that doesn't feel like it has to adhere to certain qualities, if that makes sense. Yeah. Typically when you're shooting, how aware are you of the frame that you're in or the space that you're in? And do you pay attention to things like that

or do you just act? No, I'm very, act? No, not anymore. I think there was a time probably that I just let it rip and hoped and didn't know, didn't know enough about what lens they were on and didn't know that I should know. And that's not to be self aware or overly controlling. to be self-aware or overly controlling. It's to give you insight into the cinematic language and the tools that are being used in those moments to help tell that story. And that

shouldn't necessarily have to come from your director to say We're on an 80 mil lens and we're very close to you. So you need to bring it way down You know anyway, I mean you're there for the blocking, you know, you don't have to necessarily ask but sometimes I'll say what? What's the frame? What's bottom of frame? What's my what lens are you on? I Don't like looking at dailies or playback, if I can help it, just to not somehow potentially get self-conscious. I know what I feel I am conveying.

I don't wanna see me interpreting that. I don't wanna see the physical. I wanna just be and feel it, if that makes sense. But I do like to see the frame and where I fit in the frame and how, what space I have to work in. And yeah, there are no closeups in the theater. You've got to just stand, you know. It's funny. You've got to really figure out how to make those moments a moment, and a moment for someone up in the back.

That's part of the beauty of film. I know a lot. I mean, I grew up, my mother's Sylvia Plahy. I grew up the son of an amazing photographer. So film and perspective and her point of view and the artistry and the way images can be caught in a frame or partially caught in a frame and how that further depicts the figures in the frame and tells the story is something that's very personal and familiar to me. And so I love the work of a cinematographer and the operator, not just a cinematographer

whose objective is also lighting and figuring out the look and feel and consistency of a storytelling, but you're a steady cam operator who you're doing a dance with that day and who's got to be with you and you've got to be with them. And you know when certain things are being revealed when you turn into it or he's encountering you over a shoulder or what you need to do to further tell the story over your shoulder where it's really not about you, but you have to be the guide in carrying that attention and still feel connected and interesting and alive in the frame without overshadowing that.

So it's very important that an actor is in communication with all those departments. The human foot is a true marvel of engineering. With 26 bones, 33 joints, and over 100 muscles and tendons, it's built for flexibility, balance, and natural movement. Unfortunately, today's narrow, rigid, elevated shoes undermine this natural brilliance and weaken your feet. Vivo Barefoot shoes set your feet free. Feel every step, move naturally, allow your feet to function as nature intended with Vivo Barefoot. Thin flexible soles

to keep you connected to the ground. Wide toe boxes to let your toes spread and stabilize. Minimalist shoes designed to mimic the barefoot experience, whether you're running, hiking, or just going about your day. Vivo Barefoot has you covered precisely when and where you need it most. Feel the vibration of the earth. Strengthen your feet. Improve your posture. En, enhance your natural movement

with Vivo Barefoot. Made from 100% recycled and natural materials, they are as healthy for the planet as they are for you. Experience the freedom of Barefoot movement with the protection from the sharp edges of a man-made world. Natural movement for your feet, sustainable choices for our world. Learn more at vivobarefoot.com slash tetra and embrace your human nature. Do you ever pick up either a mannerism or a quirk that you see out in the world that you might bring into a character? Every day. That was the first thing I noticed that could potentially be compromised with success as an actor.

And I wouldn't trade it back to living in a sea of anonymity out in LA, struggling, showing up at auditions and them not knowing even my name when I raised my hand to say, yes, that's me. But the freedom of anonymity is that people aren't watching you watching them. And it's another thing that I don't know if I've, it's been enhanced from my mother and traveling with my mom as she photographs, grew up in her photographing New York and and or just being curious and finding these nuances and specificity interesting, but it's memorable to me. And I often attributed my four trains

that I had to take each way going to performing arts from Queens, cause it was no direct way to get to Woodhaven to Lincoln Center as my formal acting training, because the sea of humanity in New York that I was in the midst of gave me every character and interesting expression and interaction and every socioeconomic background and you name it, New York is just so full of life and uniqueness. And it was always available to me and it was interesting during COVID, even though we all interacted less, wearing a mask and finding myself, I'd still take a train and do things. I had more freedom to not maybe tuck down and just keep it simple, stay on my phone.

It's a wonderful thing. It's a wonderful thing to observe and incorporate these things that are truthful and interesting and then infuse various ones that you've stored along the way in a role. When I did the pianist, I portrayed a man who has incredible manual dexterity and finesse and artistry with his fingers as a concert pianist. And then he endures all these horrors and is starved and lives through brutal winters

with no heat. And so that would restrict and inhibit all of your dexterity and mobility. And I grew up in New York with many cold winters and unfortunately too many homeless people. And I was always very observant of their hardships. And a common trait were very kind of gnarled, swollen, damaged fingers and hands because they're exposed to the elements all the time and they've had a hard life. And I, at the end of the film, I try to make my hands much more claw-like and rigid and

uncooperative. So everything from holding a jar of pickles and trying to open it with kind of disconnected to something that was the nimbleness of a surgeon was important for me. And that I learned many, many years ago and absorbed it. And it came alive in me. And then the moment where he's asked to prove that he's a pianist in front of the German officer and he sits at a grand piano and hasn't had the opportunity to do so. And then he's in this

moment and he doesn't quite know if he can do it. And his fingers have to kind of come alive slowly. And that's where it was wonderful to have learned to play those portions of Chopin's work and to be able to tell that story in the way I'm actually playing it, not just have someone double my hands and hope that they're gonna, it's like a stunt man doing your thing. It's like he'll do the fall great, but he's doing the fall as a stunt man and not necessarily as that character would.

Sometimes you have to try and get in there and if you don't fully break yourself, try and do the fall at least initially so that the qualities of that person come through for the big stun. Tell me about body language in general. Like, do you alter your posture for a role? Yeah, I mean, a lot of things become altered

and a lot of things follow a state of being. Some things will be deliberate choices, but it'll be informed by how you feel the character feels and how you are feeling as the character. So sometimes I will do things to make certain movements a bit more restrictive. Actually restrict those motions or put something sharp in my shoe, for instance, or something where it will alter your gait and it'll remind you of that.

And sometimes I joke about it. I like to have a rock in my shoe, even if there's nothing. No need to limp because it's good kind of layer in there. Because we all have a proverbial rock in our shoe, right? And some people may not, but I think most of us do. And I have a lot, I don't need one, but an extra one is a reminder of certain things. And I think they help.

Yeah. How important is the costume? Very important. I think sometimes even being uncomfortable in what you're wearing is good for the characters. If you want your character to be comfortable in what he's wearing, you should try and work together with the costume designer to feel comfortable.

I mean, I've played a bullfighter where, you know, I grew up wearing size 38 jabos and I was 32, 31 ways, whatever, you know, 30, you know, ridiculous, you know, hip hop pants down to my ankles. But I was then wearing this kind of very tight fuchsia pants where you literally have to force your package over and it was, bullfighters would wear it for a matter of like two hours

and we'd be shooting 12 hour days in it and they could barely even cope. So I wasn't really comfortable in that I remember, but it was, I had to be, I had to, but the character was, I think, uncomfortable with the degree of his fame and pressure of his responsibility being one of the greatest bullfighters. And so you can find ways of making it feel fitting.

Tell me how you learned your craft. Well, my mother had an assignment to photograph the American Academy of Dramatic Arts when I was 11 or something. She had the intuition to know that I was already an actor, which I understand now. I didn't quite get it, but I understand. I always think, well, all kids are imaginative. And I was different as a kid. I was much more outgoing. I was fearless and curious

and extremely imaginative. And I would tend to see things and express them and kind of replay them as I saw them. So if I encountered some experience, I'd come home and I'd be like, yo, you don't know what I saw, this happened. And I'd kind of reenact those things. And so she saw that. And when she saw these kids in this class that she was photographing,

she's like, they're doing what you do every day, which is amazing. And I don't know if I would have encountered this and the beauty of it was that it started prior to adolescence, prior to when you start shifting into those teenage years and becoming more self-aware I think or receptive to the awareness of your peers, their subjective ideas about who you are. And I think you have a lot of freedom prior to that. You're not aware. You've kind of mastered childhood.

And so you're free. And that's a great age to encourage your kids to Play to be anything they want to be but anything performative is quite exciting for them to gain a sense of freedom and understanding and control of that early and then I spent many years studying and I auditioned for my mom had one friend who was an actress and she got me an audition for her agency and they had a youth department and they agreed to represent me and I booked some work here and there.

I booked the lead role of a public television movie where I played an orphan in the 1800s, shipped from New York out to the Midwest to a farm family. And I got to understand about the hardships of these kids. And how old were you then? 13, maybe just, maybe just turned 14. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was epic. I went to Nebraska, filmed.

My dad came with me, gave me an opportunity, encouraged me. I remember my dad came to the audition for that and my character had to steal a cigar off a conductor. So my dad went to the candy store and bought me a blunt. He gave it to me to take in. And I remember there were other kids there. My dad like waited for me in take in. And I remember there were other kids there. My dad like waited for me in the car. And I often use this anecdote when asked about if someone has given me any great advice over the years. And I said, my dad, this one of my first auditions,

my dad said, just go in there like you already have the job. You don't have to like worry about thinking and asking for it. Just go in there like you already have it and you just show them how you're going to do it. And it really helped. And so I went in there and just remember there were other kids there and they're sitting with their moms or their parents and I was there on my own.

They called my name and I rocked up into this room and I did this scene where I steal the cigar off the conductor and I pull out my cigar and put it in my mouth or whatever. And they were like, who's this? Who's this kid? I was like, when are we, what's next? You need anything else? Thank you, it was You know, whatever.

My state of mind was so not what most kids stepping in that room was. And I am really over to my dad to have the understanding of what I needed and to give me the space to feel confident to do it. Tell me more about your dad. So my dad, Elliot Brody, Mr. Brody, my dad taught public school in New York,

taught middle school in Queens and the Bronx. And he is a great man and he was a really great teacher. His students loved him. He taught social studies and English as a second language. And he was very good, very patient to his parents. he taught social studies and English as a second language and He's very good very patient to his students and to me and He's quite thoughtful and

A very considerate person. He's both my parents are quite Empathetic people he's an amazing painter. He can paint old masters' works on oil, self-taught, in a way that I could never dream of painting. He's incredibly intelligent and he's been a real wonderful father and a great husband to my mom like he's he's he's been very supportive of her creative Life and enabling her to live her life as an artist and He supported our family. I'm very appreciative of him Did you go to a performing arts school? I went to public school and I went to,

I got accepted into LaGuardia, which is performing arts, which was fame that, you know, numerous really interesting people attended. Timothy Chalamet went there years later. Marlon Waynes and I used to slap box in the hallways of the drama department. and then, you know, I went to the theater, and I went to the theater with my wife, and I went to the theater with my husband, and I went to the theater with my wife, and I went to the theater with my husband,

and I went to the theater with my husband, and I went to the theater with my husband, and I went to the theater with my husband, and I went to the theater with my husband, and I went to the theater with my husband, and I went to the theater with my husband, and I went to the theater with my husband, and I went to the theater with my husband, and I went to the theater with my husband, I would have had to go to Franklin K. Lane, which is a big zone school in Brooklyn.

And my parents' home was on the border of Queens and Brooklyn. So I would have had to go into Brooklyn to go to school. And just would have been a very different trajectory. I wouldn't have had an opportunity to have encouragement in the arts in the way that I did going to an art school. And performing arts is a multidisciplinary school and there's an art department, fine art department,

a music department, a dance department, and a drama department. How old were you when you got into magic? Very young. So my mom worked for the Village Voice and she had a cowork-worker there named Howard Smith who was a wonderful writer and really cool dude he had a corner office with all these gizmos and gadgets and magic tricks and the fiber optic lights.

Remember those? They were amazing so those little strands and those purple glowing lights through the fiber optic tips. I remember seeing that like six years old or seven and just being like, that was the coolest. So I'd always go hang out in his office and he loved magic and he would show me a trick like a coin that would, you could bite off a piece of or it'd make something disappear.

And then he'd teach me how to do it. And then I'd go torment every one of her coworkers all day and perfect my routine and I at the time didn't know but I look back at it I go and this was really my introduction to acting. It's a monologue you get given a bit of pattern and then you improvise and then you come up with a whole storyline and say, I found this coin and I think it must be magic. I started rubbing it, it had a little piece of dirt on it. As I rubbed it, look, this piece disappeared. And I said, oh no. And I figured if I rubbed it some more,

maybe we'll come back and then this disappeared. And then, but then if I rubbed it on this leg too, whatever you'd make up something and that worked with the boxed trick. Yeah. And it was so fun. And I remember the joy in that. And that lasted for, you know, a number of years. I ended up for a little while doing professionally as the amazing Adrian. I would do a children's party as a child, basically do a younger kid's birthday party for, but not very much.

I think I was doing it for 50 bucks. I did the whole party, you know. But I loved it. I loved it and I always looked back at it as something. That was my gateway drug into acting. Yeah, and then you got to play Houdini. I did, yeah. Who was Hungarian, by the way.

And we shot that also in Budapest. But yeah, Houdini was Eric Weiss. And he was a somewhat failed magician. And he worked in these kind of sideshow, kind of carnival-esque sideshow gigs and took a job as a locksmith to pay the bills and he invented the term even escape artist. He created a whole new form of magic entertainment of the art of the escape and he was so brilliant. I mean he also was one of the best self marketers. Like he would figure out how to you know he'd go to a police chief in a town and say I bet you I can get out of your jail and God would be like I

bet you can. He goes well I'll make a little wager with you. And then he'd have the press come, invite the press, and the officers would stand there, and their arms crossed, and then he'd escape. And he became, I think, other than like Chaplin, one of the greatest vaudeville performers of that era. As a kid, I loved Houdini, I loved magicians, and he was one of the greats. L-M-N-T. Element electrolytes. Have you ever felt dehydrated after an intense workout or a long day in the sun? Do you want to maximize your endurance and feel your best? Add Element Electrolytes to your daily routine.

Perform better and sleep deeper. Improve your cognitive function. Experience an increase in steady energy with fewer headaches and fewer muscle cramps. Element Electrolytes. Drink it in the sauna. Refreshing flavors include grapefruit, citrus, watermelon, and chocolate salt. Formulated with the perfect balance of sodium, potassium, and magnesium to keep you hydrated and energized throughout the day.

These minerals help conduct the electricity that powers your nervous system so you can perform at your very best. Element electrolytes are sugar-free, keto-friendly, and great tasting. Minerals are the stuff of life. So visit drinklmnt.com slash tetra and stay salty with Element Electrolyte LMNT. How much would you say you know about your character when you show up to shoot the first day? Do you know everything or do more things come during the making of the movie? I know a lot, but every day offers new opportunities to discover things about yourself and about the character, right? You think you know who you are and what you're about today. And tomorrow you will encounter something

that may prove you right, or may add a new sense of understanding. And then the day after that, you're different. Yeah. And so that's the beauty of being an actor. Because the more you live, and even the more days you show up on set, the more you learn and the more you can apply those things

to the work at hand. Do you ever have a revelation about a character you played after it's already finished? New insights into who they are? Yeah, I think that's pretty common. I think, you go, that's how I should have played that. That's what I, I'll go home and I'll be like, why didn't I think of that?

Why didn't I, fuck, damn it. That's why you have to be really focused and disciplined. Yeah. You know? And sometimes it'll happen. You walk out of the set and you go, that is it. That was it. And sometimes you don't feel as connected as you really are

and you'll see it and you go, I didn't feel it quite like that. And that works in a way that I didn't sense it working. When you read a script and you imagine what the film looks like, and then you see the finished film, how different are those two things? It varies. It can be unrecognizable.

I worked six months on The Thin Red Line and ended up in the movie for a few minutes. And I played the author of the novel and I played James Jones's persona. I mean, the movie was based on a character and a character's point of view and the point of view was removed. So it can be vastly different. And sometimes you'll work with a director

who wants to experiment a lot and ask you to do various things and give me one like this and give me one a little more funny or more overtly reactive. And you'll be like, I don't know. Okay, I'll try it. And they might use most of those things. Those are not choices you really have made. You've succumbed to honor being collaborative,

but then ultimately a whole different idea is shaped in an edit. And that's very challenging, especially as you grow as an actor and have a point of view about the work that you're contributing and it's hard. It's why I find painting very helpful for me on my creative journey because it gives me a sense of autonomy

at times when I need that. How long have you been painting? I was drawing and painting since I was a child. My mom would have materials around the house and she would have test prints. You know, I grew up with film hanging everywhere and she'd have test prints laid out on record racks on the floor all over the place. And then ones that she didn't need that were kind of

crossed over and weren't printed right. I would draw on them and do things and so I already started you know having room to be quite creative and entertain myself with those tools and then Actually when I went to performing arts I also applied to the fine art department and didn't get accepted so my my portfolio wasn't Accepted so I kind of put down painting for many years and I fortunately didn't get accepted I think because I'm not just be a Struggling painter most likely and when did you pick it up again? I got more serious, I think, in my late 30s when I started finding

I needed a bit more creative fulfillment at times, or I was waiting for a role to speak to me. for a role to speak to me. And, you know, if you're an actor, you have to work to get the fulfillment. I'm most alive when I'm in the mix and involved in doing the work that I have dedicated my life towards. But sometimes you're not gonna find the right thing and you can't just work for the sake of working, unfortunately.

And so painting has offered me space to do something quite creative and immersive in those windows and not necessarily say yes to certain things, just to feel that I'm creative. Would you say that the characters you've played have changed you in any way? Definitely. How?

I've lived many lives. I've died many times. I've had to put myself in other people's shoes a lot. And the interactions beyond the pain and the pleasure and the joys of those moments. You're in other countries with a whole bunch of interesting creative people that you get to know quite well. I lived in India with Owen and Wes. I didn't even know Owen then. And I'm living in a house with Owen and Wes and Jason and bought a Royal Enfield motorcycle

and riding around through Jodhpur every day and hanging out with these incredibly interesting and funny and creative people and all of us in a life-changing environment, you know, and being in India with so much to be excited about and to experience. And then years later, working with Wes, for instance, sitting at a dinner table and they'll be Scarlett Johansson, you know, sharing some wonderful anecdote and Francis Coppola showing up and you name it, like all these interesting people around you through the work and all of those stories and experiences that you share and receive are shaping you each thing you encounter. And so I always joke it beats working for a living. Have you had to learn any cool skills for parts that you've played? Yeah, I mean, I've had to fought Jackie Chan in the Gobi Desert. I had to do martial arts choreography.

I studied martial arts as a kid. My dad, by the way, used to take me to... He also was a film lover, and he would take me to Chinatown and go to movie theaters on Canal Street in the 70s and 80s, and we'd sit in movie theaters watching amazing old Run Run Shaw, martial arts films, and I was steeped in that. He loved those movies. And martial arts films and Scorsese movies shaped my creative, you know,

and if you look at Clean, like this movie that I co-wrote and brought to life. I brought my director, co-writer on board to help me bring to fruition. It really is quite like that. It's quite a kind of 70s revenge movie and it's got hatchet fighting sequences and we use my Buick Grand National in the movie and I ended up scoring the whole movie, you should hear it. I did all the original music.

I produce a rapper from up in Utica now who I encountered on that movie and I put him on and he's really talented and he's in the movie rapping and I did all this contemporary music for it. So I'd never really done anything cohesive with my music, and that spoke to it. So all of the things that have fed me over the years in my environment growing up in New York City

kind of fed this creative work in a way that was quite special. Describe the New York that you grew up in. What was New York like then? I mean, I'm nostalgic. It was great. It was great. We had no cell phones and distractions. I didn't even have a pager that worked until late, you know?

But I had, like, you know, I had freedom. I hung out with all these troublemaker kids on my block and in the neighborhood and we'd ride around on bikes and I live right near Forest Park. So we roll through the park and I lived off Jamaica Avenue and under the elevated train track and we'd take the train and buy Lucy's at the bodega and eat five penny candy, five cent candy, and get into trouble. And then that was all as a child.

And then, you know, I was break dancing and I had a tail and was getting jumped from my tail and holding it down. And grew up with the birth of hip hop. And that fed a lot. And I grew up in Queens when Queens wasn't hot, when KRS was, you know, putting the Bronx on the map. And then I grew up through the times when Queens was hot with Nas and Mobb Deep and 50 and everyone else that followed and had amazing careers and that's all Shaped me in a lot of ways and I grew up

the son of an artist photographer so seeing the world on assignments and an artist photographer, so seeing the world on assignments and she had press plates, so I would be everywhere. You know, it was amazing. It was an amazing childhood. It wasn't easy. It was rough. New York was dangerous, you know. It was a very different time in Manhattan, but it was, it had a rawness, it had a poetry to it.

Yeah. And artists could afford to live there. I was surrounded by artists, or artistic people, writers, poets, musicians, theater actors, photographers, war photographers, and hoodlums, lots of hoodlums, a lot of little crews and all that stuff, which I'm sure, you know, it's still there, but it was, it felt different then. It was different, you know, it was different on those trains than also being little and, you know, having to learn through experience. Ha ha ha.

Did you ever get into graffiti? Yeah, yeah, I used to write. I used to, I mean, I had a lot of, I went to an art school, so I had a lot of boys that were super talented, you know, and a lot of my art today is deeply inspired by graffiti and I have my graffiti culture all woven throughout it. And, you know, taking the trains to school,

I observed the interesting qualities of people and I read the walls. I spent every day with headphones on, reading, you know, vibing and reading who was getting up and who had style and who was prolific. And it was all part of growing up in a city. One of my youngest, closest friends when I was young, we used to get in a lot of trouble.

He used to live under the train tracks. His sister was a big writer and she was in a crew and they used to go to the train yards and bomb whole train cars then. I'm talking, I was like, must have been 10, but I was going to, yeah, it was fun. Those were fun days. I used to collect cans with my friend, this kid, Chucky, and we used to go collect cans to get some extra money and go buy stuff at the store and jump the train

and go ride around and just get, nope, nope. My parents let me live. And you could live quite freely then. It was wild. It was great. I loved that city. It shaped me. Would you ever consider directing?

Yeah, definitely. I have been yearning to direct. I've directed commercials primarily to explore different formats and materials and it's kind of like free film school. Practice. Practice. Yeah, working with a crew, finding DPs that you like and experiment with things.

I shot with my first commercial that I never didn't even have a reel to show. I pitched them this idea and I flew myself to Detroit. I'd met a head of marketing at Chrysler and we met at a film festival and we're talking about film and he had asked me if I had any interest in directing. I said yeah and I'm a car nut. I grew up drag racing in Queens too. I neglected to even bring up that whole massive chapter in my life. Like I built so many muscle cars, I had no money.

And so all the kids on the block who I related to had muscle cars or knew about mechanical work. And so they would teach me and we'd all have our own muscle cars and we'd go out on Friday night and Saturday night and we'd go to factory blocks in Brooklyn and I'd race these Jamaican dudes with their Toyota Starlets and I'd pull up in my Mazda RX-7. I had seven different RX-7s at one point. They were rotary engines and I'd whip it down the block sideways and Mach 1 Mustangs that I built up and a 70 Challenger.

So I had shared some of this with this guy and he was like, you should do a commercial with us. And he sent me some idea. I didn't think it was good for them and I didn't take the job. And I said, I don't think this is good for you for these reasons. And he appreciated that.

And then he gave me another one, sent me another one. I said, I have an idea for this one. I came and I sat in a boardroom. I think I got up at crack of dawn, flew to Detroit, pitched them and they gave me the gig and it was a golden globe commercial or they played at the Golden Globes, and they loved it. It was quite good. You could look it up, it's called Arrive in Style.

If you look up Chrysler Arrive in Style, and I did the VO for them. I directed it, it was largely black and white. I did it with my friend Gabriel, who was a wonderful editor on Brothers Bloom. I met him working with Ryan Johnson and Gabriel unfortunately passed away since then, but we made a really beautiful piece.

And yeah. And so long story short, yeah, I'm waiting for the right moment to do it and take the time to do it, because I think it's very important that I have a lot to apply in my life's experiences and my collaborations with people,

including my own mother's artistic vision cinematically to give, and I definitely know how to communicate with actors, so it's only a matter of time that it'll happen, yeah. Great. Is there a type of character that you've always wanted to play but never have gotten to do yet? I'd love to do a really great, meaningful love story. Just something where there's just such a deep connection with someone that's intimate and true to life and full of complexity, love and relationships, I think.

What's the biggest physical transformation you've ever gone through for a part? I've had two big shifts physically for roles. Obviously, the pianist, I had to depict a man who experienced starvation. And so I went down to 129 pounds. I was hardly even drinking water towards the first days of production. We shot in reverse chronology. So I was in very good shape too. I'd just done another film before that called Love the Hard Way, which is one of another

favorite film of mine. It's more obscure, but I was fit. I was thin, but I was muscular. And so it was an interesting challenge. How long did it take to lose the weight? I lost about 30 something pounds, 30 something pounds in six weeks. And just not eating or was it more than that? It was mostly not eating. I was eating but very, very sparse specific things. I wasn't particularly healthy and I wasn't taking supplements and I

wasn't guided through it and I didn't know kind of what I was doing. And then I had to gain the weight back rapidly. So it was kind of forced feeding after, which was terrible for my body. I felt sick and I felt I gained weight in a way that I didn't like. I had a bit of a belly and I was like, oh my God, I ruined my metabolism.

And I managed to kind of have it catch up again, which is good. And then, you know, when I did Predators, I essentially play the Arnold Schwarzenegger character in the film. I play this mercenary character and that's kind of reboot of the franchise and I thought it would be fun to do a shift and I thought it would be fun for the guys who were fans of that movie and that genre and it's kind of unexpected to see me in that role and so I got jacked for that and it was really great. How long did that take?

I put on a lot of muscle mass. I think I had less than 6% body fat and I was, I was, like 75, so I put on 20 something pounds of muscle. It was serious. I was the best shape in my life. And then I went to India and shot one day on a film and got really ill and lost 15 pounds in a week. Wow.

Something like that, literally, I'm almost there. It eviscerated me. And all again, all that lean muscle mass was gone. Wild. How has your relationship to the craft changed over the course of your life? You know, we are an instrument and you become more proficient at using your instrument for

the work that you've applied a lifetime towards. And so my relationship to life has shifted too and I've become more proficient at being less reactive and more attuned and open. And that can be linked to a spiritual awakening and one that is found through work and sacrifice and understanding the valleys as well as the peaks and applying them in your observations of yourself and others. How do you think rhythm influences your performance. Is it a factor? Yeah, oh yeah. It influences how we are day to day.

And sometimes you're more in touch with a rhythm and some days you're not, right? And each character you play has a different rhythm from your own. Like on the pianist, I shut down all modern influences, all of it. Not just my love for hip hop, but any modern music. I just lived in another era. And I think that was helpful and gave me insight into an understanding of classical music and also the playing of that music and how each time it is played how differently emotionally

that journey is and how it conveys things. Like when I was doing the play, I would have to amp up and we'd do eight shows a week, so two days were with a matinee. And you know, that second performance, you really have to be, it's a lot, you know, and it's a heart wrenching thing to kind of conjure up all that every day. and I would put on a bunch of trap music and Pazzy, one of the actors, would come through to the little dressing room, which was like a little cinder block cell,

and we'd just do pushups and incline pushups, decline pushups, whatever, doing like a kind of jailhouse workout. And then he'd bounce and get ready. And then I would put on some John Fraschante and kind of meditate in a solemnness to tap into that. So I would empower my being and the anger and the frustrations and the hurt and all the stuff that a man

is confined with. And then I would open up the sensitivity that I find in John's work and the mourning and longing and creativity and then I'd go out and step out there and do it but that every day helped me hone in on those things and I remember working with Tupac and Mickey doing Bullet and we were under the Major Deegan in the Bronx in 93, 96, and a long time ago. And Mickey was the first actor that I worked with who would always use music to get into a zone.

And he had this walkman, cassette walkman. I was actually sitting in the limo, Pac's character had a limo, and I was playing him beats on cassette of my beats on cassette. And then Mickey was there listening, getting into a zone, listening to Stairway to Heaven and getting into his groove over there. And I went bombing with Pac, by the way, you were asking me about writing. We both were tagging this handball court and you can see some of it in the movie. And he wrote Thug Life. He didn't have it tattooed on him as of yet and he was writing Thug Life. Wow. He didn't have it tattooed on him as of yet, and he was writing Thug Life.

And I caught a little burner and there I was like, he took my can and we were bombing together. It was an incredible moment. But yeah, those were good days. Amazing. Tetragrammaton is a podcast. Tetragrammaton is a website. Tetragrammaton is a whole world of knowledge. What may fall within the sphere of tetragrammaton? Counterculture? Tetragrammaton. Sacred geometry? Tetragrammaton.

The avant-garde? Tetragrammaton. Generative art? Tetragrammaton. The tarot? Tetragrammaton. Out-of-print music? Tetragrammaton. Biodynamics? Tetragrammaton. Graphic design? Tetragrammaton. Mythology and magic? Tetragrammaton. Obscure film? Tetragrammaton. Beach culture? Tetragrammaton, graphic design. Tetragrammaton, mythology and magic. Tetragrammaton, obscure film. Tetragrammaton, beach culture.

Tetragrammaton, esoteric lectures. Tetragrammaton, off the grid living. Tetragrammaton, alt spirituality. Tetragrammaton, the canon of fine objects. Tetragrammaton, muscle cars. Tetragrammaton, Ancient wisdom for a new age. Upon entering, experience the artwork of the day. Take a breath and see where you are drawn.