Despite being among the favorites this awards season, Brady Corbet‘s The Brutalist did not net the indie filmmaker a single dollar.
The Vox Lux helmer appeared on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast yesterday to discuss the 10-time Oscar-nominated sweeping American immigrant epic, having just come off a string of advertising gigs in Portugal that proved to be “the first time that I had made any money in years.”
Corbet, who directed The Brutalist off of a script penned by himself and partner Mona Fastvold, his wife and collaborator, said the two “made zero dollars on the last two films that we made.” When Maron was surprised at the statement, he reiterated: “Yes. Actually, zero. We had to just sort of live off of a paycheck from three years ago.”
He continued, “I’ve spoken to many filmmakers that have films that are nominated this year that can’t pay their rent. I mean, that’s a real thing.”
That’s because Corbet, and other directors like him, are often tied up in a months-long global press tour promoting their film, which they are not paid to do. “If you look at certain films that premiered in Cannes [Film Festival], that was almost a year ago … I mean, our film premiered in September. So I’ve been doing this for six months and had zero income because I don’t have any time to go to work. I can’t even take a writing job at the moment.”
Corbet described the “everything all at once” and “boundless” promotion leading up to release and in its aftermath during campaign season as “a six-month interrogation.”
“It’s constant travel, but you’re also working Saturdays and Sundays. I haven’t had a day off since the Christmas break,” he said, adding that he must have done “like 90 interviews last week” in a junket-style press run.
The interview also covered Corbet’s background as a former actor and the film’s themes regarding male ego and the interplay between art and legacy.
Earlier today, former collaborator Natalie Portman, who starred in Corbet’s Vox Lux in 2018, wrote a Deadline guest column in praise of the director, saying: “Brady’s big-swing, small-scale epics —The Brutalist chief among them — are transforming the way movies are made in our maximalist era of algorithmic content creation and franchise fatigue.”
The Brutalist is up for top categories like Best Picture, Actor, Directing and Writing, tying with Wicked for second-most nominations, just under Netflix’s Emilia Pérez. The 215-minute tale follows Hungarian Jewish architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody), who emigrates to the U.S. after surviving the Holocaust, as he looks to rebuild his life, career and marriage. Once settled in unfamiliar Pennsylvania and awaiting the arrival of his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), the visionary is spotted by a wealthy industrialist (Guy Pearce). The sprawling narrative spans three decades of post-war America, features a 15-minute intermission and excoriates the sinewy connections between creativity, exploitation and alienation.
