Oscar-winning actor for The Pianist, Adrien Brody, reveals how the film has impacted his life and career over the years. Brody won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the age of 29 for The Pianist in 2003, which made him the youngest actor ever to win in that category. The veteran actor has since appeared in multiple major Hollywood projects including The Village, King Kong and Midnight in Paris and has also appeared in the hit TV series Peaky Blinders. He is a frequent collaborator of Wes Anderson and will feature in the American director's upcoming feature, The French Dispatch.

The Pianist is based on the autobiographical book of the same name from 1946 written by Polish-Jewish pianist and composer, Wladyslaw Szpilman (played by Brody), and his life in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. The film essentially plays out as a survival story in the ruined city of Warsaw where he occasionally receives help from friends and strangers, including a German captain who admired his piano playing. The film also won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay and Best Director for Roman Polanski.

Brody recently sat down with GQ to discuss his most celebrated roles and spoke in length about the impact that the iconic film had on his life. He said that it was a stroke of "luck" that landed him the part, describing it as "preparation meets opportunity." He mentioned how the "responsibility" of playing such a character affected him on a deeper level and stated that "it never left me." His full quote can be read below:

"The responsibility that I felt in carrying that role, and the process, you know, so deep, so profound, that it never left me. And aside from the obvious career benefits and the accolades, it changed my life as a man, as a young man. I really- I feel like that movie made me understand a lot, and made me realize how much I had taken for granted."

Brody mentioned that before he was cast for the role, he had been "yearning to find a character with that depth," and Wladyslaw Szpilman most definitely represents that. He stressed the importance of putting himself in his character's shoes and elaborated on how he had to "lose a lot of weight" to show Szpilman's physical transformation. He expressed that "you can't act emaciated, you have to become emaciated," and this is on display for all to see as Brody perfectly encapsulates what he described as "the hollowness and emptiness" of someone who has lost all his "will power and strength." The American actor also touched on how the experience of playing a character who has lost everything gave him "a level of empathy" which he carries with to this day.

It is pretty clear to see that Brody poured his heart and soul into playing Wladyslaw Szpilman in The Pianist. He went to great extremes to become the Polish pianist and Holocaust survivor in the film. His process and transformation involved moving out of his apartment, selling his car and disconnecting his cellphone, to mention a few. This is a testament to his commitment and dedication to method acting in what was certainly the role of a lifetime for the acclaimed actor.