Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, one of the favorites this awards season, did not bring in a single dime for the independent director.
Following a run of advertising gigs in Portugal that proved to be “the first time that I had made any money in years,” the director of Vox Lux made an appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast on 16 Feb to talk about the sweeping American immigrant epic, which has been nominated for ten Oscars.
Based on a story written by himself and his wife and collaborator Mona Fastvold, Corbet directed The Brutalist. According to Corbet, the two “made zero dollars on the last two films that we made.” Maron repeated: “Yes,” expressing surprise at the statement. Zero, actually. We were forced to make do with a paycheck from three years prior.
“I’ve talked to a lot of filmmakers who have films nominated this year who are having trouble paying their rent,” he added. That is a reality, after all.
This is due to the fact that Corbet and other filmmakers like him are frequently occupied with a months-long international publicity tour that promotes their work without receiving compensation. “If you consider some of the movies that had their Cannes [Film Festival] premieres, which were nearly a year ago… After all, our movie came out in September.
Since I don’t have the time to go to work, I’ve been doing this for six months with no money. Right now, I am unable to even accept a writing position.
“A six-month interrogation” is how Corbet characterized the “everything all at once” and “boundless” promotion that preceded and followed the release during the campaign season.
In addition to traveling constantly, you work on Saturdays and Sundays. He claimed to have done “about 90 interviews last week” in a publicity run akin to a junket, adding, “I haven’t had a day off since the Christmas break.”
Corbet’s history as an actor and the film’s themes of masculine ego and the relationship between art and legacy were also discussed in the discussion.
“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,” Natalie Portman, a former collaborator who starred in Corbet’s Vox Lux in 2018, wrote in a guest column for Deadline earlier today.
In addition to being nominated for Best Picture, Actor, Directing, and Writing, The Brutalist is tied with Wicked for second-most nominations, trailing only Netflix’s Emilia Pérez. The 215-minute story follows László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian Jewish architect who fled the Holocaust and immigrated to the United States in an attempt to rebuild his marriage, career, and life.
After settling in a strange Pennsylvania and waiting for his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), the visionary is noticed by Guy Pearce, a wealthy businessman. The extensive story, which includes a 15-minute intermission, covers three decades of post-war America and scathingly examines the intricate relationships between alienation, exploitation, and innovation.
This awards season, Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist is a big hit, but independent filmmaking is more difficult than it looks. Do you want to learn more about the challenges and successes faced by the industry? For more in-depth movie analysis and behind-the-scenes tales, visit our website!
