'Pianist' stars discuss their roles

By Nicole Rodriguez

A press junket of this magnitude is a first for actors Adrien Brody and Thomas Kretschmann. They sit in a suite at New York City's posh Essex House hotel with members of the press, who have traveled from all corners of the country to meet with them. Although they have both been in moderately successful movies before (Brody in "The Thin Red Line" and Kretschmann in "Blade II"), this is the first time the actors, both starring in Roman Polanski's critically-acclaimed "The Pianist," have participated in such an awe-inspiring work.

"I don't hate [doing junkets]," Brody explains as he settles himself at a table with the eight college reporters chosen to participate in the two-day junket. "It can just be really difficult if the experience didn't move you that much and you have to find something to discuss, but this story is fascinating and the experience was life-changing."

Both of the formerly little-known actors were hand-picked by legendary director Roman Polanski ("Rosemary's Baby," "Chinatown") to star in his latest endeavor depicting the true story of Jewish pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman, who lived in hiding in Warsaw during World War II.

"I knew Roman was going to do this film, and I read the script and I called the casting director," Kretschmann explains. "She told me that Roman wouldn't meet with any actors, but she tapes the possible actors and then sends the tapes to him. So they put me in front of the video camera and told me just to do something and I didn't know what to do, so I just took the script and read [all the different roles]."

"And then we went to this press conference to promote the finished film, Roman said, 'There was this German actor that read my script like a menu and I loved it,'" Kretschmann laughs.

Brody, however, took a different approach to his performance. "I spent over half a year immersed in this time period and learning about the details of what human beings at that time had to endure," he explains. "I had to explore levels of isolation and hunger and deprivation, which I've fortunately never had to feel before. I felt that I had to experience these things to truly portray this character. Especially in a physical sense. It's not something I could have connected to from just reading the memoirs or watching the suffering of other people."

German-born actor Kretschmann, who plays a German officer sympathetic to Szpilman's plight, said he had his own struggles in depicting an era of German history now considered to be quite embarrassing for the country.

"I think Germans are starting to deal quite responsibly with its past," he says. "In school, every class visits a concentration camp. But to read about it is different than to know about it and see it and almost experience it, which I feel is a great quality about the film because you feel like you're in it."

"What [Germans] don't like is some big Hollywood piece where the Germans are running around and being nasty and killing people without a reason or sense," Kretschmann continued. "But a film like this is very precise about it and very true about it, they appreciate it very much."

Brody added, "It couldn't have been done quite like this without Roman because he understood it in the way that no other director could understand it. He provided a very clear picture [of the horror of the holocaust] through the stories he shared with me."

The Polish-born director, in fact, lived quite a similar experience to Szpilman's in that Polanski too suffered first-hand the horror the Nazi's brought to Poland, escaping from Krakow's Jewish ghetto when he was just a child after his parents were carted away to a concentration camp.

Although Polanski had faith in Brody's ability from the first audition tape he viewed, Brody admits that Szpilman 's children were not as enthusiastic as the director.

"At first they were a little apprehensive about me playing their father," Brody admits. "I understand that. If they were doing a movie about my father and you're not the spitting image of him, and you're American, and they saw you in "Summer of Sam," I'd say who the f--- are you? Who chose this guy?

"But after they saw the film, one of the sons said to me that I completely embodied his father at that time, and that was a huge compliment."

And audiences have agreed. Brody has already been named Best Actor for the role by the National Society of Film Critics and has since been nominated for a Golden Globe. He is also considered by critics nationwide to be a shoo-in come the Oscars in March.

Not that awards and prestige are what inspired Brody to work so hard on the film. "I think the seriousness of the film to Roman and to many people made me feel like I should know [the experience], and that was really difficult. Understanding all the suffering that exists in this world put a tremendous amount of things in perspective in my own life, and I think that this film has the potential to do that for many people."