Actor Joe Alwyn is in London. But as he talks to Big Issue about his new film, The Brutalist, his mind keeps returning to the United States. Because the film is landing at a big political moment.
“This film makes me think of Trump‘s promise to deport all these immigrants and how crazy that seems,” says the 33-year-old actor.
“The black and whiteness of ‘inside or outside’, or ‘us and them’. Welcoming people in and embracing them and what they can bring, artistically, culturally, is the most beautiful, amazing thing.”
The Brutalist, directed by Brady Corbet and set to be one of the big Oscar contenders this year, is a stunning throwback to the epic cinema of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola’s 1970s classics.
A long, stylish, slow-burn immigration story that opens out into a compelling conversation about the complex relationship between art and commerce, The Brutalist weighs in at more than three and a half hours long, featuring a stylish interval – which also heralds the arrival of another British star doing rather well ‘over there’, Felicity Jones.
It tells the story of fictional Hungarian-Jewish architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Holocaust survivor who previously trained at the Bauhaus, who arrives in the US after the Second World War to rebuild his life. After toiling in building jobs he is way, way over-qualified for as he struggles to find work, to assimilate and to belong, Tóth meets Harrison Lee Van Buren – played by rising star Alwyn.
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And before long, Tóth is taken under the wing of Van Buren Sr (Guy Pearce), who offers him the opportunity to design and construct a brutalist masterpiece, at the vanguard of modernist architectural design.
“It ticks every box of the kind of film that people don’t want to finance these days,” grins Alwyn, live and direct from North London via video call.
“It’s shot on film, over three hours long, and it’s not got a car chase. So it was a battle to get it made. So it is lovely to see the reaction of people to the film.”
Some things are worth fighting for. And, just as director Corbet fought for his vision to be realised and uncompromised on the big screen, in the story, Tóth struggles to keep his architectural vision on track.
“This film made me think about so many things,” says Joe Alwyn, who first read the script in 2019 and was immediately desperate to be involved.
“It’s talking about the immigrant experience, art versus commerce in America, antisemitism. It was awash with so many big topics yet it felt so driven by this nuanced bunch of characters – with Adrien Brody’s character at the centre of it. I was so taken with the scope of it and also found it very, very moving.”
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The Brutalist star, Adrien Brody – writing his next Oscars acceptance speech, perhaps? Image: Universal Pictures UK
Brody is already being hotly tipped to win another Oscar for the lead role – 21 years after winning for his breakthrough role in The Pianist.
“I didn’t know Adrien but I was was such a fan,” says Alwyn. “And his level of absolute focus and dedication and commitment was – well, it was unlike I’d seen from anyone else on any other set before. He was just unbelievable. And I think it’s there to see in the results. He just absolutely put everything into it.”
In the film Joe Alwyn, as Van Buren Jr, plays a second-generation super-rich American. His Van character possesses all the entitlement displayed by his father but with none of the outward charm or talent. It is the best screen performance to date from Alwyn, whose previous films include The Favourite (alongside Oscar-winner Olivia Colman and Emma Stone), Kinds of Kindness (reuniting with Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos) and Harriet (alongside Wicked‘s Cynthia Erivo), as well as a leading role in the BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Conversations With Friends.
Brutalism begins at home – Guy Pearce and Joe Alwyn play father and son in The Brutalist. Image: Universal Pictures UK
“Harry is ‘the son of’, searching for his own identity within this big, powerful, wealthy structure and family,” says Londoner Alwyn. “All his nastiness comes from a place of insecurity. He’s got real daddy issues and feels displaced by Laszlo, so he lashes out.”
Little wonder Mona Fastveld called Alwyn’s performance ‘Trumpian’. And little wonder that this a rare occasions that being called ‘Trumpian’ might be received as a compliment.
“There is something about a collection of people with such power that they can treat others how they want,” says Alwyn.
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“I didn’t think of Trump as an inspiration for the character, but as a family dynamic there are echoes of those big, mega-wealthy families who are able to dispose of people when they want and who are unanswerable.”
Trump’s inauguration struck fear into many communities across the US. And The Brutalist foregrounds uneasy aspects of the immigrant experience.
“In this context, in our film, you have Harrison played by Guy Pearce, who on one level appears to be welcoming Laszlo, but he is really trying to almost own the ability and talent of Adrien’s character,” he says.
“So there’s this strange feeling that, no matter how assimilated he might become or feel as an outsider, he is still not treated equally. And sadly that’s not uncommon. It’s certainly not an outdated feeling. I think the film explores that really interestingly – this use of so-called outsiders without giving them true justice or equality.”
This is the beginning of a big year for Joe Alwyn. He will soon be seen in Hamlet with Riz Ahmed, Morfydd Clark and Timothy Spall as well as the adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, Hamnet, with Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal.
“I never know how anything’s going to go down, so I just try and find things that speak to me and cross my fingers that they turn out okay,” he says. “I love being a part of those films and I’m looking forward to seeing them. And I feel very lucky with The Brutalist.
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“I love Brady Corbet. I hope I get to work with him again and again. He is a huge talent, with such vision.”
