Adrien Brody

WATCH PART 2

This week on One on One, meet the Oscar-winning Hollywood star, Adrien Brody.

International success came early for this Hollywood actor, when in 2003 at the age of 29, he became the youngest actor to win an Academy Award for Best Actor.

His roles are diverse and intense – and usually hard to forget.

It was his role as the enigmatic pianist in the 2002 Roman Polanski movie of the same name, that won him an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Brody had meticulously prepared for the part by becoming reclusive and losing close to 30 pounds in weight.

Adrien Brody is the only US actor to win a César, the French equivalent to the Oscars [GALLO/GETTY]

With his distinctive looks and often somber acting style, Adrien Brody had already caught the attention of Hollywood following appearances in Spike Lee’s The Summer of Sam, and the war movie, The Thin Red Line – for which he received acclaim prior to its release, although his part was heavily cut in the final edit.

Born in Queens, New York, to a history professor father and photojournalist mother, he continued to take a wide range of roles following his Oscar – from The Jacket, the disturbing tale of a shell-shocked war veteran receiving unorthodox treatment for his amnesia, to the quietly heroic leading man in the 2005 action-packed remake of King Kong.

Brody, who was originally encouraged to take acting lessons as a boy largely to keep him off the streets, also added his hallmark curiously pensive character to the quirky Wes Anderson movie, The Darjeeling Express, where he played a man about to become a father on a voyage of self-discovery across India with his equally eccentric brothers.

Like many of his characters, it is hard to pin down what makes Adrien Brody tick, but he is certainly someone for whom Hollywood has a lot of time.

This episode of One on One airs from Saturday, May 30, 2009, at the following times GMT: Saturday: 0130, 1630; Sunday: 0430, 2330; Monday: 0300, 1230.