The Brutalist Director Makes Revelation Hollywood Should’ve Feared More Than Emilia Pérez Scandal
Brady Corbet is one of the frontrunners for the Best Director win at this year’s Oscars, though he might’ve just sparked another major controversy about the film industry.
Massive strikes that swirled Hollywood back in 2023 have had their long-lasting toll on the industry that has just got up on its feet. However, the never-ending circle of upheavals, with the most recent one being a major scandal concerning Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, still might take another round after Brady Corbet’s surprising revelations.
The director received worldwide acclaim after helming the epic historical-ish drama The Brutalist, starring Adrien Brody, and is currently considered a very likely winner in the Best Director category at the upcoming Oscar ceremony.
Premiering at the Venice International Film Festival back in 2024, The Brutalist remains a critical and commercial success, though, as it turns out, Corbet gained little (if not really nothing) from its mastermind’s ongoing legacy.
Brady Corbet Reveals He’s Literally Broke Even After The Brutalist’s Box Office Success
Despite the movie earning three times more of its initial budget so far, the writer-director eventually got nothing as a bonus and, in fact, didn’t receive any money at all.
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Speaking to Marc Maron for his WTF Podcast, Corbet revealed that neither he, nor his wife and co-writer Mona Fastvold have ever received a single dollar for two of their latest movies which also include Corbet’s upcoming historical drama Ann Lee, starring Amanda Seyfried.
The director then continued with even more shocking confessions, saying that the lack of money had forced him to take on several commercial short projects in Portugal, and “it’s the first time that I had made really any money in years.”
Brady Corbet Isn’t the Only Oscar-Nominated Director Struggling With Money
This might have seemed like more of an exception than a rule, but the director reassures he’s joined a long list of extremely successful filmmakers who in reality have to “ just sort of live off of a paycheck from three years ago.”
According to Corbet, he reached out to many fellow Oscar nominees and was shocked to realise there are “many filmmakers that have films that are nominated this year that can’t pay their rent.”
As such an outcome now feels more typical rather than exceptional, Corbet provided an explanation of how a director can end up in such a disheartening situation.
“You’re not paid to be promoting a film, and if you look at certain films that premiered in Cannes, that was almost a year ago. Our film premiered in September so I’ve been doing this for six months and had zero income because I don’t have any time to work,” he pointed out, also adding that many prominent directors, just like him, had no other choice but to come onboard for foreign commercials just to do something for a living.
Meanwhile, The Brutalist is still one of the favorites in a whopping number of 10 Oscar categories, the winners of which will be announced on March 2.