Skip to main content

During the course of his career, Oscar-winning actor Adrien Brody engaged in some regrettable moves. Remember that Halle Berry kiss at the Academy Awards? Now, Brody admits that’s not the worst of it. The Pianist star says he had an opportunity to star in The Lord of The Rings. Here’s what he says happened. 

He has an illustrious string of credits 

Adrien Brody, who passed on a 'Lord of the Rings' role, wearing black
Adrien Brody | Santiago Felipe/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival

Adrien Brody is nothing if not prolific. He appeared in Wes Anderson movies The Fantastic Mr. Fox (animated, 2009), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), and The Darjeeling Limited (2007). Additionally, he stepped into M. Night Shyamalan’s weird universe with horror movie The Village in 2004. 

Moreover, he won an Oscar for his heartbreaking turn as Wladyslaw Szpilman in 2002’s The Pianist. 

However, he’s had a number of regrettable moments. There was the time he pulled Halle Berry in for a seemingly unwilling kiss. She was awarding him the Academy Award for Best Actor when he pulled the supremely awkward stunt. 

Additionally, there’s his ban from Saturday Night Live for “weird behavior.” 

He subsequently told Indiewire in 2017 that he didn’t regret the 2003  kiss because there was “love” in the room. 

“There was a lot of love it that room, real love and recognition. It was just a good moment and…I took it,” he told Indiewire. The impromptu smooch didn’t age well, however, and in the years since the 2017 Harvey Weinstein scandal broke, it’s been widely criticized. 

Adrien Brody missed out on ‘The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’ 

While he may not regret the Halle Berry kiss, he most certainly regrets another bad move. To sum up, in a video interview with GQ, the actor said he deeply regretted missing out on an opportunity to appear in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. 

Adrien Brody said producers approached him about the film, and he simply wasn’t looking for it. 

“I, somehow, didn’t grasp it,” Brody told GQ. “I don’t know what part I would have been right for, but it was some Hobbit-like character. I was looking for something else.”

But it wasn’t until he saw the movie in theaters that the impact of rejecting the role really hit him. He says he subsequently “felt stupid.”

“I remember going to see Lord of the Rings in the theater with an ex-girlfriend,” he recalled. “And she turned to me and said, ‘You passed on Lord of the Rings?!’ I remember feeling so stupid. But I don’t think I would have gotten the role of Jack in Peter’s [King Kong]. I don’t think that would have translated.”

Peter Jackson approached Adrien Brody for another epic film 

Related

‘Lord of the Rings’: Gandalf’s Famous Line Was Different In the Book

Peter Jackson was nonplussed, and similarly approached Adrien Brody again for 2005’s King Kong. This time, he accepted. Brody played the co-starring role of Jack Driscoll among an ensemble cast that included Naomi Watts and Jack Black. That had its own set of perks, the actor said.

“We had a premiere in Times Square and they shut down all of Times Square,” Brody explained. “The mayor was there and introduced us to the city. It was a big deal. My face was immortalized on a McDonald’s soda cup. When does that happen for anyone?”

Never, Mr. Brody. That never happens for anyone. However, neither does missing out on what’s quite possibly the most epic fantasy trilogy of all time. 

Best in Movies