BRUTAL

Director Says He Made ‘Zero’ Money on Oscar-Nominated Film

The only “real money” Brady Corbet said he’s made in “years” is from directing commercials.

Brady Corbet’s 10-time-Oscar-nominated Holocaust survival film The Brutalist hasn’t made its director “any real money,” he revealed in a sit down on the WTF With Marc Maron podcast. Corbet said, “Both my partner and I made $0 on the last two films that we made… So we had to just sort of live off of a paycheck from three years ago,” on the podcast’s Monday episode. The film follows a Hungarian-Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor (played by Adrien Brody) who escapes postwar Europe to Pennsylvania. The three-hour-long film took Corbet seven years to make, during which he’s had to make ends meet in other ways, like directing ads abroad. Those few jobs were “the first time that I had made any money really in years,” he said. Corbet’s not the only Oscar-nominee who’s having to get creative about their financial survival, telling Maron he knows others who “have films that are nominated this year that can’t pay their rent.” Even the months-long process of promoting their films for awards contention is a financial setback, he explained. “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.” Corbet is currently the frontrunner to take home the Best Director prize at next month’s Oscars after winning that award from the Golden Globes, Director’s Guild, and BAFTAs so far this season.