Adrien Brody Says ‘The Brutalist’ MUA Mistook His Nose for Prosthetic

Adrien Brody reveals when he could’ve lost a facial feature while shooting The Brutalist.

Brody appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday to talk about his Oscar-nominated film. In the movie, Brody ages 30 years so heavy prosthetics were necessary. The actor shared a story with Fallon about how the film’s makeup artist tried to remove the prosthetics on his nose but began to dig into his real nose instead.

“They did apply a lot of — they had to do a prosthetic procedure. And it’s funny, everyone’s very busy a movie with a lot of moving pieces. And so I had a new team of people who I’d never met, and they were removing this apparatus all over me,” he said. “This woman was busily working away with a solvent on my nose.”

Brody continued: “She’s just working away. And I said, ‘Are you trying to remove that?’ And she said, ‘Yes.’ And I said, ‘That doesn’t come off!”

The Pianist star then explained that the MUA apologized before adding, “This is going in my diary,” which earned laughs from Fallon and audience members.

Directed by Brady Corbet, The Brutalist is up for 10 Oscars, including nods for Brody as best actor and Corbet as best director. They both won in their respective categories at the Golden Globes last month. In his acceptance speech, Brody thanked his Hungarian-American parents for their sacrifice and reflected on his career.

“It’s been many years, it’s been decades, and I’ve had a long life and career and a lot of peeks and a lot of valleys and it’s given me perspective,” he said at the time. “It’s given me great appreciation for this moment because it can go away and I am very grateful. I’ve had a blessed career but as you can see, it’s still a challenge to find work that’s as meaningful as this. That you can have a triumph in your life again is healing and rewarding and also for what it speaks to of my family’s struggles and the hardships that they’ve faced that have given me the good fortune of having front footing as an American actor and the ability to hold your dream and pursue something.”