Sadie Gennis for TV Guide
Adrien Brody might have already won an Oscar at 29 for his work in The Pianist, but for the actor, playing the legendary magician Harry Houdini for History’s latest miniseries was a real bucket list moment.
“He was a very heroic person to me as a boy,” Brody tells TVGuide.com. Much like the magician he idolized, Brody grew up in New York City the child of a Hungarian-Jewish mother and took up magic at an early age, performing at children’s birthday parties as The Amazing Adrien. “What he represented to me then was a real bravery and a fearlessness,” Brody says. “I think what magic represents is this ability to kind of defy the laws of nature.”
His love of magic soon transformed into a love of acting, solidifying Houdini as one of “the greatest influences” in Brody’s life and making Houdini a personal project for the star. “I spent a lifetime poring over magic books and loving magicians,” Brody says. “My mother’s a photographer and she’s photographed Penn and Teller at Houdini’s grave. I’ve visited his grave, it’s in my neighborhood. He’s been present somehow in my life.”
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