‘The Brutalist’ Star Alessandro Nivola Talks Unseen Backstory and ‘Kraven the Hunter’ Reception

Beginning with Brady Corbet’s Oscar-contending The Brutalist, Nivola signed on to play Attila Miller just days into 2020’s pandemic. At the time, production was still expected to begin three weeks later, but as we can all attest, those best-laid plans quickly turned into three years. Thus, Nivola became one of only a few holdovers from Corbet’s 2020 cast, as Adrien Brody then took over the lead role of Attila’s cousin, László Toth. The latter is a celebrated Hungarian-Jewish architect who, having narrowly survived the Holocaust, emigrates to the States where Attila provides him with a bed and a job on behalf of his modest Philadelphia-based furniture store.

While there’s a great deal of love between the two cousins, Nivola is now shedding light on some of the unspoken elements that inform their eventual conflict. For starters, Attila has always lived in the shadow of László’s talent, resulting in a permanent chip on his shoulder. 

“Attila has this need to impress László from the minute he arrives in America. He needs to prove to László that he’s somehow made it in America and that he’s figured out the system and that he’s made it work for himself. But it’s total bullshit,” Nivola tells The Hollywood Reporter. “László sees right through it, and that’s infuriating to Attila. On top of all of that, the biggest factor that looms over their relationship is that Attila had escaped the Holocaust camps. So Attila longs to provide some kind of safe harbor for [his Holocaust-surviving cousin], but there’s almost a humiliation at the fact that he did not have to endure it himself.”

The Brutalist is often regarded as 2024’s Oppenheimer, as they’re both decades-spanning historical dramas that offer grand cinematic presentations in VistaVision and IMAX, respectively. Additionally, the two stories center on a genius whose life’s work causes them great pain, but the biggest difference between the two is that Corbet produced his independent film for a staggeringly low $10 million. (That said, Oppenheimer’s $100 million budget was a paltry sum when compared to other recent period epics.) Nivola chalks up Corbet’s economical filmmaking to a carefully planned shot list and minimal locations. 

“With indie movies, you either have a director who is panicked because they don’t have enough time to get the coverage they need for each scene, or you have someone like Brady. He planned his shot selection to capture each scene with less coverage,” Nivola shares. “So I guess money goes a little further in Budapest, but the keys were shot selection and deceptively few locations.”

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Nivola’s big swings as Aleksei Sytsevich/Rhino in J.C. Chandor’s Kraven the Hunter are, per consensus, the few highlights of the poorly received film. On paper, Sony’s latest (and final?) Spider-Man universe film had all the right ingredients: a respected filmmaker, a great cast with two Oscar winners and the resources to shoot mostly on location. However, even with all the proper pieces in place, every film is a roll of the dice, and every good film is widely considered to be a miracle.