The Batman Villain Adrien Brody Called A 'Dream Role'

2024's tour de force "The Brutalist" has finally opened wide in the new year, letting audiences see the movie that /Film's Chris Evangelista called an "overwhelming triumph." (The film earns every syllable of that praise and more.) "They don't make movies like this anymore" is trite criticism but "The Brutalist" truly feels like something pulled out of the New Hollywood era; a sprawling epic about American identity and assimilation, like "The Godfather" if Marlon Brando's Vito Corleone was a Jewish architect instead of a mobster. There's even an intermission, a practice long discarded in most modern films.

Adrien Brody leads "The Brutalist" as László Tóth, a Holocaust survivor who comes to America. In the new world, László again finds work as an architect — specifically, in designing a custom community envisioned by an old-money industrialist (Guy Pearce). Brody, who has retreated from the A-list outside of his consistent work with Wes Anderson, reminds everyone why he has a master actor reputation.

So, naturally, in light of Brody's "Brutalist" performance, the nerds are wondering what superhero/villain he can dress up as for his next part. But did you know he almost already did? Brody was one of the actors in the running to play the Joker in "The Dark Knight" — he discussed that experience during a 2021 interview on the "Happy, Sad, Confused" podcast:

Brody was eager to play the "dream role" opposite Christian Bale's Batman, feeling the Joker was "a role that [he] felt very suited to do," and to work with Christopher Nolan, but of course that didn't happen. Instead, we got the late Heath Ledger's legendary performance as the Joker. Even Brody admits that Ledger was "indelible" in "The Dark Knight."

I remember before Jared Leto got the part (and the less said about how that turned out, the better), Brody was many a DC fan's pick to play Joker, opposite Ben Affleck's Batman, in the DC Extended Universe. That was not only because Brody is a good actor, or had been in the running to play the Joker before. 

A lot of superhero fan casting goes off of looks. That's why Charlie Hunnam was everyone's pick for Green Arrow because Ollie Queen rocks the same blond hair and pointed goatee that Hunnam usually does. Brody looks like how the Joker does in the comics; he's naturally thin with a pointed triangular face and sharp features, a spitting image of the Clown Prince of Crime (minus the green hair and purple suit).

Not many of the silver screen Jokers have had that physique. Jack Nicholson had the right eyes, nose, and smile, but also a rounder head, while Ledger was a strapping pretty boy. Put Adrian Brody in some white face paint, though, and he'll look like he stepped off the page of a Neal Adams or Bruce Timm Joker drawing. 

Would Brody be up to try out for the Joker again now that "The Brutalist" will hopefully have him back in high demand? It sounds like the film would need a strong vision. Speaking of Nolan's work on Batman during the "Happy, Sad, Confused" interview, Brody said:

"It was the difference of, are you going to do a big studio movie and play a big comic book hero or villain, whatever you're suited for if you're lucky, but it's really broad and not necessarily the way that would feel fulfilling ... and Christopher Nolan's work and what he gave actors in ['The Dark Knight'] was such a revelation."

Ever since Ledger's dedicated performance, the Joker has gotten a reputation as a psychologically demanding role — take a look at Leto's much-publicized "method acting" before "Suicide Squad" or how Joaquin Phoenix transformed himself into Arthur Fleck for 2019's "Joker." But it shouldn't be — the Joker should be a fun and ostentatious character. (He's also, ultimately, a two-dimensional one; he's a foil for Batman and can never be anything more.) Mark Hamill loves playing the Joker because he understands his job is to make 'em laugh.

I'm not saying the Joker would be a waste of Adrien Brody's talents, but it would be far from the peak of them either. It sounds like he still wants to work with Christopher Nolan, though — perhaps there's a role for Brody in "The Odyssey."

"The Brutalist" is playing in theaters.