‘The Brutalist’ puts the American dream – and the ‘paradox’ of the immigrant experience – on display. “It bothers me that it still exists,” says star Adrien Brody.

For Adrien Brody, his role in The brutalist is more than a chance to win prizes, although he has already done so. The film, which follows an architect who flees post-war Europe for the United States, hits close to home.

“I definitely have a deep understanding of the immigrant experience, as my mother is a Hungarian refugee,” Brody told Yahoo Entertainment. “My grandparents and my mother fled Budapest in 1956 and came to America with hopes and dreams.”

Like his character, László Toth, Brody’s mother dedicated her life to “trying to leave something of great meaning behind.”

“Her past experiences informed her work, and her experiences have influenced me and my understanding of life and my own connection to art and desires as an artist,” Brody said. “It’s generational. I’m very grateful that I can… hopefully make a greater connection with the complexity of that struggle that so many people endured and that our ancestors endured today.”

The film, he said, speaks to the “paradox” of the immigrant experience. Although it starts in 1947, it is still relevant today.

“One leaves behind all these hardships and oppression and comes to a country like the United States with all these hopes and dreams and assimilates and leaves much of that behind and becomes a member of the community and devotes oneself to it, and yet one is not . are still completely accepted or looked down upon because they sound different, look different, have different beliefs or because of their name,” he said. “It’s just wrong, and it bothers me that it still exists.”

Felicity Jones plays László’s wife, Erzsébet, whom he was forced to leave behind in Hungary after the Holocaust. She doesn’t appear until after the film’s 15-minute intermission, which is built into the film’s whopping 3 hours and 35 minutes of running time, but her presence looms large.

“In many ways, Erzsébet haunts the first half of the film, and you, as the audience, are placed in László’s headspace, waiting for this person to arrive. When she comes off the train, your expectations are extremely high,” Jones told Yahoo Entertainment. “There is no pressure [for me] in that sense – you just show up! … You realize in a way that Erzsébet is a disruptor. We recently did a Q&A and someone described her as a tough girl, which I thought was a good way of putting it.

Brody said the film is about more than just the immigrant experience.

“It’s also about the journey of the artist, which is also quite long, and a struggle to not lose the flame and maintain your integrity and stand up for what you believe is right,” he said. “And to do the work that you think is worth leaving behind. That is all recognizable to me.”

Brody and Jones were both delighted with how the quality of the script made them want to be part of the film. It was co-written by director Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold.

“I know actors are always going on about good scripts, so it becomes pointless,” Jones said. “It was just all there on the page – the intelligence of it, the ambition. … It was so huge, but at the same time it was anchored in these very humorous human interactions that underlie the entire film.”

The brutalist hits select theaters on December 20, with a wide release planned for January.