‘The Brutalist’ director Brady Corbet says he’s made no money promoting the film

The director said that he makes more directing commercials than he does making movies.

By Joe Allen Published February 18, 2025

Adrien Brody in The Brutalist — A24

It can be wonderful to get nominated for a bunch of awards, but The Brutalist director Brady Corbet said that it’s not exactly a profitable one. In an interview on WTF with Marc Maron, Corbet said that he hadn’t actually made any money promoting the movie.

“This is the first time I’ve made any money in years,” Corbet said, saying that his first real paycheck in a long time came from directing three advertisements in Portugal. “Both my partner and I made zero dollars on the last two films we made. Yes, actually zero. So we had to just live off of a paycheck from three years ago and obviously, the timing during an awards campaign and travel every two or three days was less than ideal, but it was an opportunity that landed in my lap, and I jumped at it.”

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Corbet’s entire career, including his work on The Brutalist, has been a largely independent venture. “I’ve spoken to many filmmakers with films nominated this year who can’t pay their rent,” Corbet said. “You’re not paid to be promoting a film.”

Corbet added that he’s put in a lot of work pushing the film not just in the U.S., but in countries all over the globe. “It’s seven days a week. You’re doing Japanese press, Swiss press, all at the same time,” Corbet said. “I haven’t had a day off since the Christmas break, and that was only four days.”

The promotion has paid off for the movie if not for Corbet himself. The movie was nominated for 10 Oscars, and Corbet is among the favorites to win an Oscar for his directing.

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Joe Allen is a freelance culture writer based in upstate New York. His work has been published in The Washington Post, The…

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