Adrien Brody Says His Role in “The Brutalist” Mirrored His Mom’s Life: ‘She Has Been a Constant Inspiration’ (Exclusive)

The actor, who became the youngest man to win the Best Actor Oscar in 2003, is once again leading the pack this awards season for 'The Brutalist'

Even almost 20 years apart, the similarities between Adrien Brody's two award-winning roles are not lost on the actor.

In 2003, his portrayal of a Holocaust survivor in The Pianist made the 29-year-old the youngest man ever to win the Best Actor Oscar. On Jan. 5, Brody, now 51, took home his first Golden Globe for starring as a post-World War II refugee in the movie The Brutalist.

"It’s a remarkable thing to be an actor because you’re experiencing such a range of life experiences that you wouldn’t necessarily have to go through,” he tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. “The roles I’ve portrayed have given me tremendous understanding and empathy.”

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In The Pianist, real-life musician Wladyslaw Szpilman lives through the horrors of war whereas The Brutalist’s fictional architect László Tóth tries to find peace and create a legacy in the aftermath. Tóth’s story mirrors that of Brody’s mother, Hungarian-born photographer Sylvia Plachy.

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“My mother and my grandparents owned a very similar journey of fleeing war-torn Europe and coming to the U.S. in the ’50s,” Brody says. “And the hardships and sacrifice and their own resilience and everything that they endured — in addition to my mother as an artist and her yearnings to leave behind a body of work of some great significance, they’re all things that are very personal to me. So I felt a deep responsibility to convey that authentically.”

His mom’s work helped lead Brody to his own life in the arts. An only child raised in New York City by his mother and his father, Elliot, a schoolteacher, Brody tagged along with Plachy on many of her photography assignments. “He was always curious and so smart,” she tells PEOPLE. “He was questioning things about life and death and all kinds of things. He was fascinating.” 

Plachy "has been a constant source of inspiration,” Brody adds. “She’s maintained this wonderful perspective of the world.”

Now the actor sees deep parallels between his mother’s story and The Brutalist. Born in Budapest, Sylvia Plachy, 81, was raised by her Catholic father and Jewish mother, who lost most of her relatives to the Holocaust. Fleeing Soviet repression after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, the family crossed surreptitiously into Austria, then immigrated to the U.S. when Plachy was 15.

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Having become a renowned photographer, Plachy and Elliot have been together for 62 years and still live in the Queens house where they raised their son (his Oscar is on their living room mantel). “She’s incredibly curious and funny,” Brody says. “She takes care of every animal she finds and is genuinely interested in everyone that she meets and knows how to capture that. I think growing up immersed in her imagery of our city and the humanity gave me a curiosity that is needed to be a great actor.”

His mom insists she’s just grateful that her only child “is so much a part of our life and gives us so much joy with everything he does," she adds. "And he allows us to come on his movie sets and watch him play.”

The Brutalist is now playing in select theaters, including IMAX. It will expand nationwide January 24.