Why Adrien Brody chose a true story from death row as his post-Oscar project
Why Adrien Brody chose a true story from death row as his post-Oscar project
Patrick Ryan, USA TODAYTue, April 28, 2026 at 6:56 PM UTC
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NEW YORK – For Adrien Brody, “The Fear of 13” has been impossible to shake.
In 2024, the Queens native starred in the London production of Lindsey Ferrentino’s eye-opening play, which tells the shattering true story of Nick Yarris, who was wrongfully convicted of rape and murder and spent 22 years on Pennsylvania’s death row.
Just three months after the U.K. run concluded, Brody clinched his second best actor Oscar for his tour de force in “The Brutalist,” sparking rampant speculation about what could be his major Hollywood follow-up.
But he wasn’t finished with this chapter quite yet.
“The challenge of doing theater has always been both daunting and alluring,” Brody, 53, says before an evening performance of “The Fear of 13,” which is now playing at Broadway’s James Earl Jones Theatre (138 W. 48th Street) through July 12.
More: Adrien Brody is back with 'The Brutalist.' This time, he's left the 'torment' behind.
Adrien Brody poses for a portrait in New York on April 24.
“The joy of being an actor is to try things that offer new ways of exploring a character, which only gets better with age,” Brody continues. “You’ve lived more, you’ve inevitably suffered more, and you understand others’ suffering. It’s such a joy to be at a place in my life where I both feel brave enough and have the ability to carry a work of this magnitude on the stage in my hometown, where I started humbly 40 years ago off-Broadway. Of course, I look for film work consistently, but I felt like taking time to do this.”
Spanning more than three decades, “The Fear of 13” traces Yarris’ traumatic upbringing: He was severely beaten and sexually assaulted by a teenage boy at age 7, and resorted to drugs and petty crime to cope. At 20, he was arrested after a routine traffic stop turned into a violent altercation with police. Hoping to gain his freedom, he accused an acquaintance of the rape and murder of Linda Mae Craig – only to become the prime suspect himself.
Years of DNA testing of evidence came back inconclusive, but one final round eventually cleared Yarris in 2003. The play charts his despair and hope, as well as his unlikely romance with a prison volunteer (Tessa Thompson).
Adrien Brody, left, and Tessa Thompson in "The Fear of 13" on Broadway.
Brody grew up in a working-class neighborhood, the son of a history teacher, Elliot, and photographer, Sylvia Plachy. As a kid, he remembers “there was a lot of proximity to wild, young guys” similar to Yarris, who sought illicit means to get ahead.
“Nick's story resonated partially because I've seen how easily people have been victimized by a foolish mistake very early in life,” Brody says. “I always have immense gratitude for my parents for providing a home and listening and dealing with me through various times in my life, where if I had not had that, I could’ve very easily fallen into the embrace of that world.”
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Nick Yarris, left, and Adrien Brody attend the Broadway opening night of "The Fear of 13" in New York on April 15.
Performing eight shows a week has put Brody through the physical and emotional wringer. He rarely leaves the stage for the entirety of the play’s nearly two-hour, intermissionless run time. Through lengthy monologues, intense fight sequences, and the relentless malleability of both his body and voice, Brody vividly portrays Yarris from a small child to a middle-aged man.
As a visual artist, Brody says he’s created many pieces that reference imprisonment and those who have been historically overlooked in society. Although he now has no time to paint backstage, “I have lined my dressing room with my own paintings that are relevant to this,” the actor explains. Thirty minutes before each show, he also does "a lot of physical training to ramp up the stakes of it. Nick needs to possess a great deal of agility and anxiety. It takes physical coercion to get that edgy, shaky thing inside, and then you’ve got to just hold onto it.”
Due to the adrenaline of the role, “I end up having quite late nights these days,” Brody says. “To come down off a live stage performance is quite interesting. It’s hard to quiet the mind.”
Adrien Brody is a two-time Oscar winner for "The Pianist" and "The Brutalist."
He’s tried “a million herbal remedies and tea” to try and combat insomnia, but he also enjoys writing music in the wee hours when he can’t sleep.
“I’ve been composing and making hip-hop beats since I was a teenager,” Brody says. Lately, “I've been creating songs that really speak to Nick's circumstances, and they have been helping me to go inward. I can tap into the emotions with this different language, through music. It’s been really informative.”
The first time Brody read “The Fear of 13,” he recalls being so “moved to tears that I could hardly utter the words aloud for weeks.” He hopes the play will help audiences to reexamine their own apathy.
“People are often forgotten, once they’re out of the headlines and it’s not personal to you,” Brody says. “But we must consider being more present for others, and finding ways of rehabilitation that aren’t debilitating.”
Naturally, Brody feels a great responsibility and weight in portraying Yarris, 64, who has come to see the show multiple times.
“When that person weeps openly, and shares that it has provided a tremendous amount of healing for him to have his story shared with the world – it’s very meaningful and rewarding to me,” Brody says. “He's a wonderful human being and has gained a perspective many of us don’t have: the preciousness of time and the loss of that.”
"It's remarkable to learn new things at my old age," Adrien Brody jokes.
As for how he plans to spend his own time once the Broadway run is finished, Brody lets out a hearty laugh.
“Part of me never wants to work again because I'm so exhausted,” he says, smiling. “But I know myself and I'm so grateful to still love my work. So I will need a break and then I will come back stronger than ever, hopefully. I’m trying to find something really special in the film space and we'll see. A lot of that's out of my hands – I just have to be available for it when it comes.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Adrien Brody unpacks his most 'daunting' role yet in 'Fear of 13'
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
